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Event Registration

Sherry Surmont

My apologies if this is a bit off topic. I really like the online event form but has that it comes in as a ‘one time gift’. I have used a workaround by initiating the fund to be a non-donation campaign, but really would like the option of choosing the gift type. We typically use ‘other’ for other income. We do the same for our little merchandise sales. Will this change soon the wear we can choose the gift type?

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JoAnn Strommen

I was going to ask this question today, as well. I looked in idea bank yesterday and found about a half dozen postings that touched on this.

We have lots of free events but others in fee ranges from $25 to several thousand dollars. While some may have a charitable portion, most do not and we do not want those ‘event fees' added to donor records as gifts, pulling in reports as last gift, pulling in lifetime giving.

We would like to be able to use web view event registration forms but then are left with payments we do not approve the batch for so fees do not go on constituent records. Our event fees go straight to accounting. Solution suggested to me by support was to filter everything by fund. That doesn't work and would be extremely difficult for all reports.

I would also like to see a gift type or another upfront field that would address this. Anything in the works?

Kimberly Hammer

Hi @Sherry Surmont, thanks for your question!

I serve as the Product Manager for RENXT Events, so Anthony asked me to jump in and respond.

We are not planning to offer the option to choose the gift type for online registrations in the near future. For now, I'd recommend continuing to track the information with a specific Fund or Campaign that can be filtered out of donation totals.

Could you also please vote for the idea that is in line with what you're looking for?

Or you can make a new suggestion too. We monitor interest on our idea bank and use the feedback there to help shape our roadmap and future product decisions. Voting for an idea will also make sure you receive updates when an idea is planned and/or released.

JoAnn Strommen

@Kimberly Hammer I heard this same concern raised at bbcon. Can these be filtered out of reports by fund, when gifts are entered in same fund? No. Can they be filtered out of lifetime giving that displays on constituent record? No.

Yes, it is an ‘event’ issue but it is also a ‘gift’ issue. We have folks who buy tickets for Sweetheart Dinner & Dance sponsored by Music Dept. Event fee: $75/person. Benefit: $75. Charitable contribution: $0. Family of 4, person pays $300. Even with a receipt amount of $0 entered and approved in a web view batch, the latest gift is now $300, LTG total increased by $300. And we also have folks who register and give a gift at the same time: pay $100: $75 ticket, $25 gift. All goes into the Music Department's fund and would come in with the same appeal.

We run a fair number of alumni and department events. To be expected to try to filter these out by gift sub-type or create parallel funds for event fee and event donation is not we want to see from BB.

There are other posts in the idea bank that I found the other day that touch on this in addition to those you listed:

Online Event Registration Fees should not be recorded as gifts

Need to be able to turn off the function that creates the gift batch in nxt for event fees

And these two, which aren't what I'm hoping for, but better than nothing:

Add ability to to make additional donations download as separate gift record from online registration form

Add ability to specify a fund for the deductible and non-deductible portions of each event fee

I am really looking forward to the new features as things transition over to web view. At the same time hoping for new functions that allow us to use the total platform as designed.

Be happy to visit with you if you have questions about our use of Events.

For other RE users, if you use Events and these are concerns for you, vote in the ideas and post in the forums before it's too late.

Kimberly Hammer

@JoAnn Strommen Thank you for the additional feedback and highlighting related ideas in the idea bank. I understand the importance of accurate reporting and the frustrations with the current filtering workarounds.

I’ve added your feedback to my research task and will keep a close eye on the interest in these ideas. While a change isn't currently planned as we focus on transitioning more functionality to web view, we'll consider this for future updates.

As questions arise, or if I have updates, I'll reach out. Thanks to you both for participating in this post!

Elizabeth Johnson

@Sherry Surmont, @JoAnn Strommen, @Kimberly Hammer Voted for all of these ideas!

This is really important for our organization. Also I work around this by not using the fee area of the events at all (other than free) and use donation forms to try to keep it separate. This means I need to have two email windows open as I compare what they have done - did they pick the right price and update the event in RE. Fortunately this past weekend I created a Power Automate flow to make it a little easier as I have to have options to keep track of the total fee and total paid and a way for comments to end up in the summary note area that are critical to the registration table at the event.

Hoping by sharing that I voted here that this will encourage others to vote - to keep that easy here are the links that Kimberly and JoAnn shared earlier in the thread.

Allow Other Gift Type on fees in RE Event Registrations
Allow Gift Type to be modified when creating event forms
Be able to determine what the Gift Subtype is on an Event registration form or determine this when setting up the Fees in Events

Online Event Registration Fees should not be recorded as gifts

https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-7045

Need to be able to turn off the function that creates the gift batch in nxt for event fees

https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-7120

And these two, which aren't what I'm hoping for, but better than nothing:

Add ability to to make additional donations download as separate gift record from online registration form

https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-4474

Add ability to specify a fund for the deductible and non-deductible portions of each event fee

https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-4696

Alex Wong

@Elizabeth Johnson
I understand your perspective and many others.

While I think Blackbaud should do something about it, I do not think it should be a “change” rather than an “additional feature”.

Our org record everything as “gift” record, we are a heavily event based organization, all types of event golf outing, to free parlor meeting, to mission and gala dinner.

golf outing, gala dinner, etc - paid event
- even a paid event, there is a portion of the gift that is a contribution for us.
- $1000 ticket to attend a gala event, the Non-Deductible goods and services value is calculated by our finance department to be $300, there is still a $700 contribution the donor is making
- Then there is event sponsorship, such as a President Sponsorship for $100K, which comes with perks such as 2 tables of 10 (total of 20 people can attend), premium seating at event, etc, where their receipt will include info on the NDA of $300 per person and let the donor determine with their accountant that they brought 15 or 20 people to the event

So not adding “gift” to RE for event ticket purchase does not make sense for us. Also part of the reasoning is bank reconciliation.

So rather than change the way it works, Blackbaud should add the option including create gift or not create gift, create gift as “cash” or “other”, etc.

I don't want what happen to event capacity limit to happen here from Blackbaud, which now I am advocating Blackbaud to put the functionality back: They change limit from registration form to per fee level, so we lost the ability to specify registration level limit. (i.e. imagine an event of 1000 capacity, where we have various sponsorship and ticket type, while some ticket type should have its own limit (early bird), the rest of the ticket/sponsorship should sell to a MAX of 1000, there is no way we can pre-determine we will sell only X of a sponsor Y of a ticket type that ultimately adds up to 1000

Marion Drake

Has anyone resolved this issue with event fees on the gift record besides unlinking the gift a "zero-ing" out the amount? @Kimberly Hammer

Elizabeth Johnson

Check out the What's New today in RE - I am very excited to look closer at this and see how it also impact the portal as this could be the thing we have been waiting for to use those features and to finally not confuse our fundraiser's and donors with money that are not gifts showing up.

Report giving with confidence — Exclude event fees, membership dues, and selected funds from your revenue totals, so every number you share reflects true charitable giving. Set it once in Settings, and it applies everywhere you use committed, received, or recognition revenue, including at the split level.