There is word called "honorarium." As a speaker I found I was often given an "honorarium" for speaking or teaching. Sort of a clever gift of gratitude.
A gift you didn't have to declare as income.
Most speakers get an appropriate honorarium and expenses paid, and that's only fair. If you're a big league speaker you get big league "honorariums" and if you're a person like me, a little league speaker ... you get what the people are good enough to pay.
Fortunately It was never necessary to make my living from speaking, so I rarely discussed "honorariums" and for the most part it came off well. On occasion I would get a thousand dollar "honorarium" and on other occasions not a red cent. Not even expenses ... or gas.
I remember well the most unusual yet endearing and humbling "honorarium" I ever received.
I was to speak to a small Church in tropical India. To say the church was small would be an understatement. Thatch roof, four posts and four short pews. A little pulpit for me to speak from. The little church was packed with ten smiling brothers and sisters.
After the service, we were all meeting and greeting one another, when a lady came up and with a smile handed me the church honorarium ... three eggs.
That thank-you meant more to me than any honorarium I've ever received.
