Facebook Conversion API Now Supported
RunSignup is now enabled to take advantage of Facebook Conversion API for registration events.
RaceJoy Overview and Demo
Below is a an overview and product demo of RaceJoy’s key features. RaceJoy is RunSignup’s mobile app for endurance events giving real-time updates and interaction for participants, spectators, and race organizers. Events using RunSignup’s registration receive discounted pricing through certified providers and have the added advantage of seamless integration with registration data, event information, and results. RaceJoy is available for on-site defined course events, virtual race anywhere events, and challenge events.
Customer Stories: Pedal Event Fundraisers
Pedal event fundraisers are a fun and creative way to bring supporters together for an indoor cycling event that can easily offer both in-person and virtual options. With RunSignup’s free tools including free Email Marketing, free websites, and integrated fundraising and donations, nonprofits can raise more and engage supporters with a unique and creative pedal […]
March Madness 2022!
We are predominantly runners, cyclists, swimmers, orienteerers, hikers, and triathletes… but we like to have a little fun with team sports, too. For years, March Madness has been a chance to engage in some friendly competition with our friends, partners, and customers, and we are excited to see which customers have all the inside information this […]
Founder’s Corner – Continuous Improvement
I got spurred to write about this topic on Founder’s Corner about Continuous Improvement by an email from a customer yesterday: Hi Bob, my name is Tom Gifford and I am the Race Series Director for the East Shore YMCA. We are in Harrisburg, PA. I have been using RunSignUp since 2015 and I wanted to […]
Founder’s Corner – Guiding Principles
This is the initial post for the Founder’s Corner Series. It is fitting, because this is what we use as our core set of principles. Almost every decision we make can come back to this as a root set of principles to guide what the decision should be. We have had these in place since […]
Founder’s Corner – Ramblings on What, Why, and How We do Things at RunSignup
I’m starting up this series of blog posts to share the reason behind what, why and how we do things at our company. As we are growing, we have more and more new employees and more and more new customers. A couple of days ago I found myself trying to explain a bunch of things […]
Types of Ticket Events
With the introduction of TicketSignup earlier this month, we’ve had an influx of questions from customers, including the most basic one: what type of events use TicketSignup’s Ticket Events instead of RunSignup’s Registration Events? The answer is: many! Ticket events include everything from corn mazes and holiday light shows to luncheons and free events. This […]
What Happened with Virtual Events in 2022?
This is one of series of blogs we’ll use to break down key endurance industry trends we saw in 2021, and evaluate what they mean for race directors as you prepare for 2022. You can find the full report (and more resources) below, along with additional blogs on the topic. >> How Much Was Race […]
Introducing TicketSignup
RunSignup is proud to announce TicketSignup, an offering that provides event directors with an intuitive and free event ticketing option that works for simple, complex, and multi-day events. TicketSignup provides event directors with all the tools they need for a successful event, including free email marketing, free websites, integrated marketing tools, and an event day […]
How Much Was Race Participation Impacted by COVID in 2021?
This is the first in a series of blogs we’ll use to break down key endurance industry trends we saw in 2021, and evaluate what they mean for race directors as you prepare for 2022. You can find the full report below. How Did 2021 Race Participation Compare to 2020? This is the good news. […]
Speed Round: Tips, Tricks, and Technology
Bryan Jenkins returned to the screen with a (renamed) perennial favorite: a rapid-fire review of all the key settings and features that customers frequently overlook. With 75+ items, there’s something for everyone! Find something you want to learn more about? Check out the (many) resources below. More Resources…. Managing Your Race Single Sign On On […]
Mary Anderson Receives Alan Jones Timer Award
GiveSignup | RunSignup announces the 2021 Alan Jones Timer Award winner, Mary Anderson, founder of Anderson Race Management located in Eagan, Minnesota. The Alan Jones Timer Award recognizes an individual race timer who has shown exceptional efforts and who has had a significant positive impact on the endurance race industry. Anderson’s 28 years in the […]
Preseason Training Camp
With spring race season on the horizon, Q1 is the time to learn and prepare. From the January through March we have a series of webinars and certifications for race directors and timers, all focused on technology updates and what you need to know as you head into your season. If you cannot make a […]
4 Events that Prove You Don’t Have to Stay Inside in Winter
As work through our data for the upcoming 2021 RaceTrends report (coming soon!), we noticed one decidedly consistent trend: December, January, and February always have the fewest number of events. We know, it’s cold, there’s weather, holiday travel takes over, and it’s hard to get people out for a 5K. But that doesn’t mean you […]
2022 Product Roadmap
As we enter a new year, we are producing multiple blogs that give a full 2021 Product Recap, our 2021 RaceDay Recap, a 2021 Business Recap, our Vision for 2022 and Beyond, and this one – which will talk about our Product Roadmap for 2022. We have a single robust, highly available platform and integrated database that we […]
2022 And Beyond
As we enter a new year, we are producing multiple blogs that give a full 2021 Product Recap, 2021 RaceDay Recap, a 2021 Business Recap, a Product Roadmap for 2022, and this one – which will talk about our overall company goals for the future, the foundation of our company, and our strategy for moving forward. Events Our […]
2021 Year in Review
As we enter a new year, we are producing multiple blogs that give a full 2021 Product Recap, 2021 RaceDay Recap, Product Roadmap for 2022, our Vision for 2022 and Beyond, and this one – which will review 2021 from a business perspective. 2021 was a year of “kind of” returning to normal. Our business recovered more than […]
How to Get the Most Out of the Off-Season
Fall events are behind us, and spring events are yet to come. Less than 7.5% of all annual events take place between January and February, providing the perfect opportunity for event directors to reset and recover from a busy year. While we encourage plenty of rest, it’s also a great time to review technology upgrades […]
Alan Jones Timer Award Nominations Now Open
Seeking Nominees for Timer of the Year Award Know of an amazing timer that has brought a positive impact to the endurance industry? Send your nominations for the Alan Jones Timer Award to info@runsignup.com. Submissions should include the timer’s name, company name, and an explanation, including specific examples of the impact the nominee has made […]
RaceDay Scoring Now Supports Lap Events
Time-Based, Cumulative Mileage Events Now Supported We’ve launched a new release of RaceDay Scoring to support scoring of duration-based lap events. RaceDay Scoring, the industry’s next generation scoring software, now supports time duration-based events where mileage cumulated may vary by individual finisher. RaceDay Scoring is the planned replacement for The Race Director, the scoring software […]
Turkey Trots 2021: The Fun Stuff
We already provided an update on the 2021 Turkey Trot numbers (and they were impressive!), but everyone knows that the full story of Thanksgiving Day events is about more than just numbers. The History of the Turkey Trot Tradition Runners World put out a great article earlier this month exploring the origins of the Thanksgiving […]
Milestones and Badges for Registration
We’ve had Milestones and Badges for peer-to-peer fundraising events using GiveSignup | RunSignup’s registration platform for many years. Today we rolled out redesigned Milestones and Badges that feature a modern design for fundraising pages and a new interface to add achievements from your dashboard. This makes fundraising pages even more engaging, adding value to your […]
Welcome, Stephanie Davern!
We would like to welcome Stephanie Davern as the new VP of Sales for GiveSignup | RunSignup, overseeing the GiveSignup sales team. Born and raised in Minnesota, Stephanie is a University of Minnesota – Twin Cities alumni, with a B.S. in mechanical engineering. Stephanie is a passionate sales leader, with over 15 years of experience […]
2021 Timer Survey Now Open
The annual Timer Market Survey for the endurance industry is now open! This survey is designed to provide insights into the timer industry and focuses on understanding timers’ business practices, current challenges, technology used, and obtaining input on products and services needed. It is an opportunity for timers to help their peers and the industry […]
Want to Catch Up?
Looking to catch up with someone from the GiveSignup | RunSignup team? Whether you’re a long-standing loyal customer or just looking to have some questions answered, we’d love to hear from you! Meet us In-Person! We have a few upcoming conferences that we expect to attend in the coming months. Are you going? We’d love […]
Q3 RaceTrends Update
We release an annual RaceTrends Report each winter to provide a thorough assessment of the state of the endurance and fundraising events industry. This year, as event organizers adapt to new conditions, we are pulling a few key metrics each quarter to better evaluate the recovery of the industry. The Data The data used for […]
Registration Market Analysis
We have been doing race registration market analysis every 6 months for many years. We did special ones over the past year and a half due to COVID. Things are more back to normal now, so we will return to the previous format. Here are the old ones: September 2015 March, 2016 September, 2016 March, […]
Giving Tuesday Product Roadmap
Our mission at GiveSignup | RunSignup is to build great technology that helps our nonprofit and endurance customers engage and activate supporters to raise money and grow communities. In addition to helping your organization with fundraising events, GiveSignup also helps nonprofits grow and streamline year-round giving with a suite of donation and standalone fundraising features. […]
Endurance Event Highlights from the Summer Virtual Symposium
If you want catch up on all the sessions from last week’s Virtual Symposium, it’s not too late to do that. But we also wanted to take a minute to dive a little deeper into the key takeaways from a few of our favorite sessions focused on endurance events. The main message: it’s time to […]
Q2 RaceTrends Update
We release an annual RaceTrends Report each winter to provide a thorough assessment of the state of the endurance and fundraising events industry. This year, as event organizers adapt to new conditions, we are pulling a few key metrics mid-year to provide a real-time look at what we are seeing. Just want the highlights? You […]
Q2 2021 GiveSignup | RunSignup Report
Q2 marks the quarter where our business and our customer’s business returned to growth. Vaccination rates going up, cases, hospitalizations and deaths going down dramatically caused states to open up. As we had been expecting, that is great news for live events. The cover photo above is from the Scott Coffee Run. We wrote about […]
Observations from a Post Pandemic Race
The Scott Coffee Run was this past weekend. As followers of us know, this was the race that inspired the creation of RunSignup in 2010. Bob is a race director for the race and saw the need for better technology at races. We wanted to share our observations from a “post pandemic” race. Fun It […]
How to be a Race Director: 2021 Education Round-Up
With our 2021 Spring Forward Seminar we capped off a year of extensive virtual education focused on helping event professionals and nonprofits manage the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and pivot events from in-person to virtual to hybrid. Between multi-session virtual seminars and webinars throughout the year, the last 13 months have been a whirlwind […]
Spring Forward Seminar: Recordings and Resources
Thanks to all the nonprofits, event directors, and timers, who registered to join us for our Spring Forward Session! You can refer to all the videos and resources below as you start preparing your Hybrid event strategy in 2021. Key Resources These informational hubs are your best resource for a deep-dive into the specific solutions […]
Steps for Students 2021 Case Study
New Backend Technology and Virtual Fundraising Event Debrief Case Study Key Topics: Fundraiser, team fundraising success Integrated technology Timer going the extra mile RunSignup’s data integration Creative virtual approach, success during Covid-19 Virtual race considerations Event Showcased: 2021 Steps for Students, Galveston-Houston, Texas Race Organizers Interviewed: Julie Eberle, Associate Director of Development – Special Events, […]
Fundraising Events (Episode 1): Entering the World of Virtual Events
Want to learn from fundraising event experts while you run, walk, or clean your house? GiveSignup | RunSignup Sales Lead Bryan Jenkins has started a hyper-focused podcast series to bring you stories of successful fundraising events, no reading required. In each episode, Bryan will chat with an influencer in the event industry who’s been instrumental […]
Q1 2021 Report
Q1 2021 marks the turning point for our business. Looking back on the quarter, the year started slowly with many customers and supporters consumed with very high COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths, concerns about vaccine distribution, and the tumultuous passing of power in our government. By March, things had started to turn back closer to […]
Product News! New and Improved RaceDay CheckIn App
Efficient Race Day Processing of Participants We are very excited to launch our new and improved RaceDay Check-In mobile application! Available for Android and iOS devices, the new release of the free RaceDay Check-In app offers core functionality improvements, simplified user experience, and a refreshed interface. RunSignup’s RaceDay CheckIn app is designed for race organizers […]
Race Registration Market Analysis
We usually do a Race Registration Market Analysis twice a year – March and September. 2020 was an unusual year, but we did a special one in April, 2020 and September, 2020 to try to capture what was happening in the endurance market. We will share our data and then share observations from the market in general and specific […]
March Madness is Back!
When we said events are back, we meant it: the RunSignup friends and family March Madness bracket is returning for 2021. We are predominantly runners, cyclists, swimmers, orienteerers, hikers, and triathletes… but we like to have a little fun with team sports, too. For years, March Madness has been a chance to engage in some […]
Who Are the Virtual Runners?
Anecdotal evidence has long suggested to us that virtual runners are not the same people who show up on race day, but the sudden flood of virtual events in 2020 gave us enough volume (and enough motivation) to pull some new reports focused on virtual for our recently released 2020 RaceTrends Report. Why does it […]
Timer Survey Findings Debrief
Timers can get a debrief on the recently completed Timer marketing research survey by watching the recorded session below. More than 160 timers participated in this year’s survey. Topics covered include general timer business attributes, impacts of Covid-19, timer strategies, and timers’ use of race day technology. One of the most important takeaways is that […]
New Voucher Feature Helps Events Migrate to RunSignup | GiveSignup
We are releasing a new Voucher system that allows races to create vouchers that participants can use as a credit when they sign up for an event. For example, you might give Allison a voucher for $30 that she can use on any of your events. In the example on the right, she signs up […]
2021 Virtual Winter Symposium Wrap-Up
We wrapped up our 2021 Virtual Winter Symposium on Thursday. Like all of our customers who had to go virtual this year, we missed seeing everyone in-person, but we were grateful for the chance to move forward in some capacity. The bonus? While our in-person capacity usually maxes out at around 300 attendees, we were […]
Alternatives to Raffle Events
During our virtual symposium last week, we received many questions about raffles. While this may seem like an easy way to fundraise when everything is virtual, there are two reasons why GiveSignup | RunSignup is currently unable to allow raffles on our platform: Payment processors do not allow gambling activities. Raffles – even those for […]
What Happened to GoFundMe Charity?
In November 2019 we wrote about the abrupt brand and platform shut-down of Crowdrise following their acquisition by GoFundMe. While Crowdrise was designed for nonprofits, GoFundMe has been designed from the start as a platform for individual fundraising for many purposes. The change caused some concerns for nonprofits; however, GoFundMe mitigated some of these concerns by […]
2020 RaceTrends Report
We have released our annual RaceTrends report, mining our internal data to evaluate the state of the endurance industry. It goes without saying that this report is unlike any other and every piece of data reflected the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, showing significant participation declines. But the news wasn’t all bleak – the impressive virtual numbers […]
Photos 2.0
We are close to completing our huge project to upgrade our free Photo platform. Here are some of the highlights: New, more scalable and robust infrastructure to handle hundreds of millions of photos Completely redesigned user experience for race and ticket websites, as well as dashboard setup Available for Races and for our GiveSignup nonprofit […]
December 2020 COVID Numbers Update
We began monthly updates in July after doing weekly updates that ended in Week 18, and are shifting to monthly (August and October, November) and Quarterly (Q3) updates. The monthly update is meant to give stats that are useful to the endurance and nonprofit communities we serve. Quick December Numbers: Transaction volume was down 47% to $9.9MM Overall Registrations down […]