Evite for professionals?

June 3, 2009 10:07 AM

I need an online-invitation/RSVP-management solution for a small non-profit. Something between evite and cvent?

I'm at a small non-profit that's hosting an event. The event is free, but RSVP-only. So like a wedding. However, it's for an organization, so evite is out (also because evite is disgusting) and so are the newer, cutesier, fresher versions of evite (Mypunchbowl, PurpleTrail) because we need to be able to make it professional-looking with our logo instead of theirs.

We can pay to get rid of ads etc, but not the hundreds of dollars that the huge sites like cvent and regonline want, especially since we don't need "marketing" and "ROI improvement." Sendomatic looks pretty good, but it seems like they charge a lot for very little (per event fees, monthy licensing fees, additional annual fees to customize the invite e-mail and the thank-you page, etc.).

Eventbrite would be perfect except that I spoke to them on the phone and there's no way to remove the "ticket sales" language from the invitation. The person has to click to "buy" a free "ticket" and has to go through a free shopping cart and pay $0.00.

We have our own website, and so I was looking at FormLogix, and just publishing some kind of form on the website, but it seems a little crude, especially for e-mailing out invitations.

Our last option is CorpNote, but it seems a little Windows98 to me, and it's really not that customizable.

Basically we want e-mail invitations, RSVP/attendee management (no complex reports or anything), and as much transparency as possible (the invitee doesn't feel so much like they're going through some other site). Are there any other companies I've missed, or is there a somewhat simple way to do this on our website with forms or something? We don't have a designated tech person but we do have volunteers who are tech-capable.

posted by thebazilist to computers & internet (3 answers total)

www.sellyourevents.com might work for you. There are no ads, and I think it's free to use if your event is free, but I'm not sure about removing the "ticket sales" language. I think your guests might still have to buy a free ticket.

It might be akin to Eventbrite, but it's probably worth checking out, nonetheless.
posted by consummate dilettante at 10:13 AM on June 3, 2009

You could make, send, and track HTML email invitations with MailChimp and then create a nice looking registration form on your website with Icebrrg.
posted by spilon at 11:08 AM on June 3, 2009

I'm in the same boat (Non-profit) and just started at my company. Unfortunately I'm informed that one of the directors has heard of Cvent and I'm wary of them simply from the aggressive sales tactics and reviews I've seen online.

I'd personally be more akin to something that provides an API that our developer can hook into to update our propitiatory call tracking database software.
posted by wcfields at 2:00 PM on December 23, 2009