/ to search
Documentation Events

Events

Events Tutorial

Use this guide when you want to take one event from setup to launch, event-day operations, and post-event follow-up without losing the operational details along the way.

Before you begin

Confirm your event date, timezone, location details, and payment readiness before you publish. Those settings affect registration, reminders, and the public event experience.

When to Use This

This walkthrough is a good fit when you are creating a live event for the first time and need to understand:

  • registration setup
  • public visibility
  • guest and waitlist behavior
  • reminders and surveys
  • check-in and attendance

What You'll Learn

By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to:

  • create an event record with the right public setup
  • configure registration rules that match your event
  • prepare communications before launch
  • manage registrations and attendance after publishing

Scenario

Your nonprofit is planning a paid spring fundraising breakfast. Staff need a public registration page, guest registration, a capacity limit, a waitlist, reminder emails, and a clean check-in flow on event day.

Step 1: Decide Whether This Should Be an Event or a Program

Start with the basic structure.

Use an Event when people are registering for one specific occurrence, such as:

  • a gala
  • a breakfast briefing
  • a workshop
  • a webinar

Use a Program when supporters should discover or register across several related events in one journey.

Important

If you try to use one event to represent a whole series, reporting and public discovery usually become harder later.

Step 2: Create the Event Record

  1. Open Events.
  2. Choose Create.
  3. Complete the Details step.
  4. Add the title, descriptions, and optional banner image.
  5. Choose the Event type.
  6. Add Hosts, Tags, and any optional team or program relationship.

This is the foundation staff will keep working from after registration opens, so it is worth getting the basics right before you move on.

Tip

Leave the slug alone unless you need a very specific public URL. Changing it after you have shared the link can create confusion.

Step 3: Set the Schedule and Location Carefully

In Schedule & Location, review:

  • start and end date/time
  • timezone
  • event mode
  • venue and address details

For an in-person breakfast, make the location easy to scan.

For an online event, make sure the page clearly explains what supporters should expect even if the meeting link is sent later.

Step 4: Add Only the Registration Questions You Really Need

Use the Questions step to collect the information staff will actually use before the event.

Common examples include:

  • meal preference
  • accessibility needs
  • organization name
  • breakout preference
  • emergency contact

Ask as little as you can while still supporting the event well.

Tip

If a question matters for guests, make sure it is configured for guests and not just the primary registrant.

Step 5: Configure Registration Rules

Use the Registration step to decide how registrations should behave.

Choose the pricing model

  • Leave Registration fee empty for a free event.
  • Enter a fee for a paid event.
  • If ticket types are used, the public flow uses ticket-type pricing instead of one flat registration fee.

Decide whether one registrant can bring guests

  • Turn on Allow guests if one person can register additional attendees.
  • Set Guest limit per registration.

This is especially useful for donor breakfasts, hosted tables, or events where spouses and colleagues commonly attend together.

Set capacity and waitlist behavior

  1. Add a Capacity limit if space is limited.
  2. Optionally add an overbook buffer.
  3. Turn on Enable waitlist.
  4. Choose the waitlist mode.

Use Automatic waitlist mode when you want open spots to move forward automatically.

Use Manual waitlist mode when staff wants hands-on control over who gets offered the next seat.

Add an optional donation ask if it fits the event

If you want checkout to include an additional gift:

  1. Turn on Enable donations for this event.
  2. Choose General donation or Specific designation.
  3. Add optional donation ask copy.

Example: A scholarship luncheon can use paid registration plus an optional additional donation during checkout.

Step 6: Review Marketing Consent and Tracking

If your team uses public marketing consent during registration, review those settings before launch.

Remember:

  • hiding the marketing consent field does not unsubscribe anyone
  • transactional event emails still send separately
  • tracking defaults can be overridden by values passed in the public link

This matters when multiple campaigns, source codes, or outreach channels point to the same public event page.

Step 7: Prepare Confirmation, Reminder, and Survey Emails

Use the Communications step to review:

  • confirmation email content
  • reminder emails
  • survey follow-up

If the event was drafted with Ask Altrinum, review any generated confirmation, reminder, survey, and registration-question copy before publishing. Generated reminder and survey copy is a starting point only; staff still decide whether reminders or survey follow-up should be enabled.

The best event messages feel practical and specific. Supporters should know when to arrive, where to go, and what to expect.

Tip

Set reminder timing with the event timezone in mind. That is one of the easiest places for confusion to slip in.

Step 8: Choose the Right Visibility Before Publishing

Use Publish & Contact to finalize:

  • status
  • visibility
  • optional password
  • contact information

Visibility options include:

  • Public
  • Password protected
  • Hidden

Password protected works well for invite-only donor or partner events that still need a public-style registration page.

Step 9: Test the Public Experience Like a Real Registrant

Before sharing the link broadly:

  1. Use the event View action.
  2. Review the public page copy and details.
  3. Test registration.
  4. Test guests if enabled.
  5. Test waitlist behavior if relevant.
  6. Test paid checkout in the right payment environment.

Do this on desktop and mobile if you can. Small friction points usually show up fastest when you test like a real supporter instead of reviewing the form as staff.

Step 10: Manage Registrations After Launch

Once registrations begin, use the event record to review:

  • registrations
  • attendance
  • email broadcasts
  • ticket types

This is where staff can keep an eye on paid status, guest activity, sellout risk, and follow-up needs without leaving the event.

Step 11: Run Event-Day Operations

For in-person events, use the attendance and check-in workflow for:

  • QR-based check-in
  • manual lookup
  • attendance review

Example:

At a fundraising breakfast, staff can scan attendees at the door and later compare registrations against actual attendance.

Step 12: Close Out the Event

After the event:

  1. Review attendance and no-shows.
  2. Send follow-up or survey communication.
  3. Export registrations or attendance if needed.
  4. Review event-related reporting where relevant.

This closeout step is often where teams spot improvements for the next event, especially around guest handling, question design, and reminder timing.

Step 13 — Learn from this event

After closing out the event, ask:

  • Did we hit capacity too early or too late?
  • Did waitlist behavior match expectations?
  • Were reminder emails timed correctly?
  • Did guest handling work smoothly?
  • Were there check-in delays?

Document these answers.

Small adjustments here usually improve the next event more than any single feature change.

Common Mistakes to Watch For

Warning

A wrong timezone can create reminder confusion, check-in confusion, and supporter frustration all at once.

Warning

Waitlist settings only make sense when the event has a capacity greater than zero.

Warning

If the event uses guests, waitlists, and checkout donations together, test the public flow before launch instead of assuming each setting behaves the way you expect.