Capacity Questions: Events module and online form

Anna Wachtel

We are using the event form and event module for the first time. Both are currently active with registrants and sponsors listed. We learned that we need to limit the capacity to 150 people total, including the sponsors and registrants that are already entered in the module. 


1. In order to max out at 150, should I deduct the number of already registerd sponsors, etc from 150 and use that as my capacity (for the form AND module?)

2. We recieve registrations and sponsors through the mail AND online. If I add someone to the event module, will the capacity number be effected accordingly on the online form?

3. Can you see online how many available spaces are left before capacity is reached? IE If someone wants to register 5 people but there is only space for 3, are they forced to go through the entire registation process only to find out there isn't enough room for all 5? Will 3 people be registered and the other 2 kicked back?

4. How have others managed waitlists? Can people still register through the online form even if the event has reached capacity so that they can be put on a waitlist? 


Thanks!!

Rachel Nigro

Hi Anna, 


These are great questions! I wanted to chime in to answer these here, but I'd love to hear what other organizations are doing to monitor their capacity! 


The capacity you see when setting up an online event form is separate from the capacity you set on The Raiser's Edge Event Record. If you're capping your event capacity at 150, I would recommend making the online capacity less than that to allow for offline registrations you might enter. As you're receiving offline registrations, keep in mind you can also edit the online capacity on the form if you have less spaces to sell. 


We do have an idea to allow the Event Capacity to sync up directly to The Raiser's Edge record, instead of keeping it separate. If you'd be interested in that functionality, definitely add your vote here!


In terms of a waitlist, Online Express doesn't have any waitlist functionality right now (there's another idea here for waitlists!), but you could set up a separate "Waitlist" event in The Raiser's Edge and have people sign up for that event to put their name on the waitlist. The only caveat is that you'd likely need to set this up as a free event and if someone gets into the event, you'd need to charge them the event fee separately. 


I hope this information is helpful! Would love to hear from other organizations that manage events and waitlists for their events!