All Your Tools for a Dynamic 2021 Race Schedule Join us (it’s free!) The 2021 Virtual Winter Symposium is an all online version of our biannual educational symposiums for race directors, timers, and nonprofits. This virtual edition is tailor-made for an unprecedented year, with an emphasis on the event options for 2021 and the tools […]
We usually do our Year in Review in a single blog post. This year has been much too big to put it all in one place, so we are breaking it up a bit into this one, with a recap of this year, and then a blog about our 2021 roadmap. The development team had […]
In the dark of COVID, Rich Sbarro has snuck onto the RunSignup | GiveSignup development team this year. Bob has worked with Rich for nearly 20 years while Rich has been the CTO at Metaverse (see FramedArt.com for an example of his work). He has built a complete ERP type system at Metaverse, where it […]
You can now download a detailed report of all transactions per funds transfer from your payment account. Each individual transaction includes payee information, amount paid, fees, funds transfer amount, entity (i.e. donation website, race, ticket, etc.), and type of transaction (i.e. registration, donation, purchase). This is the first release of a larger update to give […]
This is Bob. We will be releasing several year end blogs over the coming weeks. A couple of them will be an overview of the features we released and another for our 2021 product roadmap. But I thought yesterday was worth mentioning. Each morning, I get an email that sends me to a page to […]
Negative Split, a timing and race management company based in Washington State, has been hosting hybrid events with in-person participants since July. In that time, they have produced 5 events and timed 7 in two states, and they offered to share their process and key lessons to help other race organizers learn from their experience. […]
Thanks to the 670 race directors, timers, and nonprofits who registered to join us for our 2021 Kickoff Session on the key to a successful 2021 – hybrid events. You can refer to all the videos and resources below as you start preparting for a new year! Resources for building Hybrid events can be found […]
Utilizes RunSignup’s Hybrid Race Day Technology We were very impressed with how Richmond Marathon successfully delivered a hybrid race experience and wanted to share their approach with event organizers and timers. Hybrid events are those that offer multiple event options and include variations of virtual, on-site, and challenge event types. Richmond Marathon’s 2020 event, held […]
As the industry continues to adapt to the challenges of Covid-19, timers have the opportunity to take a leadership role and help their events continue by offering a hybrid race experience. This includes a combination of race experience options, which may include scored on-site races with defined course paths, extended race dates, and virtual race […]
We have been incrementally rolling out a simplified dashboard menu for race directors. We showed the simplified menu to new users a couple of months ago. We will be rolling out the simplified menu to everyone on Monday (don’t worry if you are a power user – those instructions are toward the bottom of this […]
We began monthly updates in July after doing weekly updates that ended in Week 18, and are shifting to monthly (August and October) and Quarterly (Q3) updates. The monthly update is meant to give stats that are useful to the endurance and nonprofit communities we serve. Quick November Numbers: Transaction volume was down 38% to $17.3M Overall Registrations […]
This is a guest post from Dr. Alex Gometz of Prehab, which provides a set of services for runner injury prevention and recovery. There’s so much noisy content out there, but we have created a survey that you can share with your runners that is fun, meaningful and different. Topic: Injury Prevention to Run for […]
Like much of the web, RunSignup and GiveSignup host our infrastructure on Amazon AWS. Unfortunately, they had a pretty major outage on Wednesday before Thanksgiving in one of their data centers. It took down major websites like 1Password, Acorns, Adobe Spark, Anchor, Autodesk, Capital Gazette, Coinbase, DataCamp, Getaround, Glassdoor, Flickr, iRobot, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pocket, RadioLab, Roku, RSS Podcasting, Tampa Bay Times, Vonage, The Washington Post, and WNYC. Apparently this was caused by their rush […]
In spite of the significant drop in participation, the tradition of running on Thanksgiving Day continued – as seen on social media across the country. A few highlights: The Wheeler Mission Drumstick Dash made a fun and inspiring video, highlighting runners across their community and reminding everyone of the cause they were running for. And […]
Like many things in 2020, Thanksgiving Day (historically the busiest running day of the year) looked different in 2020. Nonetheless, we’re thankful for all the race directors, timers, and nonprofits who used our technology this Thanksgiving to keep the holiday running tradition alive. So how did it turn out? The Holiday Tradition Continued While Turkey […]
As a part of our survey to gauge experiences and expectations throughout 2020 and 2021, one thing stood out: event organizers were inspired and motivated by the enthusiasm that participants have had for supporting their cause – even if the events weren’t what they were used to. We’ve noticed this dedication to nonprofits in a […]
We are retiring the Signup App. Since we released the app, the popularity of people signing up from their own phone has become much more popular. With the limitation of shared surfaces in the COVID era has severely limited the popularity of this app. And truth be told it was always less than 1% of […]
We sent out a short survey this month to help create a snapshot of the revenue and operational expectations of races in 2020 and 2021, and look at how organizations are adjusting. This survey follows a similar version in May, giving us a picture of how expectations have changed over the last 6 months. Top […]
We have added a feature that allows races to tie a loyalty list to a multi-use reserved entry. This is a great way to create a link with special settings (overriding registration caps, allowing registration when the race is closed, special pricing, etc) while also making sure that only specific people can use the link. […]
With thousands of races cancelling in 2020, many of our customers used deferrals to provide flexible options for their participants. With 2021 approaching, we want to provide a streamlined process for races to fulfill those deferrals, making it easy for participants with minimal overhead and financial loss for the the event. In the past, deferrals […]
This Timer Tip Tuesday covers the planning and important steps to take and to support the new start line for hybrid events, including on-site, virtual and challenge events. From social distancing practices to specific setup steps this session is packed with valuable information to help timers get to the new start line and deliver a […]
We recently sent out a survey asking customers to share their experiences and expectations as we move into 2021. We’ll be sharing those in full (and comparing them to the May version), but first, a little bit of sunshine. We asked race directors to share their positive experiences from races that did happen this year […]
We would like to welcome Bruce Kratz as our VP of Development! Bruce joins us to help scale our development team to meet the needs of our growing customer base, especially as GiveSignup becomes more broadly used in the nonprofit community. This is part of our plan for growth that was the basis for taking […]
March of 2020 awakened the world of Virtual Events. By June, the hot new option was a Virtual Challenge. As these two continue to be a part of the event experience and we shift towards resurrecting in-person events, 2021 will have be the year of Hybrid Events. What Is a Hybrid Event? A Hybrid Event […]
As events continue to introduce challenge events as either an add-on or alternative to traditional events, timers are quickly becoming the go-to person for setting up the events on RunSignup’s Challenge Platform. The recorded webinar below, provided by Matt Avery, gives step-by-step instructions on how to set up challenge events and create motivating milestone badges. […]
With many unknowns surrounding the pandemic, events are shifting to offering a hybrid race experience where participants have virtual and on-site event options with the ability to switch between the two. Each type of event involves different approaches and tools to manage the start time, the results, and the overall course and participant experience. All […]
Some of our customers may have inadvertently gotten an email from Sendgrid about updating API keys. There is no need to do anything as RunSignup | GiveSignup manage all of this in the background for our customers, and the 25 Million emails they send each month.
Looking for some inspiration and proof that events can be successful in 2020? With a little innovation and a willingness to pivot, Ride for PMP, in tandem with the Garden State Fondo, raised $20,000 for the Paterson Music Project (PMP) – an increase of 368% in fundraising. The success of the event was centered around […]
The world received encouraging news when Pfizer and BioNTech announced early results of 90%+ effectiveness on their vaccine trials: Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis Pfizer Press Release There is obviously still a long […]
We have been following Eventbrite since they are a similar company serving events and having a similar business model of charging for their services only with processing fees since they went public. We are also likely to begin to compete with them more as nonprofits discover the GiveSignup Ticket Platform that is purpose built for […]
Recently we have added a few more Individual Milestone Types for Virtual Challenges. You can now set up the following types of Individual Milestones to unlock. The newly available Milestone Types are in bold: Fixed Distance Completed Repeating Distance Completed Days of Activity Consecutive Days of Activity Percent of Goal Completed Fixed Elevation Gain Completed […]
We have gotten some questions about USATriathlon promoting Ticket Socket. Two points. There is no obligation for a triathlon to switch from RunSignup to Ticket Socket. We continue to be the second largest provider of registration for triathlons after Active/Ironman. We continue to support the USAT API, and are collaborating with them on their new […]
We are excited to welcome Allison Carigan to the RunSignup team! She is joining our customer support team and will be helping to expand our support team bandwidth. She is already helping users with RunSignup questions on info@runsignup.com. No stranger to RunSignup, Allison interned with us back in the summer of 2019 in our Richmond […]
We are going to be ending support for Google Tag Manager the second week of November, 2020 (next week) to allow time for customers to migrate to our purpose built integrations for the wide variety of ad tracking tools we already support. These direct integrations provide superior integration (for example tracking conversion $), and are […]
We began monthly updates in July after doing weekly updates that ended in Week 18, and are shifting to monthly (August) and Quarterly (Q3) updates. The monthly update is meant to give stats that are useful to the endurance and nonprofit communities we serve. Quick October Numbers: Transaction volume was down 14% to $21.9M Overall Registrations down 17% […]
As a follow-up to a May survey on the state of the endurance industry, we have a quick, 5-minute follow-up survey intended to A) determine how much expectations have matched up with reality in the last 5 months and, B) create a snapshot of how the industry has adapted and innovated. Please share your input […]
We are looking for a senior leader to help us continue our expansion in the endurance market, and to help us reach more nonprofits with the technology we have to help them grow their fundraising events and programs. We recently took a Series A round of funding. The new VP of Marketing will help us […]
With the rapid growth of virtual events and challenges, we are seeing International demand for many events. Our latest release allows custom pricing (and exclusions) based on Country and/or State. This helps virtual events raise more by expanding your geographic target, and ensures you do not lose money on costly shipping charges. As one customer […]
When we first release our Challenge Platform we allowed a few simple ways to sort results – total time or total distance/tally. Since then we have seen a great amount of excitement around Virtual Challenges and the software that we have build to support them. What we have discovered is that many Challenge events want […]
Race directors, timers, and nonprofits using our integrated email marketing system in September reached an impressive new mileston: 25 million emails sent in a month. That means that, despite the impact of COVID-19 on the industry, customers sent 35% more emails in September 2020 than they did in September 2019, and sending is up 20% […]
Virtual races aren’t really new – but with COVID-19 restrictions turning in-person events into virtual ones, experienced race directors are learning what it’s like to be a rookie director all over again. This episode of talkSIGNUP covers tips for a first-time virtual race director (or a second-round virtual director hoping to improve). Key Takeaways Utilize […]
We have released a feature that allows races to approve participant photo uploads before they show as public in participant photo albums. To turn this feature on, navigate to Photos>>Setup on your race dashboard Turn on Allow participants to upload photos Turn on Require Approval For Photo Uploads Click Save Photo Settings Registered participants will […]
One of the frequent questions we get is what is the difference between a registration and a ticket platform. This blog explains the difference and helps nonprofits decide which one to use. Participants Register Registration systems are built to handle not only the purchase, but also the collection of information needed for event day participation. […]
Our focus on the art of technology has helped us recover during the pandemic. We are now in a position to grow our development team with a combination of returning to profitability and with a significant round of investment. We are now beginning to look for 3 additional members of our development team. In particular, […]
This is our second full quarterly report during COVID-19. As we have discussed over the past several months, this has impacted our entire community, and certainly RunSignup/GiveSignup negatively. The good news is that we are all adapting and learning new ways of doing things. There is some return of in person events, but with new methods […]
We have added a pace confirmation message for Virtual Challenges if the user is about to enter a time and distance for an Activity that would be unrealistic for the selected Activity Type. This has been added to prevent some instances that we have seen where participants accidentally enter 400 miles for a bike ride […]
You can now show individuals’ real-time fundraising progress on their results pages with a Donate call to action. This is a great feature for nonprofits where the focus of the event is on fundraising, encouraging fundraisers to hit their goals, and creating competition around who can raise the most. The fundraising progress meter is available […]
Below is a recording of this week’s Timer Tip Tuesday, where RunSignup’s Crisp McDonald provided more advanced training on how to setup a virtual event with a focus on virtual results, RaceJoy, and Challenge events. We’ve introduced many improvements and features. Basic Setup Points Event Wizard Setup Set each event to Virtual/Challenge type (even when […]
RunSignup Raises $2.6 Million from Payroc for Strategic Initiatives We are pleased to announce that an investment affiliate of Payroc is making a minority investment in the RunSignup | GiveSignup business to help fund the continued rapid expansion of the RunSignup customer base and provide additional fundraising capabilities to the nonprofit market with GiveSignup. What […]
As part of our effort to support RaceJoy Certified Timers we’ve adjusted the backend map building tool proactively troubleshoot potential issues and simplify the process. Timers are now presented with a diagnosis when they load in a map in RaceJoy and can then immediately address potential issues with the map configuration. Map Diagnostic Tool We’ve […]
