Coming Soon
3.1 Ways to accept and pay money
3.2 Considerations for forming a business
3.3 Taxes
There's going to be money involved with community events. It's possible to have sponsors pay for each expense directly, and thereby not have the event organizers personally touch any money. There are a number of good reasons why this may be desired (namely the risks outlined below). However, it does make it likely that small and unexpected expenses might have to be covered out of pocket.
It's more likely that sponsorship dollars will be pooled in a single account and event expenses paid for from that account. However, this method should be handled very carefully. I would recommend a lot of caution if you plan to handle finances through any individual person's account. (Truthfully, I wouldn't recommend that route at all.) Event money going through any individual person's account automatically makes that individual liable on behalf of the event, at a minimum, for taxation purposes.
If you have a financial advisor/tax preparer, now is the time to talk to them. laws around this vary in the US by state, and I'm not going to try to represent them here. Just know this is a thing, and I highly recommend you look into it.
One option that events have used is to find an independent consultant who is willing to facilitate finances for the event through their LLC business (perhaps in exchange for a sponsorship slot).
Many event organizing groups handle the risks of these financial liabilities by forming their own LLC "business" to run the event. Again, the laws, processes, and costs for this vary by state-but it's likely a tech group in your state has done it, even if only to run their User Group/Meetup. If you find a group such as this, they may be willing to help you run the finances for your event through their group LLC.
Some groups in the US take the responsibility of creating a 501(c)(3) to run their event under. This is a fairly large undertaking that again has various state laws which apply. It also may require more than one accountable individual to be listed on the Board of Directors. This article may be out of date, but for an idea of what to expect if you want to go this route, have a look.
This aspect is by far the most intimidating of running an event. However, most of the work for handling finances requires a lot of work upfront and minimal effort once established.