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COVID-19 and the Endurance Industry Like everything about March 2020, this month’s newsletter is a little different from our standard roundup of technology updates. We’ve sent a lot of emails recently, but with more and more races modifying their events, we wanted to use this newsletter as a central resource for your path forward. First up: we’re […]
We’re checking in regularly to see what the endurance community is doing to keep the industry running forward in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. For more ideas, view creative virtual events, and creative use of the Postponement Tool. A Ultra-Flexible Virtual Challenge, with Semper-Fi Fund Semper Fi & America’s Fund Community Sports One of […]
Please see RunSignup.com/Coronavirus for recommendations and tools. Things have changed drastically in Week 4 ending Saturday March 21, 2020 from Week 4, Week 3 and Week 2. The transaction volume we saw the past week is 81% lower than the same week last year (and since we were seeing growth of 29% from Jan. 1- Mar 7 because of more […]
The $2 trillion COVID-19 Stimulus Plan was signed into law this afternoon. Among the many benefits, the emergency relief plan contains several measures that directly apply to nonprofits that we would like to highlight: The plan includes a temporary universal charitable deduction. The bill enables all Americans to give up to $300 to charities, tax-free, […]
Note: On August 29, 2022 we announced the removal of the reserve requirement. Note: On Nov. 2, 2021 we announced new faster payment terms as the pandemic risks have subsided. We lowered the reserve to 2.5% and pay immediately after an event unless there are above normal chargeback risks. The Coronavirus is impacting us all. […]
Further your mission–but first, take care of your people This is and will continue to be an extremely difficult time for nonprofits. It’s time to go back to basics: engage your communities. People need connection more than ever. Focus on your employees, beneficiaries, and volunteers first, and keep any donations and fundraising messaging simple, actionable, […]
We have added a new section Business Resources section to our Coronavirus Resource Site with two pages: Small Business Financial Resources with links to information about national SBA loans, private program, and local initiatives. Industry Action with information about petitions, letter campaigns, and other collective action that could benefit the industry. Both of these resources […]
Bob took some time today to give an update on the impact of COVID-19 on the endurance industry, our financial policies and chargeback response, what race directors can do, and our upcoming priorities. If you missed it, we have all the content for you here. Additional Resources More Webinars Upcoming: Donation Websites and Donation Forms […]
We wanted to take a minute to check back in with the endurance community to see what industry leaders are seeing and doing in their areas to keep running forward. A Virtual Running Store, A Virtual Community Like many running stores, Philadelphia Runner does more than sell shoes – they run multiple group runs each […]
Please see RunSignup.com/Coronavirus for recommendations and tools. Things have changed drastically in Week 4 ending Saturday March 21, 2020 from Week 3 and Week 2. We have decided to throw out the YOY comparison we were using as so many events have postponed or cancelled this year’s event they are now useless. The overall volume of transactions decreased […]
Like many events, the Probility Ann Arbor Marathon converted its race to a virtual event in response to Covid 19 and the need for social distancing. Finishers still get a medal and t-shirt and are able to complete the official course routes. What is different? Participants complete their chosen course within a span of a […]
With the endurance industry facing uncertainty due to COVID-19 and related restrictions on gatherings, we have decided not to hold a 2020 Summer Symposium. This year, we want to focus our attention and efforts on providing virtual tools and resources to help the endurance industry navigate the coronavirus. We started our Symposiums in 2014 to […]
It’s been a crazy few weeks since Bob first posted some suggestions for races that may be impacted by the Coronavirus. Now, with races across the country getting creative, we wanted to take a moment to collect all the updates in one place. Postponement Tool The Postponement Tool (which can be used for more than […]
With more and more races embracing Virtual Events, we’re working on improvements to our results options. The first update is here, and RaceDay Product Manager Matt Avery ran through the new elements that will make it easier for your Virtual Participants to report their times. New to virtual events and want to take a step […]
As the concern about industry impact from chargebacks increases, we have implemented a new notification to let races know when we receive a chargeback. We have written in depth about chargebacks, but for a quick refresher: A chargeback is where the credit card network allows a credit card holder to get their money back if […]
With the flood of races offering deferrals and transfers to virtual events, participants are also flooding our inbox (and yours, I’m sure) looking for guidance. Luckily, Andrew Sigwart both monitors the info@runsignup email inbox, and creates all our video content. We have a few short videos you can share with participants to help them out, […]
As more and more events are transitioning their Races over to Virtual Races we are dedicating more of our time on improving the Virtual Race experience for participants, and the Virtual Race setup and configuration for race directors. Over the next few weeks you’ll see some consistent improvements made to both of these areas. We […]
Races are looking for ways to add something to their newly formed virtual events and we’ve adjusted the backend so RaceJoy’s live tracking, cheer sending, and progress alerts at every mile can be offered. This is a safe and healthy way for participants to get outside and run different courses designed for your virtual event. […]
If there are two thing that we have found inspiring through this crisis, it is the creativity of the people in this industry, and way the community has shared information, messaging, and advice to help each other out. Of course races are competitors, but at the end of the day, maintaining a good relationship between […]
As races are forced to postpone their event dates, one of the big threats our industry faces is chargebacks. Our industry’s potential credit crisis can be partially mitigated if credit card companies do not process chargebacks on races for as long as restrictions on events are in place. Below is a draft of a letter […]
Note: Update to Policies were made on March 27 and detailed here: https://runsignup.blog/2020/03/27/post-race-payment-policy-update/. As the coronavirus continues to impact events and gathering in the US, we have amended our Reserve and Payment policies. We know that events are working hard to make responsible decisions, communicate with participants, and deliver value to their participants wherever possible. […]
Please see RunSignup.com/Coronavirus for recommendations and tools. Things have changed drastically in Week 3 ending 3/14/2020 from Week 2. When we announced our Tools for helping races with Coronavirus on March 10 there were some upset people. By Saturday everyone realizes the impact this is having and will have for the next couple of months […]
As race directors look for alternatives to cancelling their events, a number of races are “going virtual”. Virtual races have existed for years, but the process of changing a physical race to a virtual one (quickly) is new. This webinar walked through the basics you’ll need to consider as you go virtual, and makes some […]
We have removed the $1 per refund fee to issue refunds. Additionally, we reduced the processing fee to add money to your refund reserve via credit card to help make this process easier for race directors. We have reduced the fee to 2.3%. We are asking each race who may be considering a cancellation or […]
We held a webinar today to review the current status of coronavirus impact, and get customers up new tools to help communicate action plans with your participants quickly and effectively. We know this is a tough week for everyone, and we’re working as fast as we can to put together tools to support your events. […]
Timers can take advantage of RunSignup’s free RaceDay CheckIn app to make things move faster during packet pickup and overcome many traditional timer headaches. Watch this recorded Webinar that covers how to use its features. RaceDay CheckIn App features include: QR code scanning or manual entry Personal information and transfer adjustments Dynamic bib assignments Giveaway […]
We are releasing a Postponement tool to help events better manage the impact of Coronavirus. It presents options to your participants in a pop-up and on your main race page. Tomorrow we will release similar capability with email notification. We will also be taking feedback on this tool to make it better over the coming […]
In the event of a severe weather event, a public health crisis, or other public safety concern, one option available to races is transitioning your event to a Virtual Race, either for all participants or as an option. There are many reasons to host an intentionally virtual race, but this blog addresses best practices for […]
In the event of a severe weather event, a public health crisis, or other public safety concern, one option available to races is transitioning your event to a Virtual Race, either for all participants or as an option. There are many reasons to host an intentionally virtual race, but this blog addresses best practices for […]
We are getting many questions, and will collect the common ones here. We have several information blog posts out already: Emergency and Race Postponement Plans for Coronavirus Chargebacks Tools for Planning and Chargeback Reserves Why is RunSignup Moving So Fast? My Chargeback Reserve / Holdback does not seem to match your 20%/50% calculation? Our first […]
We’ve had many customers express surprise, concern and even anger at our steps to ensure all races have some level of chargeback reserve. Here are some answers to FAQ’s: Your Corona-report does not show a drop in registrations. Why did you change your stance this week? This is moving fast. When we first wrote about […]
NOTE: We updated our policies for reserves and post race payments on March 27 and April 15. We are likely to continue to update the policy as conditions change. RunSignup will be releasing two tools this week to help races if they are affected by Coronavirus and are forced to postpone, change to a virtual […]
We are beginning to see the impact of Coronavirus on our communities and on our races and nonprofit events. We are trying to be proactive to help the industry with information about any direct impact we see and education about actions races can take. One of the big concerns for races and nonprofit events is […]
Yes, we are hiring again! We are looking for a Full Time and or Part Time Technical Customer Support Representative to help us expand our hours of service during the weekend. The ideal candidate is a timer who wants to come in from the cold to help customers and participants use RunSignup’s platform. This position […]
Today we released another feature to help nonprofits raise more and save time. Nonprofits that set fundraising minimums for an event can now automatically charge fundraisers the difference when minimums are not met by a certain deadline. When the Fundraising Minimums feature is enabled, fundraisers’ credit card information is securely saved and nonprofits can automatically […]
Still looking for video recordings of our 2020 Winter Symposium sessions? We have our presentation slides available now and are continuing to upload videos on our YouTube Channel. For now, enjoy our next two sessions: Corporate Team Events With Eric Cone and Matt Sinclair Corporate Teams are a unique way to drive registrations by allowing […]
As we discussed in our blog about ideas for preparing a plan in case your event is impacted by Coronavirus, we are starting to publish weekly updates on using year over year race data on the number of registrations. In Week 2, race registrations were up 0.9%. We use data from the Top 250 races […]
We put a lot of time and energy into educational content – webinars, example sites, Symposium videos, case studies, and more. These are all available to our customers through various channels, but it can be difficult to keep up with all the resources as they are released. This weekly roundup will be a one-stop source […]
86% of timers offer services beyond race timing – and timers are often the technology experts in the industry. Crisp and Val as they talked through some of the technology solutions available to races – and what questions you can ask your timer to help find the best options for your race. The webinar covers: […]
Watch this helpful video on using RunSignup’s Web CheckIn for a faster processing of your participants and insightful reports. RunSignup’s Crisp McDonald covers how to use the product and the various ways it integrates with the RaceDay Suite of timer tools. Sign up for the next Timer Tip Tuesday where we will cover how to […]
We strive for having an accessible end user experience. Being inclusive is an important part of product ownership. As an example, in a recent case study for a large potential client, we scored “all green” for their race website and registration process using the Google Accessibility Tool. We are achieving greater and greater levels of […]
In response to the frequent requests we receive from timers to offer an additional opportunity to become certified in RaceJoy, we are offering a one-time virtual live certification session. All timers are welcome regardless of registration, timing or scoring system you use. However, Space is limited so that we can fully support those attending the […]
Chicago has a sales tax on amusements which includes events. However, there are two exemptions available:501C3 organizations Events that comply with all 5 of these criteria: – 501C3 Organizations OR – Events that meet all 5 of these criteria: The event takes place primarily on the public way or other public property, Any required permits […]
As we discussed in our blog about ideas for preparing a plan in case your event is impacted by Coronavirus, we are starting to publish weekly updates on using year over year race data on the number of registrations. In Week 1, there is good news, with race registrations up 3.0%. We use data from […]
