Publishing an event on your website is a powerful way to engage supporters and use your virtual space to boost on-the-ground efforts. When hosting an event, having all of your information in one central place allows you to move forward in an organized fashion and create an environment for success.

Event Basics

To create an effective event page, the following pieces of information should be included:

• Event date, time and duration
• Location 
• Contact name 
• Capacity
• Requirements to RSVP

Optional event features:

• Connect to a Facebook event and have Facebook RSVPs automatically added to your nation
• Connect to a MeetUp event
• Sell tickets through your nation or link to another website

In this video from NationBuilder Live, VP of Community Adriel Hampton walks you through setting up a calendar and creating an event:

The events and calendars video is also available in higher definition on our YouTube channel. 

Creating an Event

With NationBuilder's simple tools you can easily create an event and organize everything from RSVPs to social media promotion, recruits, and even have the ability to sell tickets. The best part is that you can track of all of it within your nation.

1. Go to Website > New Page, or go to your Calendar page Settings > Events & Subpages > and click New Event.
2. Give a name to the page and select the Event page-type.
3. When the page is created, you’ll be taken to Event Details > Settings to begin the process of setting up your event. 

Event Settings 

Event Details > Settings

Below is an overview of the different settings available for your event page, and a description of what they can be used for.

Advanced Settings

Event details > Advanced

Here is where you can specify a tag to add to everyone who RSVPs for an event 
You can also mark people who RSVP as needing followup and assign RSVPs to a point person. The point person will only be assigned if the person who is RSVPing does not already have a point person.

Similarly, you can also tag people who attend the event here. You can also mark attendees as needing followup. Remember that not everyone who RSVPs for an event will attend and keeping track of attendance can be as important as managing RSVPs.

Intro Settings

Event details > Intro

Here is where you can include introductory text for your event. The content editor is the same as on other pages - if you want to include an image in the introduction, you can save it to the Files section then insert it with the insert / edit photo icon. You can also embed videos and other content by typing the URL on its own line within the content editor. If your event location is hard to find, you can include some advice on landmarks or other information necessary to finding the event.

Location Settings

Event details > Location

Here is where you can include the exact address of your event. If the address is included, a Google Map will be created to display the location of your event. This will also help pinpoint your event on a larger map for a calendar, if you choose to categorize your event in this manner. The location will also be included in the auto-response to people who RSVP to the event.

Autoresponse Settings

Event details > Autoresponse

The auto-response for an event is auto-populated. Several of the items in the response use Liquid code to pull the correct information from your database. For an event that is created by your organization, the auto-response reads like this:

You can edit the auto-response if you like. We suggest retaining the Liquid coding, indicated by brackets {{  }}

Text keyword Settings

Event details > Text keyword

Here you can enter a single word for people to text to your broadcaster’s virtual phone number to RSVP for the event. You can also indicate an initial auto-response text to respond to RSVPs. Learn more about how to use text messaging in your nation.

Social Settings

Event details > Social
You can connect your event to an existing event on Facebook and/or a Meetup. RSVPs received on those platforms will be automatically pulled into your people database on a daily basis. 

For Facebook integration, we recommend creating the event on your organization’s Facebook page, then connecting the event to your NationBuilder event. If you publish the event to Facebook from NationBuilder, an event will be created on the personal profile of the person currently logged into the control panel.

Ticket Settings

Event details > Tickets

If you did not indicate you want to sell tickets to your event in Event Details > Settings, you will be given the option to indicate ticket levels being sold through a third-party site. 

If you would like to sell tickets through your website, go back to Event Details > Settings, check the box next to sell tickets and indicate the donation page to use (and tracking code if desired). Be sure to save your changes before moving back to the Event details > Tickets page. On the page where you specify ticket levels, you’ll want to name each ticket level and indicate the price and number of tickets purchased.

Event Details > Shifts If your entire event is broken up into shifts, you can use this page to have people RSVP for a shift within the time frame of your event. All shifts must be within the event time frame. If you would like some people to volunteer for the event, but most people to simply RSVP for the event, we recommend using the Volunteer checkbox in Event Details > Settings rather than Shifts.

Hosts 

Event Details > Hosts

Some events, particularly fundraising events, have hosts. Adding a host name, email address, or Twitter handle in this area will allow RSVPs to indicate which host invited him to the event. 

RSVPs

Event Details > RSVPs Here you will see a list of people who have already RSVP’d to your event. You can edit individual RSVPs from this list. You can also add a new RSVP from “New RSVP.”

Print PDF gives you the option of generating a PDF of your RSVPs. Click on “Sort  alphabetically by name” to generate and download the PDF. 

Download CSV will generate and download a CSV of your RSVPs. The fields contained in the PDF and the CSV vary, so you may want to investigate the options to see which one would be most useful for you to use as a guest list to register attendees to your event.

RSVP's can also be added from an offline list by going to your dashboard > calendar > selecting the event. You'll then visit the "Event Settings" for your event, click "New RSVP" and manually add your attendee. 

Attendees

Event Details > Attendees

You can access the control panel of your nation during event registration to streamline attendance recording, or you can use this area after the event occurs. Please note: you can also process payments for tickets at the door by editing RSVPs who have not paid and adding new RSVPs through your control panel. 

Settings > Tags You can include page tags on any page within your site. Tagging event pages can be particularly useful because you can create a calendar that only displays events with particular tags - making it easier to display a calendar of all phone banking events or fundraising events or any other type of event.

Event Tips

While all RSVPs will receive an auto-response email confirming their reservation, most events will receive more RSVPs than attendees. We recommend the following to help organize your community:

• remind people within 24 hours of the event that they RSVPd and let them know you’re looking forward to seeing them at the event
• keep track of attendance at the event, record attendance in the event details and tag attendees with a separate tag from RSVPs

Related how to guides

• How to organize multiple events with the calendar
• How to start a blog