Regardless
of whether your organization has many small events, or a few large
ones, you know the work involved with inviting, organizing, tracking
and collecting contributions can become a full-time job. Complicate
this picture with today's preference for online payment, and you have a
major technology challenge to add to your tasks.
The Patriot donation management system was created to give you a rich set of event management and
fundraising tools so you can focus on the actual event, rather than
getting buried in the details. From our online registration forms, to
the task-based management system, Patriot is an extremely efficient
system that can remove a tremendous amount of the "busy work" from
those events.
Here are a few ways that our online event management system can help:
- Online registration and RSVP system
- Accepts all major credit cards for event-related fees
- Accepts additional contribution on event sign-up form
- Has multiple fee options for your events
- Has members-only options for event fees
- Tracks goals and attendance vacancies
- Exports your RSVP list for use at the door
- Task management and volunteer assignment
Online event registration system
Our system generates a unique sign-up page for each event, so you
can easily add it to your existing Website. Each registration form also
contains all of the event details as well as quite a few optional
fields to allow for extra donations or notes. Most of the time you will
use the standard fields such as the location, coordinators, times,
date, and so on. By letting people fill out their own registration
form, you eliminate your need to re-key their information and save time
while simultaneously increasing accuracy. Also, when attendees would
like to bring additional guests, they can complete their information as
well. This method of data entry keeps your database accurate and allows
you to easily follow-up with the guests.
Accept credit cards or just RSVP for event registration
Our forms accept all major credit cards, but they also support free
events where you simply need help with headcount. Also, if you have
people that are paying by check, cash, or "in-kind," you can track them
inside of Patriot, so your guest lists will always be accurate. The
RSVP form does not ask for credit card information unless you have
indicated you would like to provide for an additional donation, even
though the event may be free.
Multiple fee options for a single event
If you have several payment options, our event management system can
handle that situation by showing them the available fees. For example,
if you are having a golf fundraiser and want to offer several options,
you might end up with something like this:
- $100 - Dinner Only
- $120 - Golf Only
- $200 - Golf & Dinner
People can then choose the option they prefer and the fee will be adjusted accordingly.
Members only fee options
We also support “members-only” pricing, so if you are using our
membership module this will give you the ability to offer a
"members-only price." If one of these special options is selected, the
user will be verified against your membership database and will not be
permitted to use that pricing if they are not actually a member or
haven't paid their dues.
Vacancies and fundraising goals
If you have a limited number of seats that are available, you can
set a limit for sign-up capabilities and only allow a specific number
of attendees. Our system shows you the number of RSVPs for all of your
events on the main screen, so you know at-a-glance if you are on track
to meet the fundraising goal.
Exporting event attendee and door lists
When the time for your event is approaching, Patriot can export the
list of those who have paid or sent an RSVP into Excel so you can
monitor the door with this list in hand. Tracking attendance is a
critical step in developing a donor strategy because of the high
percentage of contributors that donate repeatedly. By using a paper
list at the event you can simply check-off the people you greet, and
later update Patriot so you have an accurate history of attendance.
Task management and to-do lists
Unlike other event management systems, Patriot is setup to help you
organize the actual event tasks. You can create as many items in your
task list as you require and also indicate the number of volunteers
required for those items. Optionally, a "reminder date" can be set that
will email you and the task owner if the item has not been completed by
the date specified.
Volunteers can take ownership of tasks
To further increase the effectiveness of event management, you can
allow volunteers to take ownership of any of the tasks you have
created. Each approved volunteer can see the lists of unclaimed tasks
for upcoming events. They can then apply to the event coordinator to
claim ownership of those items. However, the coordinator has the final
say and can accept or decline their offer for help. Volunteers
can indicate when the task is finished and optionally input the total
hours they took to complete it.
By giving you all of these rich tools, we hope that it will help you
to stay focused on the big picture while letting the system handle the
details.