eCommerce

Jennifer Rampersad-Maharajh

I would like to create a registration page for an event with multiple sponsorhip options. I would like someone to be able to purchase more than 1 package, list the tax-deductible information and have another option available for visitors to leave a contribution if they are not buying a sponsorship package or cannot attend the event, or even if they are, but would like to leave a donation on top of thier sponsorship. After reading a few threads, I'm guessing eCOmmerce is the best way to go? I understand that donation pages cannot auto calcuate if someone chooses more than one sponsorship package on top of leaving a donation?

Thanks,

Jennifer

Patrick Hansen

Hi Jennifer,

It sounds like you've done your homework!  You've probably already read through the following thread, which has a lot of discussion in general from folks who were using either Convio donation forms or Convio eCommerce to set up their event:

http://community.customer.convio.com/message/5617

You are correct that there's no feature built into Convio's donation forms that would allow a constituent (or sponsor) to calculate their gift based on number of tickets or a combination of sponsorship levels and additional gifts.  That said, if it's possible to create a donation form that meets your needs (or 80% of your needs, if that's acceptible), donation forms are definitely the fastest and easiest way to have a transaction page live to support your event.

Convio's eCommerce tools are free for you to use for up to five "items" (each item would be a sponsorship level or ticket type) and you can allow your supporters to include an "additional gift" when they complete the purchase, or "checkout" process.  Right now, you won't see eCommerce when you log into your Convio tools.  To get started with eCommerce, you'll want to watch the following training, then let your Go! program lead know you'd like access and we'll turn it on for you:

http://customer.convio.com/site/PageServer?pagename=training_downloads (scroll down towards the bottom of the page)

You'll want to plan on enough time to not only get up to speed on how eCommerce works, but also to actually set up your tickets, autoresponders, etc.  It's not a trivial project, but definitely doable!

Another thing to keep in mind specifically for St. Mary's is that since you're using (or will be using) Convio's RE Connector, you'll need to make sure that the eCommerce portion of the connector is active and that you've set up the proper cross references (similar to how you set up cross references for regular donations) so that the Connector passes the eCommerce transaction information over to Raiser's Edge in a way that makes sense and is manageable for you.

-patrick