CiviCRM Events Management Reference Manual

CiviCRM Events Management Reference Manual Copyright 2015 Upleaf LLC. All Rights Reserved.

1. Introduction to CiviCRM Events... 3 2. Key Concepts... 3 2.1 Event Participants... 3 2.2 Event Types... 3 2.3 Participant Roles... 4 2.4 Participant Status... 4 3. Event Management Considerations... 4 3.1 Planning Your Event... 4 3.2 Following Up After the Event... 5 4. Create An Event... 6 4.1 Info & Settings... 6 4.2 Event Location... 7 4.3 Fees... 8 4.4 Online Registration... 9 4.5 Schedule Reminders... 10 4.6 Tell a Friend... 11 4.7 Personal Campaigns... 11 4.8 Publish the Event... 11 4.9 Edit the Event... 11 5. Create an Event Template... 12 6. Manually Register an Attendee... 12 7. Manage Existing Events... 13 8. Enter or Manage Payments... 14 9. Manage Participants... 14 10. Print Name Badges... 15 11. Manage Price Sets... 16 12. Reports... 17 12.1 Event Dashboard... 17 12.2 Participant Searches... 17 12.3 Event and Participant Reports... 17 12.4 Additional Data Needs... 18 12.5 Display Reports in Your Dashboard... 18 2

1. Introduction to CiviCRM Events The CiviCRM Events module provides a robust set of tools for managing events, and is integrated with RMCHSD s WordPress website. The configuration helps to provide a seamless experience for website visitors with consistent branding across all online touch points. With this configuration you can easily manage both simple and complex events. Some key features include: Self-registration for participants, including online credit card payments for paid events Tracking sign-ups, cancellations, and attendance Promotion of events on your website Streamlined event setup for similar, recurring events with event templates and event copy functionality Participant check in on-site at the event from any computer with an internet connection 2. Key Concepts 2.1 Event Participants CiviCRM allows you to create events that your contacts can participate in. When a contact participates in an event, they are called a participant. 2.2 Event Types CiviCRM is configured to allow you to define different types of events, such as meetings, fundraisers or Red Shoe Society Events. It is also possible to create other event types such as Galas, Poker Runs, Red Shoe Day, or other signature events that you manage each year, if needed. Here is why you might create new event types: (1) To stream specific types of events to specific pages on the site. For example Red Shoe Society Events stream automatically to the bottom of the Red Shoe Society Page; (2) For more complex paid events like the annual Gala you can create custom fields to store and display additional data; (3) If you use specific event types (i.e. Poker Run) you can easily find or message all contacts who have ever participated in a Poker Run. This can also be achieved by running reports or using groups. 3

Please note that you can also create event templates to make it easier to set up recurring events (see Section 5 of this manual for details). 2.3 Participant Roles Every contact that participates in an event is assigned a participant role. The most common is attendee. Other potential roles include volunteer or speaker. Participant roles are fully customizable to match the types of events your organization conducts. This allows you to segment participants into meaningful categories based on their involvement in the event, for example for sending an email to volunteers only or generating a list of past table captains for fundraisers. You can also create custom fields that apply only to specific roles, for example, to collect information about availability from volunteers only. 2.4 Participant Status Participant status (for example, registered, wait-listed, attended or cancelled) is used to track what stage the contact is at in their 'event journey'. Participant status is fully customizable to match the way your organization manages events. This allows you to segment participants into meaningful categories for the purpose of things like generating sign-in sheets, tracking how many people are likely to come to an event, and tailoring email communications to registrants. 3. Event Management Considerations 3.1 Planning Your Event It is important to think about the structure of your events and how you want a person to experience the event registration process before you start. This will help inform how you set up and configure your events. Here are some important questions to consider. What different roles will participants have at the event? Do you need to track volunteers, sponsors or speakers? What kinds of information do you want to collect about participants, e.g., food and lodging preferences? Will you allow online registrations for the event or is it free? Is there a limit on the number of participants that can attend? Do you want to approve registration, or leave it open to anyone? Will there be a waitlist if the maximum number of registrations is exceeded? Should one person be able to register multiple people? 4

Do you want to make the listing of the participants public? Is this an event that repeats regularly with roughly the same details? Will this be a paid event? If so, what Financial Type will you consider the event fees to be? What kind of fee structure will you need to hold your event? Will you charge multiple fees, such as fees for additional sessions or meals? Will you offer discounts for early registration? Take time to assess the kind of information you need to run your events effectively, as well as what information you want to collect from event participants. If you run recurring events that are very similar, think about using event templates or the event copy features to make the setup processes easier. 3.2 Following Up After the Event Updating the status of each participant during the event or soon after will help to ensure that you have the most accurate information to evaluate your event. It is recommended practice to send an email after the event to all the attendees to thank them and provide links to any documentation you have online. You may want to send a different email to those who registered but did not attend. You might also want to use this opportunity to promote a new event, suggest that attendees join your organization as a member of a giving circle, or solicit donations for a specific campaign. 5

4. Create An Event To create an event, follow these steps: 1. Log into the website at https://rmhcsd.org/wp-admin 2. Click on the Dashboard option 3. Select CiviCRM from the left-hand menu. Now a new menu will appear at the top of the page with a black navigation bar 4. Click on Events 5. Scroll down and select New Event 6. Fill in the event information & settings based on the instructions below 4.1 Info & Settings On this New Event page select the Event Type you are hosting. Note: Event types can be modified at anytime. Please contact Upleaf. 1. Participant Role: Usually you ll just select Attendee, but if you re doing a volunteer celebration event you ll have the chance to select volunteer here for example. 2. Participant Listing: Select Disabled always. If you d like to display registered participants publicly, please contact Upleaf. 3. Event Title: This is what is displayed on the homepage and feeds throughout the site. Make it short and compelling. Don t try to pack everything in the title. 4. Event Summary: This blurb is what s displayed below the title when looking at the event list pages but is not necessary for the RMHCSD setup. You can ignore this field. 5. Complete Description: This will display on the event detail page and can include any type of formatting, images, video, image slideshows, etc that is needed. Formatting features function similarly to the rest of the website. Do not include dates, venue or ticket prices here as they will be included automatically from those respective fields, to be completed on the following screen. 6. Start Date: When the event is starting and what time 7. End Date: May be left empty if not relevant. 8. Max Number of Participants: Set if a limited amount of seats are available so that when the event is sold out the system stops receiving registrations automatically. Be sure to craft the message that should display if the event is full. 9. Include Map to Event Location?: Select this box. Will display an embedded, interactive Google map of the location of the event. 10. Public Event?: ALWAYS check this box if you want the event to be displayed on the website. Otherwise it will only appear in the CiviCRM events area. 6

11. Allow sharing through social media? Do not check this box as the configuration does not display properly. 12. Is this Event Active?: Keep unchecked while crafting the event or if critical information is missing. When ready to publish to the website, check this box and save. When ready, click the Continue button. Your changes will not be saved until you click Continue. You ll be redirected to the Event Location page after you click Continue, now you have several tabs at the top of the page (any tab with a strikethrough line means that function is currently disabled for the event you re editing. Click on the tab to enable that function). Click any tab to move to that section of the configuration: a. Info and Settings: This is the initial page you started on b. Event Location: Where you ll specify address and contact information c. Fees: You ll define whether the event is free or paid and if paid, which prices and payment options to offer d. Online Registration: You ll be able to offer additional information to the user during the registration process. e. Schedule Reminders: Reminder emails that can be scheduled to go out to participants at different times. f. Tell a Friend: Always enable so that the event gets word-of-mouth promotion. 4.2 Event Location On this page you ll have the following fields: 1. Choose Location: Allows you to save time by selecting a location you ve used before. (If you select an existing location and then make edits to it, these will modify that location record). 2. Address: For the embedded Google map to work properly you ll need to input the exact street address, city, ZIP code and state. 3. The Latitude, Longitude field is used by the Google map integration to display the location accurately and it will be automatically populated based on the address you ve put in. No need to fill this out. 4. Email and Phone: This information will be displayed as primary contact information for people interested in the event to ask for more information. You can add multiple emails and phone numbers by using the add link next to each field. Note: This information will be tied with the location, so if you need to include different contact info please create a new location name. 5. Show Location: Always leave checked. When done with the event location information click Save. That will allow you to continue working with the next tabs. Just click on the tab you want to edit after saving. Save and Done will redirect you to the Manage Events page. 7

4.3 Fees For free events, simply leave this tab as is and complete the rest of the setup. For paid events enable this tab and the following fields will be available: 1. Currency: Always leave at USD$ 2. Payment Processor: You can select Credit or Debit Card and the system will use RMHCSD s payment processor to accept payments for the event. 3. Enable Pay Later option?: Allows the attendee to decide whether he wants to bypass online payment during the registration process. a. Pay Later Label: Text displayed next to the checkbox for the 'pay later' option on the contribution form. b. Pay Later Instructions: Instructions added to Confirmation and Thank-you pages when the user selects the 'pay later' option (e.g. 'Mail your check to... within 3 business days.'). 4. Financial Type: This records the payment within the contact record as one of the following: Campaign contribution, donation, event fee, member dues, etc. The website offers specific functionality to collect member dues, invoice payments, etc IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED THAT THE EVENT FUNCTIONALITY BE USED FOR ANY OF THESE OTHER TASKS, APART FROM EVENT FEES AS THAT WILL CREATE CONFUSION FOR WEBSITE VISITORS. IF ANY OF THESE IS NEEDED PLEASE CONTACT UPLEAF TO REVIEW SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FIRST. 5. Fee Label: Label attached to event ticket prices. 6. Price Set: You ll be able to save time while creating new events by having preconfigured pricing options. Instructions on how to set up price sets are included later on this manual. If none is selected you ll need to add the pricing options manually on the Regular Fees section. 7. Regular Fees: Use these to create pricing options for the event. a. Fee Label: Should include any short, concise description of that price. e.g. Member, Non-Member, One Time Fee. b. Amount: Should be a simple numeric value like 50 or 25.50. The system will add the $ sign for you. c. Default: Select which price should be automatically checked for the attendee. They ll always have the option to switch to another price available. 8. Discounts by Signup Date?: Check this box if you want to offer discounted fees based on registration date (e.g. 'early-registration discounts'). This will override the original price set only for the dates in question. a. Discount Set: Name of promo for internal use only b. Start and End Date: Date range during which this time-bound discount will apply. All registrations during that date range will use these discounted prices instead of the regular fees. c. Another Discount Set: Click if you want to have a different date range with different prices. d. Add Discount Set to Fee Table: This button will enable this discount set for you to manually edit the prices under the now available Discounted Fees section below. 9. Save your changes to move on to the other tabs. 8

4.4 Online Registration If disabled the event will display all other information but won t offer users the ability to register. If enabled you ll have the following fields: 1. Registration Link Text: Display text for the button that allows the user to register (default is 'Register Now'). 2. Registration Start and End Date: Use if you need to delay the start of registration or limit last minute registrations. 3. Register multiple participants: Check this box to allow users to register themselves AND additional participants for an event. When this feature is enabled, users have the option to specify the number of additional participants they are registering for. If this is a paid event, they can select a different event fee for each participant - and will be charged the total of those fees. Checking same email address provides the same capabilities, but without requiring distinct email addresses for each registrant. In either case, CiviCRM uses a separate contact record (an existing one if the contact is already in the system, otherwise a new one is created) for each individual registered. 4. Same email address: This allows registrants to register multiple people, even if they do not have the email contact information for those people. 5. Duplicate matching rule: This function will look for the email address and registration of the registrant to ensure just one record per person. 6. Require participant approval: This allows registrants to approve their registration before it is finalized. 7. Pending participant expiration (hours): Time limit in hours for confirming/finishing registration by participants with any of the pending statuses. Enter 0 (or leave empty) to disable this feature. When using the Pay Later option, attendees whose payment hasn t come in by the time this expiration field is set will not be allowed to participate in the event. 8. Registration Screen: Controls what is displayed once the user clicks on the Register Now button. Includes the following: a. Introductory Text: Use to offer more details about the registration. For example, if a conference is divided in multiple sessions, explain here what the registration is accounting for (full conference or a specific session). b. Footer Text: Use for disclaimers and small print explanations. c. Include Profile (top of page): Default is Your Registration Info. d. Include Profile (bottom of page): Leave as Select. e. Profile for Additional Participants (top of page): Leave as Same as for main contact. f. Profile for Additional Participant (bottom of page): Leave as Same as for main contact. 9. Confirmation Screen: Displays the registration information for the user to verify and correct any errors if necessary. Includes the following: a. Title: Page title. Default is: Confirm Your Registration Information. b. Introductory Text: Use to offer more details about the registration. For example, if the event is divided in multiple sessions, explain here what the registration is accounting for. c. Footer Text: Use for disclaimers and small print explanations. 9

10. Thank You Screen: Last page displayed to the user. It confirms that the user has effectively registered for the event. Includes the following: a. Introductory Text: Use to offer more details about the registration or confirm basic info (i.e. Thank you for registering for the Poker Run. We look forward to seeing you on X date at Y time. Remember to bring X, Y Z). b. Footer Text: Use for disclaimers and small print explanations. 11. Confirmation Email: Includes all event details for the attendee to keep and may also serve as a receipt. We recommend always sending a confirmation email. Includes the following: a. Text: Message that shows up above the event details. b. Confirm From Name: Name of the sender that will show up on the attendee s inbox. Use Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego as default. c. Confirm From Email: Email used to send the email to the attendee and to which he/she will be able to reply to with questions, etc. d. CC and BCC Confirmation To: Useful to let the event organizer know when new registrations come in. We recommend setting this up. Save to move on to the other tabs. 4.5 Schedule Reminders Create automated messages that can be sent to all registrants before / after the event. You can determine when the reminder is sent, whether or not the reminder is repeated, and what information it includes. Examples of reminders you may want to schedule: A week before: remind participants that they should check out the event schedule A day after: ask them to fill out the feedback form Two days before payment is due for a Pending from Pay Later registration: warn them that their registration will be cancelled if they don t provide payment details in the next 48 hours. To schedule the reminders, simply fill in the details (for example, an email to all registered speakers 3 days before the event start date). Note that you can limit recipients by status (registered, attended, etc.) and also by role (speaker, attendee, volunteer, etc.). As well as setting up reminders on an event-by-event basis, you can also set them up for specific event types and add them to event templates. The idea is basically the same as above, but you can access this functionality from Administer > Communications > Scheduled reminders. 10

4.6 Tell a Friend Always enable this option, as it will encourage participants to spread the word about the event to their friends. Only edit content if necessary. A "Tell a friend" activity record will be added to a participant's Activities tab each time he or she sends mail to friends. This allows you to track your most active supporters and engage them further. The people who are emailed using this feature are also automatically added to CiviCRM as contacts. 4.7 Personal Campaigns Please disregard this tab. Personal campaigns are not enabled to associate with events. Peerto-peer fundraising initiatives are available through this page on the website: https://rmhcsd.org/donate/start-a-campaign/ 4.8 Publish the Event When ready to publish the event and make it accessible to the public, go back to the Info and settings tab, make sure the event is set to public and is active and then click on the Save and Done button. View and test the event thoroughly to make sure that everything is displaying properly and running smoothly. 4.9 Edit the Event To return to the event and make edits you may simply click the little wrench icon that displays to the top left of the event when you are viewing it from the website. As soon as you publish the changes they should be visible to the public. To view the event as the public will see it while you are making edits, simply click the Event Links tab to the top left of the screen and select Event Info. 11

5. Create an Event Template To create a template that you can reuse to save time when creating new events that are very similar year over year, go to: CiviCRM à Events à Event Templates and click on the Add Event Template button. After that you ll be using the same event creation interface described on Section 4 of this manual. Caution: Avoid creating too many templates because it will defeat the efficiency of creating new events. You can use the same template repeatedly to create new events, even if the event is in a different location. Selecting a different location or changing other information that is part of the template will not modify the template. To modify the template, you must go to CiviCRM à Events à Event Templates à select the template you wish to modify. 6. Manually Register an Attendee Although CiviCRM helps alleviate data entry for event registration by allowing your constituents to register directly through your website, you can also manually register contacts. This is helpful if people want to register by phone or mail. To register an existing contact for an event: 1. Enter the person's name in the Quick search box 2. Select the contact from the results 3. Click the Events tab on the person s contact record 4. You will see a list of any past events they have attended and a link to register them for a new event 5. Add the person to the desired event. 6. Select the Record Payment option to submit their credit card information to process the payment (great option if they are on the phone and ready to pay) or record a payment by check. 7. Once you have recorded the registration, you can view the event registration record and see the related contribution record. 12

7. Manage Existing Events To edit an event go to CiviCRM à Events à Manage Events, or click the wrench icon when viewing the public event page from the website. You ll be able to edit any detail of the event using the same instructions included in section 4 of this manual. At the top of the page there s a useful search function that allows you to narrow down the list by date range or other criteria so it s easier to find the event you need. Note that to see past events you ll need to select the Search All or by Date Range option located below the search box. Each event row on the list includes: 1. The event title and ID. The title serves as a link to the event detail page. 2. Configure: Allows you to go straight to any of the event configuration tabs discussed in section 4 of this manual. 3. Participants: To manage event attendees. 4. Event Links: Includes two options: a. Register Participant: Manually register an individual to the event. Useful for recording event speakers or volunteers b. Event Info: Links to the event detail page on the site c. Registration (Test Drive): allows you to test the registration process without recording the test on the system. (if online registration is enabled for this event) d. Registration (Live): Links to the event registration page. (if online registration is enabled for this event) 5. More: Includes three options: a. Disable: Will effectively remove the event from public view on the website and not allow for registrations. b. Delete: Deletes the event from the system including all related information like attendees, payments, etc (BE CAREFUL!) c. Copy: Duplicates the event. Useful when a useful template doesn t exist but you need to create a very similar event to one that you ve held before. 13

8. Enter or Manage Payments To enter a payment received from an attendee: 1. Go to CiviCRM à Events à Find Participants 2. Search for the participant using the robust search function available on this page. (use Last Name, First Name format to search using the participant s name. 3. Participants with pending payments will display so on the Status Column. Click on the Edit link to the right of the participant s name. 4. Change the participant status field to registered 5. Check the Record Payment? box to input the payment information. 6. Check the Send Receipt box to email a receipt to the attendee 7. Additional payments (credit card or offline methods) or a refund (offline methods only) will need to be entered via the record payment link associated with the event registration record. 8. Save 9. Manage Participants 1. Go to CiviCRM à Events à Find Participants 2. Search for the participant using the robust search function available on this page. (use Last Name, First Name to search using the participant s name. 3. Select the view or edit link to the right of the participant to start editing the record. To edit price registered click on the edit link next to the fee information at the bottom of the page. 4. Click on Change Selections if you need to change any of the selections for that particular participant. 5. Make the required adjustments. The event fee will be adjusted appropriately and the event status will be set to partially paid, registered or pending refund based on the difference between the new event fee and the contribution(s) already processed. 6. Update Participant Status. After each event it is recommended to edit the participant s status from registered to the corresponding one: Attended, No-show, Cancelled, etc. for reporting purposes. 7. Update Multiple Participants. You ll be able to edit multiple participants at once by selecting their records left hand checkbox and then using the actions function at the top of the page. Using this process you have the option to update multiple records, for example: a. Cancel event registrations b. Change participant status 14

c. Delete participants (this will not delete the contact record, but simply delete all transactions and activities associated with the participant for this event). Note that this action cannot be undone. d. Export participants you can export a predefined set of fields or create your own custom set of fields (which can be saved for reuse). The software exports to CSV format, which can be easily opened in standard spreadsheet software or directly used for mail merges. e. New Smart Group. Smart groups are saved search results based on defined criteria, similar to a query. The advantage of a smart group is that the system will rerun the query using the criteria you have defined each time you open the smart group. f. Print Event Name Badges. Select the type of badge you require and a printable PDF will be generated with the names of the selected participants. g. Send an Email to Contacts: CiviCRM also lets you generate an email on the fly to your search result list. For example, you may want to let recipients know details about the event in advance, such as parking options or other changes. 10. Print Name Badges Once your list of event participants is finalized you can print the name badges as follows: 1. Go to Events>Find Participants. 2. Select the relevant participants. 3. Choose Print Event Name Badges from the drop-down list of actions and Click Go. 4. Select the name badge layout for this event. 5. Click Make Name Badges A PDF file will be created that you can print on the appropriate-sized labels. Please contact Upleaf to customize badge formats. 15

11. Manage Price Sets Price sets allow you to use preconfigured prices while creating new events or event templates to save time. Each time you create a price set for a new event through the Fees tab, it will be listed with the other price sets. Note: Please make sure not to edit the price sets titled Donation Amounts, Giving Circles, Red Shoe Membership, or Give Online as each one of these price sets are already configured and linked to the respective online donation pages. 1. Go to CiviCRM -> Events-> Manage Price Sets 2. To edit existing price sets from a current or past event, click on the more link for: a. Settings: Edit price set b. Disable: not offer this price set as an option during the event creation process c. Delete: Delete Priceset forever d. Copy Price Set: Clone existing set to create a similar one 3. To create a new price set, click on the Add Set of Price fields button a. Fill out set name b. Select where to use this set, use Event. c. Save d. Add each field (price available for event registration) that you need. 4. Done. You can start using your new price set immediately. Simply return to the Fees tab and select the desired price set. 16

12. Reports There are a number of techniques for reporting on and analyzing your events and participants. 12.1 Event Dashboard The event dashboard gives a quick overview of your upcoming events, displaying the number of registrations and their status (how many are registered, how many are counted, how many are pending for different reasons) for each event. The dashboard is limited to 12 events scheduled to start at a date closest to today. 12.2 Participant Searches CiviCRM makes an important distinction between contacts and event participants. It is important to take this into consideration when searching for event attendees, and use the Find Participants search. The Advanced search allows you to search based on most participant information and combine that with other contact information and return contacts. You can also choose Participant from the Display Results As column to show participants rather than contacts. Searching based on these criteria gives you access to simple totals. You can also export your search results as CSV for further analysis in your spreadsheet software. 12.3 Event and Participant Reports Reports offer several features that cannot be accomplished by search. For instance, you cannot aggregate data from multiple events at once or limit the date of registration very flexibly. Also, repeating the same searches over and over can be very time consuming. (Searches can be set as Smart Groups but this leads to a proliferation of groups). The solution is to set up reports for each event or a collection of events. The reports can be automatically assigned to a designated submenu (e.g. under Events à Reports) or made available as dashlets for the main dashboard. The four reports you currently have available are: 1. Event Participants List. Will display both participant and individual data and all custom data. All of these can also be used as filters. 17

2. Attendee List provides a list of event attendees and can be filtered to provide a list for just one event. You add one blank column on the left of the list and tone, two or three at the right of the list and so create an event sign up sheet. 3. Event Income Summary shows total income for a series of events. Clicking on one of those events will give you more details about the event breakdown of the income per role and per status. It can also be displayed in graphical form as Pie Chart or Bar Chart. 4. Event Income Detail displays more detailed information for events. 12.4 Additional Data Needs If you can't obtain the information you are looking for with one of the existing reports or searches, please contact Upleaf. 12.5 Display Reports in Your Dashboard To make a report available for the dashboard so that you can easily and quickly view it each time you log into CiviCRM: 1. From the navigation menu, click Reports and select the report you wish to display. 2. In the Report Settings area, check the Available for Dashboard box. 3. Click Update Report. 4. Once the report is available for the dashboard, you can then navigate to Home to view the dashboard. 5. Click Configure Your Dashboard. 6. Drag the desired report from the Available Dashlets area into either the Left Column or Right Column of the dashboard area, and click Done. 7. You should now see your report on your home dashboard. To view the latest updated information for your report as well as any other items you've included on your dashboard, click Refresh Dashboard Data. 18