Event Form - I don't need names of each registrant

Erin Kennedy Hess

Brand new to RENXT. We are setting up our event form for homecoming weekend and so far I find events in RENXT disappointing. I'm interested in learning any workarounds people have discovered.

We use the registration form to collect numbers for our Friday picnic and Saturday breakfast. I just want numbers. Would love to collect food preferences. I don't need names of each registrant. Is there a way around this?

In the past we also posted our full schedule of weekend events to get an idea of who will be on campus. I've come to terms to the fact that we can't do that, without creating a cumbersome registration form for our constituents.

Reading comments and discussions over the years I'm amazed that users are still asking for these features and RENXT hasn't made any changes. Is the idea to force us to move to a partner that costs thousands of $'s to use?

Aldera Chisholm

Hi Erin,

Most users want to capture a registrant name, if for no other reason, to ensure you don't have the same person accidentally registering multiple times. Having that information is also key for stewarding your supporters.

When you build your event form, I recommend capturing your registrants name, email address, and their food preferences, but then you can choose to remove many of the other fields so that folks are filling out a minimalist form.

I love working with Events, and I find there are only a few scenarios I don't like RENXT forms for - I'm happy to answer any questions and work through scenarios with you. You may find it helpful to go directly to the BBaud University Events classes! Good luck.

Erin Kennedy Hess

Aldera, thank you. There are events where we want names. Capturing a count for our homecoming picnic or breakfast is not one of them. Most people registering want to throw in a number for their family and call it good. The goal is making the form as user friendly as possible.

I gather there is not a way around this feature. It would be nice to have a choice to capture names or not.

I have done the trainings. After the trainings I find it useful to go to the community to discover the ins and outs of a program we are all using on a daily basis. I find community feedback a great deep dive into real life experiences that most trainings are unable to provide.

Megan Unrau

@Erin Kennedy Hess you can set up event forms to allow anonymous guests, but then unfortunately you won't have the option to collect food preferences through the form.

More info here: https://webfiles-sc1.blackbaud.com/files/support/helpfiles/rex/content/events-reg-form-get-started.html#registrant)

For our events, we typically set the form up to require the main host registrant's details but allow them to register their guests anonymously at first. Then our event lead follows up by email for their information (we do always want names, as well as food preference/dietary information).

A little cumbersome, especially if you don't need names, but for us it is worth capturing the event participation information directly on the constituent record. If that isn't a motivator for your org, I could see looking into other free/low cost form options that would exist outside of Raiser's Edge.

Erin Kennedy Hess

Megan, thank you. What I'm here is that there is no way to totally remove the registrant details box. We are brand new to RENXT and adjusting to the ins and out and accepting some of the not so desirable features.

Our legacy system had its own issues, but we were able to sell tickets, either for our musical or to gather numbers for meals. RENXT appears to be a strictly registration system. I was in the system today and realized there is no field, outside of participant options, to request an alum to provide their graduation year or even leave us a note. :::sigh::: You are correct, we probably need to find other options outside of Raiser's Edge. Right now we are just trying to wrap our head around RE.

Robin Kuehn

Erin, we have also had some difficulty getting the event registration forms to meet our needs. Part of the reason is because the RENXT forms are designed essentially as a way to add constituent records, or in the case of guest participants, non-constituent records. Typically these records aren't much use if they don't have name and contact information, and will just live in your database forever as unknown entities. If you do collect name and contact information, you can connect that event participation to that person and use it as information for the next outreach - "So and so, it was great to see you last year at Homecoming! Would you like to support our Homecoming scholarship this year?"

If you only want a count of heads and the amount of which kinds of food to buy, I'd recommend making a google or microsoft form, which should be free depending on what environment your organization uses.

Erin Flowers

Hi Erin-

We have been in NXT for 6 years and I JUST started using Events. I use custom fields to collect Graduation Year and Maiden Name (we are an all-female high school.) You can probably use a custom field to collect comments also.

I hope this helps.

Erin

Erin Kennedy Hess

Erin,

Thank you. I did set up the participant options to collect information, I'm glad to hear it is used by others. It is not perfect, but I'll try to explain what we need as best as possible.

What did you use for the past 6 years? Was it a BB plug-in?

We are a small K-12 school and are now fully integrated in the BB world. There is so much to learn and happy to hear how other schools have made BB or Raisers Edge work for them.

Carrie Sorensen

I feel your pain with events. We struggle because our event sponsorships include blocks of tickets (some time as many as 30) that we don't need names for but I need a count for. I have to export out my data to know that we've sold 50 tickets if Business A has 20 tickets and Business B has 30 tickets. In the eyes of RE, my system just shows 2 registrants instead of the 50 we've really had. It makes for some cumbersome Excel pivot reports now that our Crystal report option is gone.

Carrie Sorensen

Erin Kennedy Hess

Robin, thank you for your comments. Understanding the why behind the system will help me accept and think differently about the system. I will still grumble and vocalize my displeasure with the current system. It would be nice to have the choice. I did think about using a Google Form, or even a RE Constituent Form, but we want to collect money. The meals have a suggested donation. I did add in Participant Options to collect grad year, with (hopefully) clear instructions that they can disregard the information for their attendees.

Carrie, Ugh! I'm sorry, that does sound like a nightmare. This is our third CRM since I've worked here, and the second with event registration capabilities. I've learned nothing is perfect; each system may have its strengths, but it also has its frustrations.

In looking for solutions within BB I'm amazed at how long users have asked for a change in the event system. Possibly, once they finish the web view conversion they can focus on events. Or, they will just push users to spend more money on the add-ons.

Robin Kuehn

Erin, if you're collecting a suggested donation, it might be helpful to separate those steps. You can daisy-chain from a google form for the general registration to a donation form, so that you're only collecting names and contact info on those who are making a payment.

It sounds like you have a strategy though! Hopefully it works well for this year, and next year some changes might be in order. I think most of BB's priorities are for the move to web view, before they start doing additional tinkering with the systems that are currently (mostly) working. Fingers crossed!

Erin Kennedy Hess

Thank you. This community board is exactly what I'm looking for when it comes to support. Brainstorming and sharing of ideas helps me to understand the system and work in it better.