DONATE Tickets
Sell tickets and check guests in
Entry tickets for your dinner, show or open day, set up in a few questions. Each guest gets a QR code ticket, scanned at the door with the DONATE App on volunteers' phones.
- A quick start that makes your ticket page in a few questions
- Tables, family tickets, timed entry and free entry
- Guest names and questions
- Optional donations at checkout, with Gift Aid
- A free prize draw with every ticket
- QR code tickets by email
- Check-in on volunteers' own phones with the DONATE App, even offline
- Free tickets, cash sales, a waitlist and an event report
What is DONATE Tickets?
A ticket page for your dinner, show or open day, run from your DONATE portal. Guests book and pay on their phones, each gets a ticket with a QR code, and volunteers scan it at the door with the DONATE App. It costs nothing to set up: each online ticket sale carries a fee of 4.5 per cent plus 22p for charities and companies raising for charities, 5 per cent plus 22p for other organisations.
What buyers see
- Buyers need no account and no app. They book on your ticket page, pay by card and get their tickets by email straight away.
- Places are held for 15 minutes while someone pays. If they do not finish, the places go back on sale.
- Every person on a booking gets their own ticket with a QR code, to show on a phone or print.
- A buyer can put a ticket in a guest's name. The QR code stays the same.
- For timed entry, buyers pick a day and a time, and can move their booking to another time with places until their time starts.
- Lost tickets? Buyers type the email they booked with on your event page and have them sent again.
Your ticket page
The date, doors and venue, then each ticket with its price, and how many are left where there is a limit.
An optional donation, with Gift Aid
If you take donations, the buyer can add one and Gift Aid it. The page says they can come without giving.
A ticket with a QR code
Each person has their own ticket page with a QR code to show at the door, and Print ticket.
Why sell tickets with DONATE?
Because one quick start makes your ticket page, guests get QR code tickets with no account, volunteers check them in on their own phones, and the ticket sales come to you with the rest of your DONATE income (for a company, to its charities).
What DONATE does for you
- A quick start asks a few questions and makes your ticket page in Preview, so you can try it before anyone pays.
- Tables, family tickets, early birds, timed entry and free entry, with a QR code for every person a ticket lets in.
- No booking fee is added for buyers, and they need no account or app.
- Buyers can add an optional donation to one of your campaigns or team challenges, with Gift Aid, kept apart from your ticket sales.
- A free prize draw gives every place an entry, with no lottery licence needed.
- Volunteers scan tickets with the DONATE App on their own phones and keep scanning if the signal drops.
- DONATE sends the tickets, a reminder before the event and a thank-you afterwards, and removes guest details when you choose.
- Free tickets and cash sales go on the same guest list, and online ticket sales are paid to you in your usual DONATE payouts.
What do I need before I start?
Tickets switched on for your organisation: DONATE does this, so if you do not have it yet, email hello@nationalfundingscheme.org. Then your event's name, date or times, venue, and the tickets you want to sell.
Have these ready
- The event: one date (a dinner, a concert) or timed entry (a light trail, a grotto), with its name and venue.
- Your tickets, with their prices and how many of each to sell.
- Taking donations? Know which campaign they go to.
- Volunteers with phones for the door.
How do I create my event?
Open Tickets and click New event. The quick start asks four questions, what, when, tickets and donation, then you check and create. Your event starts in Preview, so nothing is on sale yet.
The quick start
- What: One date (a dinner, a concert) or Timed entry (a light trail, a grotto), and a name.
- When: for one date, the date and start time, and booking closes when it starts. For timed entry, the days, opening hours, length of each time and places in each, and each time stops taking bookings when it starts.
- Tickets: pick a starting point, then add prices and how many. One date offers Seats and tables, Family tickets, Free entry and Start from scratch. Timed entry offers Family tickets, Free entry, Timed entry and Start from scratch.
- Donation: optional. Choose one of your live campaigns, or DONATE sets one up for these tickets. Free entry always asks for an optional donation.
- Check: nothing is made until you click Create in Preview. Everything else is on Setup afterwards.
- Rather set everything yourself? Click Set it up yourself on the first screen.
One date or timed entry
Choose One date or Timed entry, and give the event the name buyers will see.
Pick a starting point
Seats and tables gives a Standard ticket and a Table of ten. Type the prices and how many to sell.
Ask for a donation
Optional. Choose a live campaign or let DONATE set one up, write one line of ask and suggest amounts.
How do I set up my tickets and times?
On Setup, open a ticket to change its price, how many to sell, how many people it admits and when it is on sale. For timed entry, change any single time under When.
Ticket types
- Admits is how many people one ticket lets in. A table of ten admits 10, a family ticket 4. Each person still gets their own QR code.
- For an early bird, give one ticket an On sale until date and start the next one then.
- Hidden takes a ticket off the page. Only people with its direct link can book it, so it suits guests of the charity, or free tickets for volunteers or a speaker (a price of 0, with How many to sell set).
- Free entry, donations welcome: the ticket has no price, and anything people give is a separate donation.
- A new ticket starts switched off. A ticket with bookings is switched off, not removed.
- Member prices are not set up in the portal. Email hello@nationalfundingscheme.org about prices for members.
Dates and times
- Sales open as soon as you go live, unless you set Sales open. Sales close: empty means sales stop when the event starts.
- For timed entry, change any single time's places, or switch it to Closed.
Your tickets at a glance
Each ticket shows its price, how many are sold and left, and whether it is on sale.
Tables and early birds
Under Advanced, Admits, Fewest and Most per order, On sale from and until, and Hidden.
Change any single time
For timed entry, each time shows its places. Give one more places, or switch it to Closed.
How do I add guest questions, donations or a prize draw?
Each one is a short card on Setup: click its Yes button to use it. Guest questions are asked for every guest, donations are always optional, and a prize draw is free to enter.
Donations and Gift Aid
- Donations must be optional, and the page says so. No amount is picked for the buyer. Donors get nothing extra, such as better seats or earlier entry, or Gift Aid cannot be claimed. That is why donation amounts never show on the guest list or at the door.
- Tickets never carry Gift Aid. Only a donation can, from a UK taxpayer giving their own money.
- Charities: DONATE claims it and pays it to you with your payout, less 40 per cent. Do not claim Gift Aid on these payments yourself as well.
- Companies raising for charities: it goes on to their charities, less 40 per cent. Other organisations, such as clubs and schools: DONATE still claims it, and keeps all of it as the fee instead of the 5 per cent.
- How buyers donate is one way per event, Add a donation at checkout or Included in ticket prices. Donations are kept apart from ticket sales, and ticket sales are kept apart from your fundraising totals.
Free prize draw
- Every place sold, paid or free, gets one free entry, one for each person a ticket admits. Nobody can buy more.
- Nobody pays to enter, so no lottery licence is needed. Keep it that way. Do not raise ticket prices for it, and never say what the prizes are worth.
- Make a new prize draw enters every ticket sold so far. You then add the prizes. Winners are told by email.
Ask your guests questions
Short answer, pick from a list, or a tick box, asked for every guest. Required, and Show at the door for the DONATE App.
Choose where donations go
Where donations go, How buyers donate, your ask and suggested amounts.
A free prize draw
Make a new prize draw enters every ticket sold so far. Keep entry free.
How do I try it out and go live?
Book a test ticket while the event is in Preview, then switch Live on to put tickets on sale and share your link. In Preview nobody pays and no emails go out.
Preview and going live
- In Preview, bookings are free test tickets. No payment is taken and no email is sent.
- Test tickets work in the DONATE App too, marked TEST, so volunteers can practise.
- Going live deletes every test ticket. Sales open straight away, unless you set Sales open.
- The QR code and Short link are safe to print in Preview. The same code keeps working after you go live.
- Your ticket page is easydonate.org/your-organisation/event/..., with a short link too.
Try it in Preview
Straight after the quick start, book a test ticket, test checking in, or jump to more options.
Switch Live on
Put tickets on sale? ends the preview, deletes the test tickets and lets people book and pay by card.
Share your event
Copy the Ticket page or Short link, or download the QR code for posters and flyers.
How do I manage guests and sales?
The Sales tab shows how you are doing. The Guests tab lists everyone coming, with their answers and the waitlist, and is where you change a booking or add free tickets and cash sales.
Guests
- Each guest's actions are Edit guest, Resend tickets, Admit or Undo check-in, Move to another time for timed entry, Refund this place on a paid ticket, and Void.
- Void stops a ticket working. Use it for a free ticket or a mistake. For refunds, see What does it cost.
- Add tickets gives a complimentary (free) ticket, or records a sale paid in cash, by cheque or by card in person. No card is charged, and the guest goes on your list.
- Download CSV gives the guest list with every answer. Print it the night before, in case a phone fails.
- When places come back, email the next people on the waitlist with Email the next. The first to book gets them.
Ticket sales at a glance
Places and ticket sales, checkout donations, and each ticket type paid online, free online, offline and given free.
Change, admit or void
Each guest's menu has Edit guest, Resend tickets, Admit and Void.
Free tickets and cash sales
Add tickets gives a complimentary ticket, or records a sale you took in cash, by cheque or by card in person.
How do I check guests in at the door?
Volunteers scan each ticket's QR code with the DONATE App on their own phones, from Google Play or in a browser at app.easydonate.org. They need no portal login, and the portal cannot scan tickets. Set it up under Check guests in on Setup and on the Check in tab.
Getting volunteers on
- Click Invite a volunteer and send the link, or the code, to one person. It works once, for 14 days, and lets them straight in.
- Anyone who finds your organisation in the app by name or charity number waits until you approve them on the Volunteers page. Approve only people you know.
- Your portal users are let straight in when they set up with the mobile number on their portal account.
- Volunteers add their name, mobile and email, and type the code we text them. Next time they tap Already set up? Sign in.
- Door check-in works on any phone, in the DONATE App (it installs on Android 8 or later) or in a browser at app.easydonate.org.
- Card donations at the door need the DONATE App from Google Play on an Android phone running Android 13 or later, with contactless (NFC), a security update in the last 12 months, the maker's own software (not rooted), developer options turned off, and signal or Wi-Fi when the donor taps. Low-cost phones that work include the Samsung Galaxy A16 and A17 and the Motorola moto g15 and moto g05. The iPhone app is coming soon. The app checks each phone and tells the volunteer if something needs changing.
At the door
- Pick the event, tap SCAN and point the camera at the ticket, or search by name or ticket ref and tap Admit.
- After a scan, the note shows the guest's ticket and any answer you marked Show at the door.
- A ticket used twice turns the note red, with the time it was first admitted and who let them in.
- A code that is not on the list shows Not a ticket for this event. If they have paid and you are sure, tap Admit anyway. It goes under Needs a look on the Check in tab.
- The app does not show the time on a timed ticket or flag early or late guests. You decide. Admitting someone by hand from Guests says if they are early or late.
- Guests in the portal can undo an admission.
- The app lists an event until two days after it starts, or for timed entry until a day after its last time. After that, admit guests from Guests.
No signal
- The guest list is kept on the phone, so scanning carries on if the signal drops. Check-ins are sent when the signal is back.
- Open the event with signal before the doors open and leave the app open. With no signal it cannot open the guest list again.
- If two phones admit the same ticket while offline, the first admission stands and it goes under Needs a look.
- Signing out removes the guest list from the phone.
The Check in tab
How many are admitted, the DONATE App link and QR code, Invite a volunteer, the night before list and Needs a look.
Volunteers set up the app
Volunteers open your invite link, or find your organisation under Find your charity or Charity number or code.
Scan the QR code
Admitted Anne Clarke, and her row shows the time and who let her in. The count goes up straight away.
Keep scanning with no signal
With no signal the scan still admits, marked offline, and the row says queued until the signal is back.
What happens after the event?
DONATE sends a thank-you to buyers who came, the Sales tab becomes your event report, and guest details are removed after the number of days you set. Online ticket sales are paid to you in your usual DONATE payouts.
What happens next
- At 9am the morning after the event (after its last time, for timed entry), buyers of tickets that were checked in get a thank-you, with a link to your donation campaign if you chose one.
- The report shows attendance, no-shows and everything given on the night, then ticket sales by type.
- Names, emails and answers are removed the number of days after the event (after its last time, for timed entry) that you set in Options, 30 by default. Your sales totals and the report stay.
- A company's ticket money, like its donations, goes to its charities, split as its campaigns are. The company is never paid.
The event report
Attendance, no-shows and Given on the night, then ticket sales by type.
What does it cost?
Nothing to set up and no booking fee for buyers. DONATE takes a fee from each online payment before paying you, and cash sales carry no fee.
Fees
- Online ticket sales. Charities, and companies raising for charities: 4.5 per cent plus 22p. Other organisations: 5 per cent plus 22p.
- Donations at checkout. Charities, and companies raising for charities: 4.5 per cent plus 22p on a donation without Gift Aid. When the supporter adds Gift Aid there is no percentage fee: you keep the whole donation less 22p, plus 60 per cent of the Gift Aid, and our fee is the other 40 per cent. Other organisations: 5 per cent plus 22p; when the supporter adds Gift Aid, DONATE claims it and keeps all of it as the fee instead of the 5 per cent.
- Offline sales (cash, cheque, card in person) are already with you. DONATE pays nothing out for them and charges no fee.
- Charges on each payout: a usage fee of £3 for each week (Monday to Sunday) in which your organisation receives £10 or more (at most £12 a month), and a transfer charge of £7.50 plus 0.5 per cent of the payout for charities and companies raising for charities, or 1.5 per cent for other organisations (at least £3 either way).
Refunds
- Refund one place yourself: in Guests, open the guest's actions and choose Refund this place. That place's share goes back to the card that paid, and the place is free to sell again. The buyer's other places are not touched.
- Once the money is in a payout to you, even before it reaches your bank, a refund is refused. The buyer then asks you, and you refund them yourself.
- Refunding a place never refunds a donation made at checkout in the same payment.
- To cancel a free ticket or one entered by mistake, void it from Guests. Voiding sends no money back.
Settings reference
Setup, Event page and Details
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| About the event | What people see above the tickets. Up to 5000 characters. | Empty |
| Picture | Optional. Shown at the top of your ticket page. | None |
| Name | Shown on the ticket page and on every ticket. | Required |
| Venue | Shown on the ticket page, tickets and emails. | Empty |
| Sales open | When sales start once you are live. | As soon as you go live |
| Sales close | When sales stop. Empty means sales stop when the event starts. | Empty |
Setup, When
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Date, Starts and Doors open | One date only. Doors open is optional and shown on the page and tickets. | Required to go live |
| Total places | One date only. The most people across every ticket type. | No limit |
| Times | Timed entry only. Each time has its places, and can be Open or Closed. | |
| Overall limit across all times | Timed entry only, under More. A cap on the whole event. | No limit |
| Change to timed entry, or Change to a one-off event | Switches how people come. |
Setup, Tickets (per ticket)
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Paid, or Free entry, donations welcome. Fixed once people have booked. | Paid |
| Price | The ticket price. 0 for a free ticket. | 0 |
| How many to sell | The most of this ticket you will sell. Set it for a free ticket too. | No limit |
| Admits (Advanced) | People per ticket. 10 for a table of ten. Fixed once sold. | 1 |
| Fewest and Most per order (Advanced) | Limits on one booking. Empty for no limit of its own. | Empty |
| On sale from and until (Advanced) | Dates this ticket is on sale. Use them for an early bird. | While sales are open |
| Hidden (Advanced) | Not listed. Only people with the direct link can book it. | Off |
| On | Off stops sales of this ticket. | Off for a ticket added on Setup |
Setup, the extras
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Member prices | Not set up in the portal. Yes, tell me how gives the email to ask. | |
| Guest questions | Short answer, Pick from a list or Tick box, asked for every guest. Required, and Show at the door for the DONATE App. | None |
| Where donations go | One of your campaigns or team challenges. It must be live. | None |
| How buyers donate | Add a donation at checkout, or Included in ticket prices (every paid ticket is offered with and without the donation, neither picked for the buyer). | Add a donation at checkout |
| Your ask and Suggested amounts | One line above the donation box, and up to six amounts. None is picked for the buyer. | Empty |
| Prize draw | Make a new prize draw, or choose a raffle set up as a free prize draw. | None |
| Check guests in | Lists the event in the DONATE App. Turn off check-in takes it off. | On |
Setup, Options
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Ask for every guest's name | Buyers name each place, not just themselves. | Off |
| Let guests pass their ticket on | Buyers can put a ticket in someone else's name. | On |
| Offer a waitlist when sold out | People can leave their details for you to email if places come back. | On |
| Joining instructions | Sent with every ticket: parking, dress code, where to go. | Empty |
| Terms | Shown before people pay. The only prize a ticket may include is "a free raffle ticket in the event's prize draw". | Empty |
| Delete guest details after | Days after the event. Names, emails and answers are removed. Totals stay. | 30 days |
Emails DONATE sends for you
| When | Who gets it | |
|---|---|---|
| Tickets | As soon as a booking is made. Not in Preview. | The buyer, with a link to each ticket |
| Reminder | 48 hours before the event. For timed entry, 24 hours before their time. | Buyers |
| Thank-you | 9am the morning after the event, or after its last time for timed entry. | Buyers of tickets that were checked in |
| Waitlist | When you click Send email. | The next people on the waitlist |
Questions
- How is Tickets different from Team challenges?
- Tickets sells entry to a dinner, show or open day, and each guest gets a QR code ticket that is scanned at the door. Team challenges are for supporters who fundraise as a team, each with their own donation page. You can run both for the same occasion.
- Is ticket money a donation?
- No. A ticket buys entry, so it is a ticket sale and never carries Gift Aid. Only a donation added at checkout can.
- Can the DONATE App take card donations at the door too?
- Yes, in the DONATE App from Google Play on Android (iPhone coming soon). The web version at app.easydonate.org checks guests in only.
- Which phones work?
- Any phone checks guests in, in the DONATE App or a browser. Card donations need an Android phone running Android 13 or later with contactless, as the door section sets out.