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Running an event is not an easy task. There are many details to juggle in the planning and execution of an event and it can all be very overwhelming. We are going to show you in this blog post how to run an event from start to finish using tools from Paperless Transaction Corporation. Using PTC's solutions will take your event to the next level and alleviate the stress of event planning. Here's a step by step guide to help you run a successful event.

Defining Your Event

Come up with measurable goals for your event such as a dollar amount your event needs to raise or a number of event attendees you would like to have. Create an overall plan and define your target audience, mission and budget for the event. Put together a planning committee if you need one. Set up an event web page informing your potential event attendees and donors about your event. Paperless Transactions allows you to customize an event page straight to your website. You can integrate your own web theme or custom CSS design, meaning your branding remains consistent while you get the opportunity to communicate to the most targeted and segmented groups of attendees possible.

Creating Your Event

Define what calls to action you need from your event attendees. Is your event free or is there a cost and if there is a cost, are there different levels of cost or sponsorship? Are you going to give your event registrants the option to donate an extra amount beyond the ticket price or an option to set up recurring giving? Are your event attendees needing to purchase additional items besides a ticket such as food/drink, childcare, donations or promotional items? Creating a customized online registration page with PTC gives you flexible customization options and allows you to upload photos or a video to the page to quickly convey the nature of the event and give your event attendees all they need to successfully register. With PTC you can create an event storefront page if you want to allow registrants to view images of items for purchase in relation to the event such as promotional products or sponsorship gifts and buy them directly on the storefront page. One popular option among clients is using PTC’s Page as a Checkout Page (where we securely process the payment) and then PTC performs a form post back into the client’s website. All registration, donation and purchase transactions are recorded and accessible via PTC’s Virtual Terminal, where you can export registrant/transaction data at anytime. With the Virtual Terminal, you can open your direct mail and process donations for either credit cards or ACH items, set up recurring giving contributions or pledges, and track constituent information using up to 30 different custom fields to designate important variables such as donation designations, unique donor numbers and campaign related data.

Selling Tickets / Accepting Donations

Once you've created your event, you need to have a way to sell tickets or receive donations before and during the event. Event ticketing and sponsorship registration are all possible through our comprehensive event registration system. When you add a customized online registration page to your website, it saves you the trouble of maintaining paper records and provides each registrant with digital receipt delivery confirming his or her registration with scannable bar coding or ticketing. PTC's Virtual Terminal software gives you detailed event registration reporting that you can use for registration check-in on the day of the event. Your registration page is mobile friendly for registration on the go and supports multiple and partial payment types, along with donations and recurring giving. In addition to your online registration page, you can use PTC's Facebook app to increase ticket sales and accept donations via your Facebook page. If you want to provide on-site event registration or accept donations at the event, PTC makes it easy with mobile card readers. Text2Donate gives you another way to capture donors at your event. With mobile giving your donors don't have to mess with checkbooks and envelopes and can give right from their phones.

Communicating and Engaging

Now you need a way to send out reminders and updates about your event to your volunteers, sponsors and registrants. Today text messaging is extremely popular and has a high chance of being received and read. Paperless Transaction Corporation can provide you the latest Mass Text Alert technology, allowing you to effectively communicate with hyper-targeted groups and quickly get updates to your attendees. Text/SMS alerts can be scheduled ahead of time and set up to be drip text campaigns. You can administer unlimited campaigns and send out unlimited messages with PTC’s system - all for one low monthly cost. Another way to communicate about your event and drive donations is through your own custom mobile app. You can easily segment and power all group, multi-channel communications through one app. You can update group members with a last minute change to your event or have a group messaging conversation to collaborate together! You can have multiple team members from one group (i.e. your event planning team) on one thread and (in messaging them) instantly send push notifications and keep everyone on the same page all at the same time. You can deliver real-time push notifications to all of your mobile app subscribers to announce fundraising goals, send specific calls-to give and post event follow up messages. Your app subscribers can “Star” items on their feed, set up calendar reminders, and stay tuned to the latest on events while registering and paying to reserve their spot for events!

Saying Thank You / Showing Progress

Thank your supporters immediately. Custom Email Receipting is an easy, quick way to thank your donors and registrants. In addition to showing your organization’s gratitude, you can also use email receipts to tell how donated funds are being distributed and how specifically their gift or ticket is making an impact. With PTC’s Custom Email Receipting tool, the contents of email receipts are completely customizable, and can include graphics, embedded video clips and text tailored to the specific event of your organization’s choosing. Make sure you send your attendees, sponsors and volunteers updates about your event's success and the goals and missions that were achieved through the event.

If you need any assistance in planning your next event, Paperless Transaction Corporation would like to help. We offer innovative solutions to help nonprofit, charity and church fundraising events get off the ground and have a successful outcome.