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Invite and Track Attendees

Goal: Get the right people to attend — past donors, board members, sponsors, prospects — and know in real time who's confirmed, who's outstanding, and who needs a personal nudge.

Build the guest list​

Decide who you're inviting before you start sending. Useful segments to layer in:

  • All major donors (Capacity High or Major)
  • Past attendees of similar events
  • Board members and their plus-ones
  • Sponsors and their guest lists
  • Volunteers active in the past year (for crossover potential)
  • Specific prospects your major-gift officer wants in the room

Build the list in Communications by combining segments and tags.

Check who's on the list before you send​

When you pick a saved list in the invite dialog, Omnivo works out who is currently on it and shows the number right there — you don't need to press Refresh first. The Send button stays disabled until that count comes back, and it names the number it's about to send to ("Send to 2 emails + 48 from list"), so what you approve is what goes out.

Two things to watch for:

  • "This list has no filters set." A dynamic list needs at least one filter. With none, it matches every active contact in your affiliate, so Omnivo blocks sending to it. Open the list in Communications → Audiences and add a filter, or pick a different list.
  • A count that surprises you. The number shown is who the list resolves to now, not when it was built. A dynamic list grows as people are added, tagged, or reactivated. If it's higher than you expect, check the list's filters before sending.

If the audience grows between the moment the dialog loads and the moment you click Send, Omnivo refuses the send and asks you to re-open the dialog rather than emailing people you never saw counted.

Invitees become contacts​

Inviting an address Omnivo doesn't recognise creates a contact for it (email only, no name) and links the invitation to that contact. The invitation then shows on their profile, and an address you invited is never lost just because they didn't register. Add their name and details whenever you learn them.

Sending a test invite​

To test the invitation, put one or two addresses in the Email Addresses box and leave the list picker on No list selected. A selected list is always sent to in full — it isn't a preview.

Send invitations from the event​

The event's invites flow lets you send the invitation email from a Communications template that includes the public registration link. Each invitee gets:

  • A personalized greeting
  • The event details (date, location, time)
  • The registration page link
  • Optional sponsor recognition mention if they're a known supporter

Behind the scenes, every invitation is logged so you can see who got it, who opened it, who clicked, and (most importantly) who registered.

The registrations list​

The event detail page surfaces:

  • Total registered (count and gross)
  • By level (how many at each price tier)
  • Registration list with attendee names, levels, payment status
  • Outstanding invitees (sent invitation, no registration yet)

Where the event has custom registration questions, the list also shows each attendee's answers where they've been provided.

Filter by status (registered, invited, cancelled) and export to CSV when you need the list for catering, name tags, or seating. The export follows your current filter and search, so filter to Registered first if you want only the people who are coming, not everyone you invited.

Emailing an update​

Email Update on the registrations screen sends a message to people on the event — a venue change, parking details, a thank-you afterwards.

Pick who gets it with Include, the same choices as Create Contact List:

  • Everyone on this event — every registration regardless of status
  • Registered only — the people actually coming
  • Invited only — people who were invited but haven't registered
  • Cancelled only — people who pulled out

One email per address, so someone who was invited and then registered hears from you once.

Attendees on a table or group purchase whose seats were left blank (no email yet) can't be emailed directly, so the person who bought the order gets the update instead — they know who is sitting there and can pass it on.

Writing the message​

Write your update in the formatting editor. Its toolbar has bold, italics, bulleted and numbered lists, and a link button: select the words you want people to click (for example "the parking map"), click the link button, and paste the web address. Recipients see your words as a clickable link. A web address pasted on its own becomes a link too, so a Google Maps link for directions (for example https://maps.app.goo.gl/...) works without any extra steps.

The personal message on an invitation and the event's confirmation message are still plain text: line breaks are kept and web addresses become clickable links, as does a link in the event's location. Images and merge fields belong in a Communications campaign.

Preview before you send​

Writing the message takes you to a preview, and there's no way round it. What you see there is the complete email — your message with the event's name, date and location and your affiliate's branding around it — rendered by the same code that does the sending, addressed to a real recipient from your list. The greeting you read is the greeting they get.

The preview also tells you how many people will receive it. Sending is refused if that number has grown since, so nothing goes out to an audience you didn't review.

People who opted out​

By default Omnivo skips anyone who turned off event email in their communication preferences, and tells you how many that is — before and after sending.

Leave that on for anything promotional. Turn it off only for a genuine service announcement: if the venue moved and someone paid to attend, they're owed that message whatever their marketing preferences say. It's a deliberate choice, and the count makes it visible either way.

Rescinding invitations​

If invitations went to the wrong people, Rescind Invites on the registrations screen withdraws them in bulk.

Be clear about what this does:

  • The invite link stops working. Anyone who hasn't used theirs yet gets "This invite is no longer valid" instead of a registration form.
  • It does not un-send the email. Nothing can. What it prevents is people acting on an invitation you didn't mean to send.
  • It does not block anyone from registering. The event is still public — someone who finds the page can sign up. Rescinding withdraws the invitation; it doesn't bar the guest.
  • It sends nothing. If you want to apologise or explain, send that yourself from Communications, as a deliberate decision.
  • Registered attendees are never touched, whatever scope you pick. Only outstanding invitations are affected.

Choose All outstanding invitations, or Only those sent in a time range to undo one specific send — every invitation from a single send shares a timestamp within seconds, so a narrow window isolates it and leaves your other invitations alone.

Before anything changes, the dialog shows how many invitations match and a sample of the addresses. Check that number: it's what the button will act on, and the send is refused if the set has grown since.

You can invite any of these people again afterwards — a withdrawn invitation doesn't block a future one. The withdrawn record is kept, so the history of what was sent and taken back stays visible.

Turn the registrations into a contact list​

The registrations screen has a Create Contact List button. It takes the registrations matching your current status filter, matches them to your contacts, and builds a static contact list you can send to from Communications — no export, no spreadsheet.

The Include choice is the useful part:

  • Invited only — precisely the people who were sent an invitation for this event. This is the one to use when you need to follow up with exactly that group and nobody else.
  • Registered only — the people actually coming. Good for a "what to expect on the night" note or a post-event thank-you.
  • Cancelled only — people who pulled out, if you want to reach them separately.
  • Everyone on this event — every registration regardless of status.

It creates a static list: a snapshot of who is on the event right now, which won't drift as registrations come and go. That is deliberate. A filter-based list describes a rule, and the set of people a rule matches changes over time — so it can't tell you who was contacted last Tuesday. The registration records can.

Anyone registered or invited who isn't a contact yet gets one created for them — email only, no name — so nobody is left off the list.

Following up​

For invitees who haven't registered:

  • Send a friendly reminder a week after the initial invite
  • Send a final reminder a few days before the deadline
  • Have your team make personal calls to high-priority outstanding guests

These three steps are where most fundraising events get most of their late registrations.

Walk-ins and additions​

Day-of registrations happen. From the registrations page:

  • Add a walk-in registration with their name, level, payment method
  • Process payment on the spot (cash, check, card via terminal)
  • Their place at the event is now official

For someone who paid before the event but didn't get added to the list (e.g., they paid by check and the staff member forgot to enter them), you can add them retroactively from the registration page — set the payment date appropriately so reporting is accurate.

Editing an attendee's details​

Common edits:

  • Spelling corrections on the printed name
  • Meal preference (veg, gluten-free, etc. — captured as part of the registration form)
  • Table assignment / seating
  • Plus-one's name when they were registered as a couple

All of these update on the registration record without changing the financial side.

Cancellations​

When someone can't make it:

  • Cancel their registration from the registrations list
  • Decide whether to refund (often events don't refund — but you can if your policy allows)
  • The seat returns to inventory; another attendee can register for it

Printing and exports​

Common exports for the event:

  • Place cards — names by table, alphabetical or by table
  • Check-in list — all registered attendees with their level
  • Catering count — total seats by meal type
  • Sponsor recognition list — who paid at sponsor levels

All available as CSV exports from the registrations list.