Event Registration Software for Nonprofits: What You Should Know Before You Buy
We Understand Nonprofit Organizations.
We know that fundraising events are the backbone of nonprofit organizations. We also know that nonprofits operate with a smaller staff and more budget constraints than typical large corporations. Even for an experienced team, event planning is an involved and often stressful process. For an organization that’s just starting out, one can quickly become overwhelmed with all the “to-dos.” Thankfully, there are many event registration software options for nonprofits to help in coordinating events.
Just imagine: it’s time for your nonprofit’s inaugural 5k fundraiser! As you are organizing, you realize you’ll need a platform where runners can register for the event and pay registration fees. Oh, and after a runner registers, you’ll need to be able to communicate with them as the race day approaches. Next, you need to assign everyone a unique number for each race bib.
On the day of the event, there will be runner check-in and last-minute donations. Follow-up after the event will be vital. You will need to express thanks and highlight the success of the race to aid in fostering long-lasting donor relationships.
Now imagine doing all of this manually, while also trying to keep up with your organization’s daily operations. We know it can seem overwhelming! Don’t let yourself be discouraged from putting on events; enlist technological solutions that take the stress off your team and make the event planning process smoother.
Nonprofit event registration software comes with a host of helpful features that help you collect payments, track attendees, and even market your events!
As we mentioned before, there are many nonprofit event registration software platforms to help you streamline your events. But this can cause its own problem: with so many available, which one do you pick?
CRM and Event Registration
Many think that because you use your customer relationship management (CRM) system to help track information and interactions between your organization and customers, it is the natural solution for event registration. Your CRM might even offer additional products specifically designed for event registration.
While it is important that an event registration system be able to integrate into your CRM, that’s not all it should be able to do! When you are planning an event and choosing an event registration system, keep in mind all the information you will need to collect from your customers to help them get the most out of their experience. Most CRM event registration products can do little more than register participants and process payments, leaving the event organizer to collect all other information manually.
What You Need for Event Registration
Your nonprofit’s event registration software should complement your event. Depending on what kind of event you’re hosting, your event registration software will need to gather various types of information. Here are some features that will always be helpful:
The ability to register new participants and process payment
The ability to track actual event-day attendance
The ability to communicate updates and reminders to participants—it’s even better if you can generate templates or automatic updates directly from your event registration platform
The ability to modify or cancel a registration
These features all help an event organizer do their job more efficiently.
You always want the user to have a seamless experience with the registration process. Look at an event registration program’s built-in tech support options. Ideally, users should be able to access help through multiple channels.
As your event registration program will be collecting sensitive information, like credit card numbers, carefully vet the privacy and security features of the program you are using. If potential registrants have concerns about the security of their data, it could deter them from registering for your event.
“Your event’s registration page will be an extension of your branding and marketing. ”
Your event’s registration page will be an extension of your branding and marketing. You’ll want a platform that has some basic customization capabilities, such as the ability to add branded images and change background and text colors.
Beyond these basic features, think about the specifics of your event! If you are having a silent auction, it would be helpful to find software that has that capability already built in. With a built-in silent-auction platform, your guests will be able to view all the items up for auction, submit their bids, and follow the items’ progress over the course of the event. Once the auction closes, your organization will be able to determine the winners of each item and distribute the packages more efficiently.
Suppose you are hosting an event with a seated dinner component. If seating is assigned, you’ll need to decide on those assignments. You might need to accommodate requests for different guests to sit together or allow for one group to sponsor a table specifically for their guests.
“FundEasy is the ONLY program I have found with a table-mapping tool... and that tool has become indispensable for us! Using FundEasy is such a no-brainer.”
Before you serve food, you’ll want to collect a list of any dietary restrictions. You’ll need to communicate this list to the caterers and let them know where those who need special accommodations will be sitting to ensure your guests get the correct meal. If you’re offering multiple meal choices, you should collect these ahead of the event so your caterer knows how much of each dish to prepare.
An event like a 5k might have guests create their own teams, or another organization might sponsor a group of their members to attend your event together. Consider how you want to handle the registration of these smaller subgroups within your larger event. You may decide to have a separate registration option for team captains or table hosts that allows them to manage their own guest list.
If it costs more to sign up as a sponsor or host, your program needs an option for different tiers of pricing and the ability to automatically grant advanced permissions to users who register for those tiers. You might also consider adding a group pricing option—a discount on the price per person for groups over a certain size.
When it comes to planning your next event, you’ll want to know what worked well this time, what drove ticket sales, which promotions were used most, and who attended your event. Understanding these factors helps you develop a more targeted promotional campaign in the future and boost future attendance. It is helpful if your nonprofit event registration software has a robust data analytics feature. You want a program that can run a wide variety of reports isolating different variables, and then easily export and save those reports for future reference.
Always Read the Fine Print
Once you have defined the size and scope of your event and determined which features are a must-have for your nonprofit event registration software, all there is left to do is find a program that has the features you want within your budget.
Event management software might come as a basic package that’s more affordable, but it might not come with everything you’re looking for. You might have to pay to upgrade your entire package to have access to the features you want, or you may even have to purchase them “a la carte.” Either way, this can significantly increase what you’re spending on your event registration program!
If you’re collecting payment online, your customers will have to use debit or credit cards. Most platforms collect a service or processing fee. With tax, this means that the price your attendees end up paying is higher than what you’ve advertised.
Before you commit to using an event registration platform for your nonprofit, make sure to understand what these fees are and how much they will drive up the actual price of your tickets. See if there is an option for donors to cover these fees so “sticker shock” doesn’t have a negative impact on your customer satisfaction!
When selecting an event registration software, your nonprofit will usually enter a contract with the software provider to use their program for your business. Confirm the duration of the contract—is it just through your event, or is it a multi-year contract? A multi-year contract could cost you less per year but be expensive to break out early if you aren’t satisfied with the program.
Be sure to fully understand the terms and conditions so you can choose a contract that is right for your organization!
FundEasy: Designed with Nonprofit Organizations in Mind
While events are vital sources of fundraising for nonprofit organizations, event registration software often doesn't take into consideration the operational differences between a for-profit corporation and a nonprofit organization. But these two different groups need different things when it comes to event management.
For-profit corporations often have bigger teams and more resources. They are looking to bring in more revenue. Nonprofits use fundraising events to meet their basic needs. They often don’t have staff or resources to spare when it comes to managing events.
FundEasy is event management software specifically designed for nonprofit organizations.
All three of our products were designed to cater to the types of events that nonprofit organizations most commonly host and come with a wide range of features that make planning these events easier. From banquets and galas to races, walks, or golfing events, FundEasy streamlines communication, registration, payment, and so much more.
All FundEasy platforms come with customizable email templates that allow you to send branded invitations and follow up communications right from the application. You can easily upload email lists or integrate with your MailChimp account.
At set up, build an email template with your event’s logo and other branded content. All emails sent from your event page will include your branding, so you don’t have to spend time designing a polished and perfect email for each communication—all you have to do is write the body of the email and hit send!
Attendance by FundEasy makes seating your guests easy. The table chart wizard allows you to diagram the venue’s set up and assign seats in just seconds! Participants can register as table hosts and manage their own guest lists without having to go through the event organizer to make changes. Guests who register together will automatically be assigned as a party, but it’s easy to add or remove guests in a party or group multiple parties together.
If a guest makes a seating request in the customizable registration form, you can automatically approve the request and the system will make sure they are seated according to preference, no matter which table they get moved to.
Our customizable registration forms allow you to collect all the important information you need to give your guests a great experience, including dietary restrictions, food choices, preferred form of address, and seating requests.
It’s easy to fix any mistakes made during registration without having to delete an entry and start from scratch by accessing an attendee’s profile.
Your dashboard allows you to keep track of registrations made both online and offline, highlighting important registration trends that can be used to fine-tune your marketing efforts.
Download a report template or customize your own reports to easily distribute important information to board members, planning committees, or event staff.
Planning a seated event? You’ll automatically gain access to our Live Check-In app with every event in Attendance.
This allows you to keep the check-in line moving on event day and get your attendees to their seats quicker. Event staff can even accommodate any last-minute changes!
Attendance by FundEasy allows you to export your list of attendees to a customizable name tag template for easy printing. This function allows you to create name tags or table cards that display group affiliation, food choice, and more with just a few clicks.
FundEasy’s Peer-to-Peer application lets others fundraise on your behalf with custom participant pages and is great for races and walks. Donations are transferred directly to your account as soon as they’re made.
The Peer-to-Peer platform also includes a live animated FundMeter that shows your progress toward your goal, and a leaderboard to engender some healthy competition and encourage more donations.
There IS a better way for your nonprofit to manage event registration and planning, and FundEasy is here to help you do it with intentional nonprofit event registration software.
Sure, there are a lot of great platforms out there that work great for your organization, but we would argue that none are more committed to helping nonprofits work smarter, not harder, than FundEasy!
No matter what kind of event your organization is hosting, we have the tools to make it a success. Reach out! We’re happy to help you find the best plan for your organization to support your next event!
If you'd like to learn more about our Peer-to-Peer, Attendance, or Crowdfunding products, please reach out! We'd love to chat.
Also, if you haven't joined already, we have an exclusive Facebook Group just for our customers! If you are a current FundEasy customer and would like to join, go here to learn more and request to be added!
Crystal Hoag
This article was inspired by our customers and written to encourage your fundraising efforts. Although we work with nonprofits and events daily, our team members are not Event Consultants. We encourage you to consult with your event consultant, executive team, and/or affiliate organization before making any major changes to your events.
