A charity organization is having a fundraiser.
represents the fundraiser’s profit (in dollars) if tickets are sold. A
negative profit means the expenses exceeded the income from tickets.

What are the expenses of the fundraiser?

The expenses of the fundraiser can be determined from the profit equation . Here, represents the fixed costs or expenses that must be covered regardless of ticket sales. So, the expenses of the fundraiser amount to .

To find out how it all works, consider that every ticket sold adds to the profit. If not enough tickets are sold and becomes negative, it means the income from the tickets (which is ) isn’t sufficient to cover that expense. So, the fundraiser needs to sell at least tickets to break even!