Event Attendee Tracking

Andrea Garton

When keeping track of RSVPs for an event using the Event Module in RENXT, do you upload your entire invitation list into the system and then update with responses or only input information once individuals have responded?

Our organization has historically had access to full attendance lists and likes to see all responses, including those that have declined but this would require importing large lists for some events. Would love to know what others are doing as a best practice to keep data clean but also provide robust information.

Elizabeth Perron

Hi @Andrea Garton,

I have moved your post to the Raiser's Edge NXT community to get more RENXT specific eyes and hopefully replies.

In harmony,

Elizabeth

Blackbaud Community Team

Joanne Felci

We upload the entire invite list as we want to keep track on who was invited and then we update that with who attended.

Andrea Garton

Thank you Joanne! And you don't find that uploading the full invitation list causes clutter in your database?

Joanne Felci

no but our lists are too big - probably the biggest is 5000 donors. The clutter is more the number of events on a const record but it is still worth it to see the history of who was invited to what and for future event invite lists.

Faith Murray

We prefer only to enter responses. For each event, we also create a matching Appeal. Constituents who have been invited receive the Appeal record, which is also useful because it helps us track how much mail/communications they have been receiving from all channels on the Appeals tab.

(You'd be surprised how many pieces of mail a constituent may be getting if you include all solicitations, newsletters, alumni communiques, and event invites. Statistically, you don't want to send more than 22-ish mail pieces per year, and it can be hard to track this holistically if it is all spread out in different areas of their record like Memberships, Actions, and Events.)

With invitation lists recorded conveniently elsewhere, we keep Event records for attendees only. This allows us to easily pull uncluttered engagement metrics for our affinity ratings and future lists.

Andrea Garton

Thank you Faith. Where do you “conveniently store” your invitation lists elsewhere? Do you use excel sheets or a google doc type approach?

Faith Murray

Forgive me, obviously I didn't explain well! The invitation lists are recorded/stored under a constituent's “Appeals” tab – as are all other mailings, solicitations, and newsletters that they receive.

Andrea Garton

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the appeal would only tell you if they were invited. It would not store whether or not they attended, declined, or never responded to the invitation.

Faith Murray

It could be used in such a way, if desired. The “Response” column under Appeals is well-suited for just such details. This field is also query-able.

And those who “Attend" would also receive the event registration under their Event tab.

Andrea Garton

Awesome. Thank you for clarifying. It's great to learn all the different use options.