Event Campaigns

Full User Guide

 

1. General Overview

2. Getting Started

3. Editing & Previewing a Campaign Page

4. Collecting Additional Information

5. Sharing a Campaign Page

6. The Payment Process

7. Reports

8. Appendix A: Other Resources 

 

1. General Overview

An Event campaign page is a branded ticket sales page. Some common example of events that you might sell tickets to include an annual gala, luncheon, golf tournament).
Event pages are quick and simple to create. If you have all your page assets ready, you can have your page up and running in less than 10 minutes!

2. Getting Started

To start a new Event campaign page, log in to your fundraising pages account as an admin. Your admin login page URL is unique to your organization and should look something like: (If you don’t know your organization’s Giving Site URL, look for an email with the subject “Account Setup Complete” from the time of your first visit to your account or check in with us at help@networkforgood.com or 888-284-7978, option 2).

Once you’re logged in, navigate to your My Campaigns page. Select the turquoise button Add an Event Campaign.

This will take you to the event setup form. We recommend filling out only the required fields (*) at first, then clicking Save to establish your campaign. You will not be able to add ticket types until the campaign has been created.

Required fields*:

1. Event Name
Your Event name should be descriptive. For reporting purposes, it should be distinct from any other Event. Some examples: 2016 Annual Gala, Bowl-a-thon 2015, 2016 Fall Luncheon.

2. Status
If you are ready for your Event page to go live, select Active. Otherwise, select Inactive. (Keep in mind, no one will see your page until you share the link. You’ll also need your Event to be Active in order to view the ticket types.)

3. Starts at and Ends at
Enter the start and end date/times of your event. This information will be displayed on your Event page.

4. Brief description of your event
Use this space to concisely convey what your event is all about. Keep this short and to the point. You can provide additional details about your event in another section.

5. Event address
Enter the physical location of your event. This will be displayed on the Event page and in the optional automated event email sent to all attendees after they complete their order.
Click Save & Exit to create the campaign. From the Event Overview page you can review the details of your Event or click Edit to continue updating your campaign.

Now you’ll want to go back to the following non-required fields:

1. Image and video
The all-important visuals of your page!

Use an image that is approximately 1200x600 pixels. Event pages are responsive, so your image will appear slightly differently depending on the screen size. Try previewing your page on several devices.

A video is a great way to compel donors to purchase tickets and/or make a donation. Use a video hosted on YouTube or Vimeo (if you only have a video file on your computer, upload it to YouTube or Vimeo first, then paste the link into the appropriate field).
 
2. Primary call to action
This is the heading directly above the ticket form. It will appear center-aligned, in your site’s call-to-action color unless the color is too dark, in which case it will appear in white. (You may find a primary call to action is redundant on an Event page.)

3. Additional event details
This section is where you can elaborate on why your audience should purchase a ticket, what attending the event will be like, the impact your guests’ attendance and/or contribution will have on your mission, or other pertinent information about your organization or the event. Use this area to show off all the wonderful benefits of attending your event! Remember, though, to keep it succinct. You do not want to distract donors with too much “fine print” or links out to other webpages.  
 
4. Ticket types
Now for the main event (pun intended)!

Adding ticket types is very simple. Once you have created your Event page, navigate to the Event Overview page. Click Add Ticket Type.

A window will appear. Give your ticket type a name (e.g. General Admission, VIP, Early bird special), a description for that ticket type, and the price of the ticket.

You will also have the option of including a fair market value for each ticket. This is important if your guests intend to write off the donated portion of the ticket price on their taxes. In their tax receipts, the tax-deductible portion will be indicated as the difference between the ticket price and the ticket’s fair market value.

Limit the total number of tickets available for sale for each ticket type by entering a value in the ticket quantity field. When you do this, the number of tickets available at any given time is displayed on the page interface. When there are no tickets left, the ticket type will be displayed as “sold out” and users will not be able to purchase them.

Lastly, you can set dates when certain ticket types become available for purchase and when their sale ends. This is a great way to set up your early bird specials.

Deleting ticket types

Ticket types cannot strictly be deleted. To hide a ticket from the interface and prevent anyone from being able to purchase it, you can set the availability dates to a date range in the past. Alternatively, you can convert the ticket type into some other ticket type.
5. Contact information
Include a way for event attendees to reach out with questions about the event by assigning a contact person and sharing their information with event attendees. This information is not visible on your Event campaign page, but it will be included in the automated follow-up email you can optionally configure in the next section.

6. Event email body
This field allows you to set up and customize an email message that every ticket purchaser receives after their transaction is complete. This is a good place to say thank you, solicit more information from the guest, or include more details about the event. The email will not be sent if you leave this field blank. Your email will look something like this:

3. Editing & Previewing a Campaign Page

To edit an Event page, from your My Campaigns page, click the name of your event on the top of the campaign “tile”. This will take you to the campaign’s Event Overview page.
From the Event Overview page, click any of the Edit buttons you see on the page to edit any part of your campaign. When you are done editing your page, click Save & Exit to save and publish your changes.

If you want to preview your Event page as a donor would see it or if you want to find the URL to the page, from the Event Overview page, click the name of the campaign. A preview of your page will appear in another tab or window.

4. Collecting Additional Information

Oftentimes, you want to collect more information from event attendees. If you need to solicit additional information from those who purchase a ticket, we recommend asking for a reply to the automated follow-up email (see section Event email body). You might even consider creating a form that you can link to in the follow-up email. Use a form-building service or the Forms feature in Network for Good’s Donor Management system if that is part of your suite of services.

5. Sharing a Campaign Page

Once you’ve completed your Event page, sharing it is simple. You just need to know the web address or URL to your page.
To get the URL you need to preview the campaign page. From My Campaigns page, click View Event. From the Event Overview page, click the name of the campaign. A preview will appear in another tab or window. The public URL to your Event campaign page that you want to share is the URL you see in the web browser address bar when previewing the page. Example:
https://your-organizations-name.networkforgood.com/projects/12345-campaign-name
(The only meaningful part of the URL is the portion up to and including the 5-digit ID number. If you deleted the rest, it would still take the user to your page.)

Embed the URL in a button or text on your website or in an email invite.

6. The Payment Process

Once you’ve set up your page, we recommend going through the payment process as a ticket purchaser to understand their experience.

The payment process is three short steps:

1. The user enters the number of ticket(s) they wish to purchase for each ticket type in the quantity fields.
2. After the user clicks “Purchase”, the user is directed to a page where they enter their first and last name and email address or log in via Facebook.
3. Next, the user inputs their payment information and billing address. They will also have the option to cover the 3% transaction fee.

OPTIONAL: if you’ve enabled donations for the campaign, the user will have the option of adding a donation on top of their ticket purchase. Adjust this setting on the Events Overview page.

After the user completes their transaction, they see a confirmation message. A tax receipt and confirmation email is automatically sent to the ticket purchaser with all the pertinent information about their tax-deductible donation. You can resend these receipts from your account if necessary. The ticket purchaser also receives the automated event email, if you chose to configure one (see Event email body).

7. Reports

To view a detailed report on ticket sales made to your Event campaign, select Reports form the main menu and look for the Event Transaction Summary. To view donations to your Event campaign, view the Donation Summary Report.

By default, the date range will be the current calendar month. To view donations from previous dates, adjust the date range fields and click Generate Report. Export the report you are viewing by clicking Export in the top-right corner of the page. Jump straight to the overview page for a donor by selecting their name in the column Billing Name.
Keep in mind, refunded donations will not appear in your reports.

Appendix A: Other Resources

 

Still have questions?

Contact our Customer Support team:
help@networkforgood.com
(888) 284-7978, option 2
Monday-Friday, 8am-8pm ET
(except holidays)