Setting Up Your Event
1. Click the Host an Event for this Event Campaign button. This is the page where the event map or event list is located. You can enter your ZIP/postal code, city, or Event Title to find events near you, or you can sign up to host your own event. Note that your event will not show up on the map or the event list unless you create it via the host button.
2. Next, a Host Guidelines alert will pop up. Here, the event campaign’s host will outline what information they would like you to include in your event. Review the guidelines.
3. Now, you will create the event’s page. You’ll give the event a title, which should be similar to the event campaign’s title, a location, time, a banner image (optional), and your contact information, if you choose to do so. We recommend adding your email address to the host contact information, or on the automatic email people receive when they RSVP. You can also follow the tips by hovering over the question marks next to each field. Pro tip - check out our guides to creating accessible protests and meetings.
4. Add a quick summary of the event in the Event Description box. it should give relevant information about the event like the purpose and further instructions. Often the organizers of the event campaign have given you specific language you can customize.
5. After this, you'll be able to note if this event is accessible for certain groups. Activists will see this when they RSVP to events. You can learn more about how to make a rally or march accessible here. You can learn how to create an accessible meeting or party here.
6. Below that, you’ll find a check box to designate for private events. A private event means that your event is not searchable on the event campaign map or event list when someone searches for events near them. However, it’s important to note that the event is not really private. Anyone with the link can share the event on social media – or forward to friends.
7. Below the check box, find the blank for Maximum Number of Attendees. Leave it blank if there is no maximum number, otherwise use a whole number. Your event may go over the maximum number of RSVPs for the event if the last person to RSVP also registers guests. But once you hit the maximum, no one else will be able to RSVP.
8. Next, you will create the form that attendees will fill out when they RSVP. You can add a progress bar to show how close you are to meeting your goal number of attendees. You can manage what fields are shown (such as first name) and create additional questions, like address by clicking the blue Edit Form button.
9. Click Save and Go to Next Step. (If you are not logged in, you will instead be able to save and log in, or save and create an account. After you finish your login or account setup, you will be returned to the event edit page and can now click Save and Go to Next Step to continue.)
10. This is the page that attendees will see after taking the action. Scroll down to the Instructions for Your Attendees box. Here, you’ll put specific information about transportation, parking, or other event details. Note that you have to add text here in order to publish your event.
11. Click Save and Publish to make the event live or Save Draft. You will be brought to the event manage page where you can edit the event and send emails. It will look like the image below.
This is your action manage page - from here you can send emails, edit the share language and edit your event details among other things! To get back to this page - find your event in the bottom righthand corner of your dashboard and click the manage button.
Frequently Asked Questions:
How do I add emails to my list?
You have two options:
- Add activists manually to your list (free)
- Uploading a list of activists in bulk (paying partners only). Wonder how to access uploads to upload a list of activists? Reach out to us at partnerships@actionnetwork.org.
How do I contact my RSVPs?
Again you have two options, you can either use the discussion board to keep in touch with attendees, or you can create and write a mass email. Make sure to target your email at your RSVPs by including the event in the actions filter. Shortcut: you can automatically target your action takers by clicking the create email button on the event manage page. Note that we will send out automatic 24 hour reminders before the event. You can also set an additional reminder that can be sent at a specific date in time you set as long as it's before the event begins.
How do I enable or disable my discussion board?
From your event manage page, click on the "Discussion" tab. There you will see a switch to enable and disable your discussion board.
How do I view my RSVPs?
To export a list of your event RSVPs, click the "RSVPs" tab from the event manage page and then the "Download CSV" button. A report will be compiled and emailed to you when it's ready. The report will contain each RSVP's name, email address, address (if you are an Action Network partner), city, state or province, ZIP/postal code, country, source code information, number of guests the attendee is bringing, and other relevant data. If you don't receive it - check your spam folder and make sure you are using the same email account that you are using on Action Network.
If a report has previously been generated you can directly download that report again, instead of waiting for a new one to generate. The date and time when it was generated will be listed, so you can understand how fresh or stale the data in that report will be. Click "Download" to download it directly, or click "Generate" to generate a new report, with fresh data, and be emailed when it's ready for download.
Finally, you are able to preview the latest 100 RSVPers and their data in a table above the reporting buttons. This table will show all the data that would be downloaded by the report buttons, so you may not even need to generate or download at all!
How do I edit the time or location of my event?
From the event manage page you can click the edit event button right below the title. We will send an email to all RSVPs with relevant changes in event details like location, time.
My event is not showing up on the event campaign map! What did I do wrong?
Double check by putting in the event ZIP/postal code, city, or Event Title and looking through events nearby — sometimes events don't end up at the right place on the map. You should also check the event list at the bottom of the page to see if it's appearing there. If it's really not there, it may be that you didn't create the event using the host button of the main event campaign page. If this is the case, you can start from scratch or reach out to the event campaign hosts and ask them to invite your event to the event campaign. Make sure to send them a link to your event!
My event is showing up on the map, but it's not in the right section! How Can I fix it?
Unfortunately sometimes the mapping service we use doesn't recognize the address or correctly place the event on the map. You can play around with the event address to place it correctly, but outside of that there is nothing we can do to adjust the map.
I need materials or help for my event, who can I reach out to?
You will have to contact the event campaign organizers for more information - or try a quick google search to find their website and see what materials are already provided.
How do I share a link to my event on Facebook or Email?
You can grab a direct link to your event from the share sidebar of your event manage page. Copy and paste the direct link provided and paste into an email, or on social somewhere.
How do I cancel my event?
There's a cancel event button on the action manage page. We will automatically send out an email to folks letting them know.