Event Module - Individuals/Organizations

Anne Margaret McCombs

Hi there,

Currently adding invitees in the events module for an upcoming event.  Noticing on my spreadsheet, some folks are already linked to an organization and the organization has already been added as an invitee to the event?  How do others do this?  Do you enter folks on an individual basis so you know exactly who was invited ro do you find goign by organization is teh best way to do it?

Thank-you!

Anne McCombs

Rochester NY

 

Michelle Collins 2

Anne Margaret McCombs:

Hi there,

Currently adding invitees in the events module for an upcoming event.  Noticing on my spreadsheet, some folks are already linked to an organization and the organization has already been added as an invitee to the event?  How do others do this?  Do you enter folks on an individual basis so you know exactly who was invited ro do you find goign by organization is teh best way to do it?

Thank-you!

Anne McCombs

Rochester NY

 

Hi Anne,


I would add the individuals as guests of their attached organizations. This keeps them grouped under the same umberalla. Registering orgs. and the individuals attached to them artificially inflates numbers and causes reporting problems in my experiences.

Joanne Felci 2

100% agree with Michelle - that is how we do it as well

Anne Margaret McCombs

THANK-YOU BOTH SO MUCH FOR THIS!  I just needed to talk it out....and see what others have done.  Thank-you, again!  So helpful!

Jill Freidmutter

Wonderful question and response. Which leads me to ask, is there a difference between recording invitees and attendees? It makes sense to record attendees (or positive RSVPs) as guests of the org. What about recording the invitation? Would that be recorded as an Assigned Appeal to the org without indicating who the invitation was sent to?

Erin Kraft

Jill Freidmutter:

Wonderful question and response. Which leads me to ask, is there a difference between recording invitees and attendees? It makes sense to record attendees (or positive RSVPs) as guests of the org. What about recording the invitation? Would that be recorded as an Assigned Appeal to the org without indicating who the invitation was sent to?

This guide provided great examples (page 146) https://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/guides/RE7/event_data.pdf 

Invitations are tracked via the event module. The appeals are linked either with registration fees or additional donations. In the past I've used packages to determine how the gift is associated with the event, in addition to linking it to the event module I mark the package as  "ticket" or "sponsor" or "donation". Then the constiuents Appeal tab will detail that they gave to that event appeal, and also in what capacity; sometimes multiple.


Building a Participation export after you have everyone registered and all gifts linked within the module can provide you with a lot of data. Pivoting the data out in Excel has proven extremely useful for counting sponsors, sold tickets, declined invites, and so forth. Using the same export year over year also provides important comparisons, such as when do people register more - last minute? right away? Or when is a good time to send out the invitations.