Admin users can create Community Events in the green Admin Mode. The benefits of using Community Events are that you can sell tickets and invite the whole school or individual groups/classes without being a member of each group.
In contrast, private events can be created by any parent on the blue parent side. Parents can then invite groups/classes they are part of or individuals by name.
This article gives an overview of setting up a school community event. Please also see the help pages RSVP's, Free Tickets, Paid Tickets & Donations and Managing Event Attendees for more information on setting up events. As there are a lot of features and options in events you may also want to set up a test event for a small group before inviting the whole school.
Community Events vs Private Events?
Choose community events when inviting people on behalf of the school or PTA. Choose private events when inviting friendship groups.
- You can sell tickets and collect donations with Community Events. You can also add free tickets or simply collect RSVPs for get togethers on both community and private events.
- You can invite large groups with community events. The Whole School can be invited, as can Classes or Years, even if you are not a member of the group. With Private events you need to be part of the group you are inviting and you can invite individuals by name.
- Invitations are by group not by individual for community events. This means that if someone new joins, any group invitations that should be extended to them will be ready and waiting. New parents will be able to view and accept the invitation with no additional admin work from the organiser.
- Invited parents (Non-Members) will see the invitation on community events. They will not be able to respond unless they register for a Classlist account.
- Public Guest Checkout on community events gives you the option to sell tickets to the public and local community without them having a Classlist account.
- Use Events as a Diary by choosing 'Publish and invite later' during the set up. The event will appear in the events list but it won't send invites immediately.
NB: Our system autofills the parent name in the guest list and CSV and also adds all their children and classes, so you can identify the parent who bought the ticket. If the ticket is for a particular child you should add ticket questions to confirm the child's details
Quick links to Community Event section headings
Tracking & Contacting or Reminding Guests & Volunteers
Event Details
Give your event a compelling title to encourage attendance. If you are inviting a class or year group, add this to the title to help people see quickly which of their children is being invited.
Enter the date and time and decide if you need people to RSVP by a certain date/time - this can be left blank if there is no cut off for replying. People will be able to get tickets/confirm attendance up to the rsvp date or end date of the event. whichever is first. If you need to extend the end date after the event has started you will need to adjust the start date into the future as well. If your event is longer than one day make this clear in the title, this will then show in the events list.
Use the event description box to add any extra information about the event.
Holding Events Online
If you are organising an online event, simply add your link to the box and fill in the password and event ID if required. Details will be emailed to anyone who signs up and are also available in app for Classlist members.
Location
Choose whether the event is at school or a different location. Addresses you enter for other locations will be saved for future use. The map showing the location will also be available to parents.
Images & Attachments
You can add images to your events to help make them stand out. Images are shown to parents on the 'get tickets' page and 'public checkout' as well as being the icon in the events list. You can use your own images or choose from our library.
- Images should be landscape (portrait ones will be rotated on mobile)
- Max file size of 8MB.
- The image ratio is 1.75 wide to 1 tall (You can crop the image to this ratio once uploaded).
Up to 6 files can be attached so you can share pictures, meeting minutes, checklists or whatever you need to make running your event easier. Most common file types are supported including: jpg, pdf, docx, xlsx, pptx and csv. Guests can see attached files once they open up the event in Classlist. If you need to attach more than 6 files you could make the extra ones into google docs and share them as 'anyone with the link can access it' and then put those in the description.
RSVP's, Tickets & Donations
Event organisers can choose between having people RSVP or getting tickets so guest numbers can be managed. Tickets can be free or paid and there is also an option for people to make donations. With ticketed events you can ask questions eg about food choices or gift aid.
To find out more about collecting RSVP's, adding free or paid tickets, or raising funds via donations see our Extra Tips on Ticketing & Donations page.
Collecting Payment
You can collect payment for events on Classlist via Stripe. Use your default currency for both member-only community events and for events with a public guest checkout.
For community events we recommend you use Stripe - here's why.
Find out about taking payments with Stripe including details of their fees.
NB: For new events set up from 27th May 2022 we will charge a 1.5% platform fee. Stripe has separate third party fees.
Using more than one stripe account.
- Different events you can use a different Stripe account to help you allocate money easily.
- Class or community reps can also have personal Stripe accounts for class collections
- Please don't switch stripe account once you have set up an event.
Sign Up Lists
You can create timeslots during events which can be used to ease the queue for popular options (eg Santa's Grotto) or to manage volunteers on the day. Sign up lists can also be used for regular volunteering or to scheduling arrival times eg for parents evening.
Event Owners
When you create an event on Classlist you are the Event Owner. You can add additional event owners from the Ambassadors & Reps group so they can share the admin with you. Other admins won't be able to see your draft event, make changes to a published event or download the attendee list unless they are also event owners. If you want to hand over the event to someone else simply add them as an event owner and then they can remove you.
To change the name of the person inviting parents to an event simply click on the pencil icon at the bottom of the event owners section. This is useful if you want the invite to come from the school or the PTA rather than a particular person. The email will still come from the same address but will display as below.
Adding A Guest List
In the guest list section you can invite classes, year groups, the whole school or any other combination of parent groups that have been created. Simply type the first 2 letters of the name of the group and select from the drop down list.
NB: You can't invite individuals by name to a school community event as this type of event has been designed for groups, if you want to add individuals you need to use the private event feature instead.
Publishing an Event
Once you have filled in all the information and added guests you are ready to publish your event. Using the button at the top right (displayed once a group of guests has been added) will give you the following options:
- If you choose 'publish and send invites' the event will be added to the events list and invites will be sent by notification & email straight away. Automated reminders about the event will be sent 7 and 1 days before the start date (in the evening, UK time)
- If you choose 'publish and invite later' the event will be added to your event list but nobody will be emailed or notified. This is useful if you are setting up a group of events in advance, or adding term dates or other diary dates where you don't need a reply. The events list can be used like a calendar with this method. You can still choose to send invites later if appropriate.
Duplicating an Event
Once an event has been published (whether you have sent out the invites or not) it can be duplicated by the event owner. To do this open the event from the admin side and click 'menu' at the top right, then select duplicate.
Cancel Your Event
If you need to cancel your event after it has been published but before it has started this can be done by clicking 'menu' then 'cancel'. Only event owners will be able to cancel events. The event will be removed from the parents side and show under the cancelled events section on the admin side in case you need to refer to any of the details later.
Public Guest Checkout
If you want to invite people from outside your school community or members of your school who don't have Classlist account such as teachers, you can enable the Public Guest Checkout. You can use this option for RSVP or ticketed events for people without a Classlist account.
Tip: to publish the event outside of Classlist (eg for parents/teachers without accounts or the wider community) simply switch on the event sharing option. The event also needs to be published to the school (as above) before external people can sign up.
Tracking & Contacting or Reminding Guests & Volunteers
Once the event is published and people have started to reply, the dashboard tracks the number of tickets sold or allocated so you can see how many people are attending. This can be exported into a CSV file which you can open in a spreadsheet ('download' via the 3 dots next to 'purchased').
NB: You need to be an event owner to see this information.
You will also be able to filter the list by category or ticket type before downloading it, and send messages or reminders to people by group ('view list' via the 3 dots next to 'purchased'). Details of purchases and the option to return free tickets can be found here too.
For more information on this section see our help article Manage Event Attendees - Downloading, Viewing & Messaging the Event Guest List
Tip: When checking the 'all invited' category, remember that invites are sent to Classlist parent members and those that have been invited to join by an admin member. If people have been invited but have not yet signed up they will still be included in the all invited category so this number will be different from the number of registered parents in the group.
Sample Content
When you first register with Classlist you will see there is some pre-loaded sample content to help show what the events feature can do. This content displays a film night event and it cannot be deleted. It is clearly marked 'sample event' so parents should realise that it is not a real event. It will become less obvious as you add your own events as it will be pushed down off the bottom of the page.
Event Set Up Examples
Classlist is designed to be flexible and accommodate many type of event or sale. If you are unsure of the best way to set up your event we have a range of examples on our help pages. Choose the one closest to your event for more information.
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