A Few Good RSVP Tools

In 1922, etiquette expert Emily Post decreed that "acceptances or regrets are always written. An engraved form to be filled in is vulgar."

These days, when it's commonplace to use the Internet and email to communicate, would Ms. Post approve of an online RSVP form in lieu of a written letter? It seems doubtful — but these forms are often a convenient and low-cost option for planning and organizing your organization's next networking event, training session, or workshop.

There are a number of sophisticated online registration tools that can assist organizations in planning events by helping organizers collect an estimated headcount, gather information from attendees, send follow-up emails, add registrants into a database, and more. Unfortunately, the pricing structure of these tools is often tailored to events with substantial admission fees — making them hard to justify when your event is a free training session.

To find strong RSVP tools for more budget-conscious event planners (and especially for those planning free events), we asked seven nonprofit technology specialists what software they would recommend and rounded up their suggestions here. While the options listed below aren't the only good registration options available, they have worked well for the specialists we interviewed and could be a good fit for your organization, too.

The Old Standbys

There are a few obvious options that come to most people's minds when thinking about free events: simple email RSVPs and Evite. While either option might work perfectly well for your basic needs, each presents some downsides.

Email

Why not just ask people to RSVP to an email address? Well, you certainly can, but an email RSVP process can quickly turn into a lot of work if you want to gather more than a simple headcount or expect more than a few attendees at your event. If you need to create a list of attendees or add registrants to your database, someone will need to enter the information by hand. And capturing more than just a name and email address will likely entail a messy process of emailing people back to request additional information. In this case, a registration tool can save a lot of time and headache.

If you are planning to use email, at least consider setting up a separate RSVP email address, which will make it easier to identify responses. Asking for information in a numbered format (i.e., "please provide 1) your name, 2) your organization") will also make it more likely that respondents will provide the information you request.

Evite

Evite is a free, well-known RSVP Web site with easy-to-use tools to help you send customizable graphic invites. It's easy to track simple "Yes," "No," and "Maybe" responses and identify those who haven't yet viewed the invite. While perfectly functional, Evite is more appropriate for social events than professional ones, as its invites and forms display notable Evite branding. Moreover, because it lists the names of invitees on its RSVP page, there's not much privacy. Evite also lacks an easy way to download the list of confirmed attendants.

Better Options

Below, you'll find free or inexpensive tools that provide more useful functionality — such as branded registration pages and the ability to download of attendee information — than the old standbys of email and Evite.

Eventbright

(formerly Mollyguard): Eventbright offers straightforward and useful registration functionality. If your event is free, even its Premium service won't cost you anything; otherwise, Eventbright will charge you based on the ticket price. The site offers a nice set of features, including the ability to tailor the registration page with basic colors and a logo, email registrants, and export information.

Upcoming

Similar to Evite's RSVP functionality, Yahoo's Upcoming allows invitees to publicly note whether they will be attending, but the site feels a bit more homegrown and less corporate than the former. Upcoming also offers additional community features, including the ability to comment on events, see events that your friends are attending, and view events via RSS feed. It integrates with iCalendar and is free for all events.

SurveyMonkey

Surprisingly, many of our contributors mentioned a tool that wasn't designed for event registration at all. SurveyMonkey is an online survey tool, but it works just as well to collect RSVPs and basic information about event attendees. SurveyMonkey offers a free service that lets you create (ad-free) Web forms with up to 10 questions and can collect RSVPs from up to 100 attendees. A Professional account, at $19.95 a month, gives you the additional functionality to customize the Web form with your logo and chosen colors, download your attendee information, and direct registrants to your Web site rather than SurveyMonkey's Web site once users complete their registration.

Build Your Own Registration Form

For those with experience in building HTML forms, or for those using a content management system that includes a form builder, creating a simple, customized registration form might be the easiest option. Building your own form allows you to tailor it to your Web site. Moreover, this form could export directly to a database — though don't forget to plan a way for your less tech-savvy staff members to view the list of attendees as well.

For Those with Sophisticated Needs

If you offer a number of free events, or a mix of paid and free events, consider investing in a highly polished registration tool that will support more complex functionality. These tools typically offer registration forms that merge seamlessly with your Web site and include features such as the ability to collect additional information (like meal preferences or individual session sign-ups); ways to cap attendance at a certain count; sophisticated reporting and export tools; mass-email functionality; and the ability to print name tags. These sites generally charge on a per-registrant basis and run anywhere from about $1 per registrant to upwards of $4 per registrant.

If you require these types of advanced features and are ready to invest more money to do so, you may wish to look beyond the realm of tools targeted at free events. While this subject warrants an article of its own, you may want to begin by researching the less expensive Acteva and 123Signup or pricier tools Cvent or RegOnline, which may offer more advanced features.

Choosing the Right Package

Before you sign up for a service, consider whether you need some of the more advanced features or if you'd prefer to keep things simple and free. Next, determine the features that are important for you. Does the registration form need to match your Web site? Do you need to be able to download attendee information and import it into a database? Does your budget allow for a more expensive tool? Or perhaps more advanced functionality, like the like ability to limit attendance, collect meal preferences, or print name tags are more important than saving money.

As for deciding whether to side with Emily Post and request responses by hand instead? We'll leave that one to you.

Thanks to the nonprofit technology professionals who provided recommendations, advice, and other help:

• Julia Bissell, YNPN
• Marion Conway, Marion Conway Consulting 
• Heather Gardner-Madras, gardner madras | strategic creative
• Beth Kanter, Beth's Blog
• Steve Perez, Working Families Party
• Holly Ross, N-TEN
• Robert Weiner, Robert L. Weiner Consulting