Complex Events with GC Events Pro

In this article, we walk you through setting up a complex event with GC Events Pro, which supports:

• Activity-level management for admins: The option to create activities within an overarching event, each with its own unique registration details.
• Activity-level registration for attendees: Ability for attendees to register themselves and guests for multiple activities and events within an overarching event.
• Event add-ons: Use add-ons for items, services, or packages associated with your event but not included with tickets. Examples: merchandise, parking, childcare, meal upgrades, golf sponsorships.

To get started, confirm that you have been added as a GC Events-specific administrator, and head to the Events section from your admin dashboard. 

• Note:
  • If you aren't yet an Events admin, anyone who is already an Events admin can give you the permissions you need from your GiveCampus admin dashboard by clicking into the Events tab and into the Administrators section.
  • If you are an Events admin, but NOT an admin on the platform, you won't be able to find GC Events from the main dashboard! Please have a teammate who is a full admin to share a direct link to GC Events within the platform with you. Be sure to bookmark that direct link so that you can navigate directly to the GC Events solution with ease.

Additional Resources

Articles

• Behind the Scenes with GC Events: Take a "behind the scenes" look at event and registration management, attendee check-in, payment processing, refunds, etc.
• Reporting in GC Events: Accessing your core Events reports - including a Registrations report, a Guests report, a Gifts report, and an Attendance report - as well as an Activities report and Add-Ons report for complex events.
• Creating and Applying Promo Codes to GC Events
• Registration Edits: Allowing Registrants to Modify Their Registrations
• Adding Offline Registrants to GC Events

Webinars

• Product Office Hours: GC Events Live Demo and Q&A (March 2023)
• Webinar: Be the Host with the Most - How to Plan & Execute Successful Fundraising Events (March 2023)
• Product Office Hours: GC Events Pro (October 2023)

🎟 The Set Up: Basic Details and Ticketing

CHOOSE EVENT TYPE

To begin, use the “+ New Event” button in the upper right hand corner of the page, and a prompt to "Choose Event Type" will appear.  The "Simple Event" type is best suited for single-day events like happy hours or alumni dinners. The "Complex Event" type is your best choice for events featuring multiple days, multiple activities, add-on products, etc. 

• Note: Once you have started a simple event, you cannot move it to a complex event, so be sure to make a thoughtful decision on this step! In most cases, we recommend proceeding with a Complex Event, so that you can always leverage the complex-only features later if you need to incorporate them.

THE DETAILS

Click Next, and you will be sent along to the Details tab, where you'll enter the Who/What/When/Where/Why details of the event, in addition to customizing the following details:

• Event Title: This is the external-facing title of your event, which must be a unique title across all your GC Events.
• Unique identifier: An optional field that allows you to assign a unique identifier for each event. 
• Registration Button: Use this field to customize the primary Call to Action button (up to 60 characters) on the event landing page for donors to register. By default, the button will read "Register" for free events or "Purchase Tickets" for paid events. 
• Event Image: The uploaded image will be resized to 800x600px so we recommend uploading an image with a similar aspect ratio.
• Require Activity for Registration: Check this box if you want to require registrants to sign up for at least one activity per person.
• Schedule Tab Custom Section: This section will display on the schedule tab of the landing page alongside the event’s schedule of activities. You can use this section to display details that you want your attendees to know, eg: travel, transportation, parking, health policies. 
  • Note: This section will only display if there are one or more activities added to this complex event.

SETTING UP EVENT-LEVEL TICKETS

Move on to the Ticketing tab to set up event-level ticketing. Two common approaches here are to either charge a general fee for registration for the event and provide activity-level options (see "Adding Activities" section below) at no cost, or vice versa: offering free tickets at the event level but charging for specific activities on the activity level.

• Ticket Types: Start by adjusting the default ticket type, or adding additional types for your event. Within the ticket type, you can set the following details:
  • Set the "Ticket Price" for each ticket type. If it’s a free event, set the price to $0.00. You can add multiple ticket types for either free or paid ticket types for the event, and importantly, a registrant can buy multiple ticket types in a single transaction. 
  • Set the “Guest Limit” to be the maximum number of that ticket type that can be sold.
  • Set a “Fair Market Value” (FMV) for your ticket - by default, this is set to $0.00, meaning that the entire ticket purchase is tax deductible. You can adjust this value to account for any portion of the ticket cost that is not tax-deductible, e.g. exchange for goods or services."
    • The Why: Splitting out the portion of a ticket that is "fair market value" (exchange for services) and what part is “gift,” or tax deductible, will come through in your reporting with a detailed breakdown for each amount. It will also be broken down for your donors in the tax receipt they receive, so they are aware which part of their gift is tax deductible. 
  • Restrict Ticket Type if this ticket type should only display to registrants or guests of a particular affiliation. If restricting all ticket types, please ensure at least one ticket type is available for each affiliation to prevent registrants from hitting a "dead end" where no ticket types are available based on the affiliation selected. 
    • In order to restrict ticket types, "Collect Affiliation Data" must be selected on the Details tab of your event settings.
    • Ticket types can be restricted based on affiliation (i.e. "Alumni") or affiliation + value(s) (i.e. "Alumni 2014")
    • Restrict tickets "Based solely on the registrant's affiliation" if ticket type availability is based on the primary registrant’s affiliation only. Registrant must have at least one of the affiliations selected in order to see this ticket type and register for it for themselves and/or their guests. Note: When this option is selected, Affiliation will be automatically marked as required on the Registrant form.
      • For example: If a ticket type is restricted based solely on the registrant's affiliation and the affiliation required is "Alumni", any primary registrant who selects "Alumni" as their affiliation will be able to select this ticket type for themselves and their guests; even if their guests do not have the "Alumni" affiliation. 
    • Restrict tickets "Based on the individual’s affiliation" if ticket type availability is based on the individual’s affiliation, not the primary registrant. The primary registrant and each guest must have at least one of the affiliations selected in order to see this ticket type and register for it. Note: When this option is selected, Affiliation will be automatically marked as required on the Guest form. Be sure Affiliation is also required on the Registrant form.
      • For example: If a ticket type is restricted based on the individual's affiliation and the affiliation required is "Faculty/Staff", the primary registrant and each guest must have the affiliation "Faculty/Staff" to select this ticket type. If the primary registrant's affiliation is "Faculty/Staff" and their guest's affiliation is "Friend", the primary registrant can select this ticket type for themselves but must choose another ticket type for their guest.
  • Make it a "Hidden Ticket Type" - check this box if you need to hide a ticket type that should no longer available to registrants or is no longer relevant  (ex: VIP tickets, early bird tickets, sold out tickets, etc.)
  • As you add ticket types, note that you can click and drag to reorder the types. 
• Ticket Gift Designation: Select the designation for ticket sales. The designation will not be shown to registrants.
  • Need to add a new designation? Any designations with backend IDs already added at the account level will be available in this list as options to tie to the ticket purchases. If you need to add a new designation, head to your admin dashboard > School-Level Settings> to add a new designation.
  • Need to set a different designation for the Fair Market Value portion of the ticket? Email us in Support (support@givecampus.com). 
• Registration Limits: 
  • Max guests per registration: the total number of tickets that can be sold for this event per transaction
  • Overall guest limit: the maximum number of guests who can be registered for this event, across all ticket types and registrations.
  • 🚨 Note: As guests go through the registration system, their tickets will be held for them for a limited time as they complete the process, so that their tickets don't sell out before they can check out. For more about how we manage that flow, see our FAQs below.
• Registration Edits: The option to allow registrants to make adjustments to their own registrations. Click here to dive into the adjustments registrations can make themselves. 
  • Note that registrants will not be given any options to adjust their registration that would trigger a refund to their registration. For any activities or add-ons that have a price associated with them, registrants will see the "Refunds" language that you set in this text field. 
• Registration Terms: Use this section, which will appear on the landing page and on all subsequent pages throughout the registration process, to clarify event policies (e.g.: Attendee restrictions for affiliation or age, Covid-19 health regulations, refund policy, etc.)
• Affiliation Data: Check the boxes to enable the option to collect and/or require affiliation information from your attendee who is registering. Any attendee affiliation details collected during registration will be available to you in your reporting. Class year and affiliation will also be visible on the public guest list (if enabled) alongside your guests’ names.
  • Need to add a new affiliation type? Any affiliations already added at the account level will be available in this list as options to present your donors. If you need to add a new affiliation type, head to your admin dashboard > School-Level Settings > Affiliations to add a new custom affiliation.

📝 Collecting Registrant & Guest Information 

With your ticket types set, you can move on to the "Guest Information" tab - your opportunity to set up custom fields to collect additional information from your registrants and their guests. 

Use the Custom Fields section on the left to design additional fields (choose from text, number, checkbox, dropdown or multi-select field types) for your registrants to complete.You can configure the question copy (Label), Report Column name, and add Placeholder and Help Text to guide registrants' answers. 

• Use the Add to Registrant Form button to add the field to the Registrant Form for all registrants to complete. The registrant form is the first registration page that all registrants will see, so if you need to collect custom data points for the registrant only, add questions just to the Registrant form.
  • Ex: Admins may want to collect a phone number as a required field for registrants but optional for guests. In this case, create a custom registrant field that's required on the Registrant Form, and a second custom guest field that is optional on the Guest Form.

• Use the Add to Guest Form button to add the question to the Guest Form. This is the second registration page that a registrant will see, presenting a set of fields to collect details about the guests.  

Once the fields are added, choose which (if any) fields should be required for registrants and guests. Click the Star ⭐️ next to the field to make a field required. Any responses submitted will be available for admins to see in the "Guests" report.

➕Adding Activities 

From the Activities tab, you can add the individual activities that are included in your event, and attendees can pick and choose from available activities as they move through the registration process. Each activity can have its own unique registration details, including:

• Basic Details: Activity start and end time, title, and description
• Audience Tags: Adding a tag to an activity will add a visual indicator to the activity drawing attention to the intended audience. Tags appear on the activity schedule and in the registration flow.
  • Note: Adding Audience Tags will not restrict a registrant from registering for an activity based on their affiliation but will inform them of the audience for which the activity is intended. See below for restriction capabilities.
• Activity Restrictions: Activities may be restricted by the ticket type selected by the primary registrant and each guest in the Ticketing section of the registration flow. Select this box if you would like to limit visibility and registration for this activity to only those registrants who have purchased one or more specific ticket types. 
  • Note: Ticket types within an activity cannot be restricted. All registrants who are eligible to register for each activity will see every activity ticket type. 
• Custom Fields: Ask questions of registrants and guests specific to this activity.
  • Note: This is where you could ask dietary restrictions for a dinner event, song requests for a DJ playlist, etc.
• Location
• Registration limits: Set a guest limit for this activity or leave blank if the activity has no limit.
• Ticket Type + Guest Limit for that Ticket Type
  • Note: Ticket types within an activity cannot be restricted. All registrants who are eligible to register for each activity will see every activity ticket type. 

Deleting Activities: An activity can be deleted so long as it has no registrations attached to it. Once an activity has a registration tied to it, it must be "cancelled" in the system, and attendees will need to be notified separately of the cancellation, as there is no automated alert from the registration system. If the activity is a paid activity, you will have an opportunity to issue a partial refund for the cancelled activity. See our Behind the Scenes article for more information about cancelling or refunding activities. 

➕Adding Event Add-ons 

Use add-ons for any items, services, or packages associated with your event but not included with tickets. For example: merchandise, parking, childcare, meal upgrades, golf sponsorships, etc. Each add-on can have its town unique details, including:

• Add-on Name
• Description
• Price + Fair Market Value: Set the price to 0.0 if the add-on is free
• Purchase Limit: the maximum number of this add-on available for the event, not per registration.
• Add-On Custom Fields: Ask questions of registrants and guests specific to this add-on.
  • Note: This is where you could ask for license plate information for a parking pass or a t-shirt size.
• Restrict Add-On: Add-Ons may be restricted by the ticket type selected by the primary registrant and each guest in the Ticketing section of the registration flow. Select this box if you would like to limit visibility and purchase of this add-on to only those registrants who have purchased one or more specific ticket types. 

Deleting Add-Ons: An add-on can be deleted so long as it has no registrations attached to it. Once an add-on has a registration tied to it, it must be "cancelled" in the system, and attendees will need to be notified separately of the cancellation, as there is no automated alert from the registration system. If the add-on is a paid add-on, you will have an opportunity to issue a partial refund for the cancelled add-on. See our Behind the Scenes article for more information about cancelling or refunding add-ons. 

💰Soliciting Additional Gifts from Donors

In the next tab labeled "Gifts", you can turn on the feature to solicit donations as part of the registration flow for your event. If you do not want to solicit donations, simply click the "Save & Next" button at the bottom of the page.

To enable this option, follow these steps:

Step 1: Select the GC Giving Form or GC Social Fundraising campaign to which gifts from this event should be attributed.

• If you choose to attribute donations to a Social Fundraising campaign, any gifts coming in from your event to that campaign will be treated like any other gift to that campaign. The donor’s gift will count toward campaign goals, the donor’s name will show up on the donor roll and in leaderboards, and the donation will count toward your GC Social Fundraising subscription. 
• If you choose to attribute donations to a Giving Form, the gift will count toward your GC Giving Form subscription. If you have a prepaid payment processing bundle, the donation will count toward that bundle.

Step 2: Choose where in the registration experience you’d like the solicitation to occur:

• Gift Solicitation in Registration Flow: Enable this option to allow registrants to add a gift to their ticket purchase. The registrant will only have to enter their payment information once in a single check out experience.
  • Note: While the registrant will only pay once, there will be two separate transactions occurring in the background if the transaction includes a paid ticket: one for the ticket purchase, one for the gift, and your registrant will receive two separate charges and two separate confirmation emails.
• Designation Settings: 
  • Select a single designation for this event: All gifts made during the registration flow will be assigned the same designation selected in this field. Donors cannot view the designation selected, change the designation selected, or add additional designations.
  • Allow donors to designate gifts themselves: Donors will see the designations available within this event’s associated social fundraising campaign or giving form and can split their gift as many ways as the associated campaign or giving form allows. 
  • Do not designate gifts made in the registration flow: Donors will not be shown the option to designate their gift and no designation will be assigned to gifts made during the registration flow.
• Additional Gifts: To highlight the option to make a donation from the event landing page and the post-purchase confirmation page, check the "Additional Gifts" box. Checking this box will reveal two customizable fields to help you market the option to make a donation in addition to registering for the event, and is available for events where only free tickets are offered.

🥳 Sharing with Your Community

From the "Sharing" tab, there are two built-in options to inspire registrants to engage with other community members and to spread the word about your event:

• Display Social Sharing Buttons - If enabled, the social sharing buttons for Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Copy link to share will be available both on the event landing page as well as the post-registration confirmation page.
• Display Guest List for Event - If enabled, the Guest List will display on both the event landing page and the order summary page.
  • When enabled, the five most recent event registrants will display in the Guests Attending section of the Overview tab on the event landing page.
  • A separate Guest List tab will also display on the event landing page and will include the complete guest list.
  • If affiliations are collected in the event registration form, users will see the option to filter the guest list by affiliation and value.
  • Users can also use the search functionality to find the name of a registrant within the full guest list or a filtered version of the guest list.
  • Opting Out of the Guest List
    • When the Guest List is enabled for an event, the Guest Information step of the registration form will include a checkbox to "Exclude name(s) from the public Guest List".
    • Registrants who choose to exclude their names from the guest list will appear as "Anonymous Guest" on the list. 
    • Administrators can update a registrant's preference to be included or excluded from the guest list by navigating to the Registrations tab, clicking on the registration ID, editing the registration, and checking or unchecking the "Exclude name(s) from the public Guest List" box.
    • If an administrator enables the Guest List for an event that has already received registrations, the names of those registrants will be excluded from the Guest List and all future registrants will be shown the checkbox to include or exclude their names if they so choose.

📧 Email Settings: Confirmations & Reminders

Learn all about how to configure your GC Events emails using this dedicated article: Email Settings in GC Events! 

• Registration Confirmation: Confirms event registration and is used to provide event details, tickets, guest information, activities schedule, and payment receipt.
• Registration Summary: Provides updated event details when an add-on or activity ticket is added or removed from a registration or after an offline registration is added. It can also be sent manually by an admin. 
• Registration Reminder: Reminds the registrant of event details before the event, such as location and check-in instructions. The registration reminder must be enabled in Email Settings to configure this email. Be sure to enable the confirmation email, set the number of days prior to the event you would like the email to send, and click save.
• RSVP No Confirmation: Confirms receipt of the ‘No’ RSVP submission. The ‘Collect RSVP Nos for this event’ checkbox in the Details settings must be enabled to configure this email.

👀 Previewing Event + Testing Registration Flow  

Use the "Preview Event" button to jump over to the donor-facing view to preview your Event from a donor's view.

When you're ready to run test registrations for your event, our strong recommendation is to clone your event and conduct your testing in that cloned version.

Testing in a clone of your actual event ensures that no real event registrations are created in your actual environment – this is important because:

• Once a registration is completed, we lock the ticket types (and activities and add-ons in complex events) used in that registration. A ticket type, activity or add-on cannot be edited or removed as it would affect the reporting and reconciliation.
  • Note: You can hide a ticket type using the "Hidden Ticket Type" checkbox within the individual ticket settings if you've tested a ticket type that should no longer available to registrants or is no longer relevant  (ex: VIP tickets, early bird tickets, sold out tickets, etc.)
• Completed registrations cannot be removed or deleted from an event for the same reason. Test guests will count toward ticket and registration limits. 

By testing in your cloned event, you will be able to continue to edit all aspects of the registration experience that your donors will have.

🚀 Launch!

If your event is ready for prime time, use the "Publish Event" button from the preview page to make your event live. Once the Event is published, any activities added to your event will be live as well.

Use the "Event Settings" button to head back into the event to continue to modify, if needed. Use the "Unpublish Event" button to set it back to draft mode, preventing constituents from being able to visit the landing page of the event. You can only unpublish an event if no users have registered yet. 

📈 Event & Registration Management + Reporting

For a behind-the-scenes look at event management, registration management and reporting options, head over to our Behind the Scenes article here. 

🤨 FAQs:

Q: Can registrants use mobile wallets to pay for their tickets? 

     A: Yes! Apple Pay and Google Pay will be available to registrants. Venmo and PayPal are also be available options when purchasing tickets - however, these two options are not available to donors who choose to add a gift in addition to their ticket purchase in the integrated donation flow.

Q: Can we customize the confirmation email that registrants receive?

     A: Yes. At this time you can configure the Subject Line, add a custom event banner image, edit the copy of the body of the email, and set the Sender Name and Reply-to email address. You cannot currently add merge tags, edit the salutation, sign-off, event details, or receipt, adjust the timing of the confirmation, or turn off the confirmation email entirely. 

Q: Can we require that registrants provide their affiliation?

     A: Yes! You can set affiliation as required for registrants and for their guests as well. Enable the collection of affiliation data in the  Affiliation Data" section of the Ticketing tab, and then use the Star icon in the Guest Information forms to require that data point for registrants and/or guests.

Q:  Can we edit the RSVP status of guests?

     A: Yes! From the "Registrations" or "Guests" tab, click on the linked id number for the registration to that registrant's record. From there, click "Change RSVP Status" and update the status of any guests associated with that registration. Note: If any guests are marked "Not Attending," they will be removed from the public guest list and the guest count. However, the "Tickets sold" number doesn't change, since that ticket was still sold.

Q: Can we remove a guests' registration? 

     A: No, not at this time. You can change RSVP status (see Q above!) to address any changes in attendance.

Q: Can I reorder my ticket types to change the order in which they appear during registration? 

     A: Yes! From the ticketing tab, you can click and drag to reorder the ticket types.

Q: Do School Fields work in form builder for Events?

     A: You can create Events-specific Reusable Fields by going to Events Settings > Add Reusable Field!

Q: Our tickets sell out quickly sometimes! Are guests tickets saved for them as they complete the registration process?

     A: Yes. When a guest registers for an event, tickets will now be reserved for a set amount of time! The countdown timer starts when a ticket type is saved. For simple events, the timer will countdown from 15 minutes, and for complex events, the timer will countdown from 30 minutes. We added this proactively to prepare for your more popular events, so that guests won't arrive at check out only to find that their tickets are no longer available!

Q: Can I feature all of my events on a landing page?

     A: Yes! If you are using GiveCampus for both Online Giving (Giving Forms and/or Social Fundraising) and Events, you can highlight upcoming events through your School Pages. You could add this section to an existing page or create an event-specific one!

Learn more about School Pages here!

Have additional Qs? 

Have a question not covered here? Give us a shout in Support (support@givecampus.com)!