Think outside the box with CiviCRM: Innovative idea #5

One registration. One payment. Multiple events!

What would you say if we told you that CiviCRM can be configured to manage multi-day or multi-event registrations and payments for a single contact? It's true! Here's how we configured CiviCRM to manage an organization annual fundraiser by creating a way for their members to register for multiple events during a single-day event. But you might be thinking that, as far as you know, CiviCRM only allows participants to register and pay for one event at a time. So how did they do it?

Previously, the organization tried different scenarios, working within CiviCRM's default parameters, to manage this annual fundraiser:

  • Have their constituents register separately for each event - but this generated a high a drop-out rate.
  • Use a complex price set for the main event and register each contact for the corresponding event manually in the back-end depending on their payment choice. This was very time consuming for the organization’s staff.
  • Rely on a contribution report that includes the different line items of the price set to get the list of subevents people had registered for. They quickly realized that this made it more difficult to analyze the data over time and track attendance.

After trial and error, none of these options proved to be a suitable solution, so they reached out to Cividesk so we can help them manage their annual fundraising in CiviCRM.

We did a full audit of their needs and came up with a configuration that met all of their requirements:
1. Easy sign up for the end user
2. Accurate 
participation reports
3. Accurate financial reports

We changed the configuration of the main event registration page so that a participant can register for the main event AND choose to register for optional satellite events that he is planning to attend on the same day. The total of the fees is recorded in one unique payment for all the event registrations (easy signup - check!) and the contact is registered as a participant to each event (accurate participant count - check!).

Even though the final payment is recorded on the main event, it is possible to use contribution line item reports to isolate revenue for each event (accurate financial reports - check!).

This configuration was possible thanks to the use of the extension Event Additional Signup and there were no need to develop additional customization which was greatly appreciated by the organization. 

To learn more about multiple events registration for your organization’s unique workflow, contact your Cividesk Customer Success Manager.

Follow our series of creative tips for innovative ways to use CiviCRM to meet unique organizational needs!
#1: Use the Membership module to manage sponsor/student relationships
#2: Use the Schedule Reminders to send Welcome Messages to Members
#3: Use "Activities" to manage your workflows
#4: Use “Campaigns” to manage trade missions