Answers to the payment, registration, and policy questions organizers ask us most about live, in-person fundraising events.
Running a gala or live event involves a lot of moving pieces — guest registrations, payment methods, table sponsors, and last-minute changes. This guide collects the most common questions our Customer Success team hears from event organizers, with the same guidance we give in support conversations every day. If your question isn’t covered here, or in “Running Event Day in RallyUp,” our team is always happy to help — just reach out to support@rallyup.com.
Payment Options & Methods
Can guests pay by check or cash during a Paddle Raise or Fund-a-Need?
Yes. If a guest wants to pay by cash or check, you don’t need to charge their card on file.
- Go to Campaign Settings in the left menu and choose your event from the drop-down menu.
- Select Manage Event Balances from the quick links.
- Find the guest and click on their name to open their balance.
- Select Charge balance manually, then select the payment method.
This keeps their Event Balance accurate without running an unintended card charge. More broadly, if you turn off automatic checkout for your event, winning bids and pledges show up as a balance due rather than being auto-charged, so you can collect payment however works best and mark the balance paid once you’ve received it.
Our checkout settings allow checks, but registration still asks guests for a credit card. Why?
If you enabled pre-registration during Campaign setup, guests will automatically be asked to save a payment method when they register. However, even if a guest has a card on file, you can still accept other payment methods by charging the guest manually.
Please note that check payments cannot be accepted for Silent/Online Auctions. Guests will be required to save a payment method to participate, even if checks are also listed as an accepted payment method in your checkout settings. Silent/Online Auction winning bids are automatically charged to the payment methods on file as soon as the Auction ends.
Do guests need to have a card on file to bid at our Live Auction or Fund-a-Need?
No, as long as the guest has registered or purchased a ticket for the event, they don’t need a card on file. Live Auction bids and Fund-a-Need pledges/donations are tracked by Guest/Donor Number, and the charge rolls into that guest’s Event Balance regardless of whether a card is on file. If there’s no card on file, you can send a checkout email after the event so the guest can pay online at their convenience. Whether someone is marked “checked in” in RallyUp is just for your internal tracking — it doesn’t affect their ability to bid or how they’re charged. If you’d prefer not to require a card at registration at all, that’s a setting you control:
- Go to Campaign Settings in the left menu and choose your event from the drop-down menu.
- Select Campaign Setup, then go to Ticketing in the timeline at the top.
- Scroll down to Optional Settings and select Show optional settings.
- Click on the toggle next to Ask attendees to create an account and save a payment method to turn this setting off.
Some of our teams/tables paid us directly through a sponsorship contract and never registered or paid through RallyUp. Can we still show them as registered?
- Yes — Go to Campaign Settings in the left menu and choose your event from the drop-down menu.
- Select Campaign Management, then View Ticket Registrations.
- Select Actions, then Add Ticket. If you include an email address, attendees will receive an email notification once the ticket it added.
Keep in mind that manually added tickets don’t add to your Campaign’s displayed amount raised, since no payment is processed through RallyUp for them. If you’d like your fundraising total to reflect those outside payments too, add them separately as offline donations.
Registration Management
A table sponsor wants to swap out their own seat for a different guest, without losing their event registration. How do we do that?
- Go to Campaign Settings in the left menu and choose your event from the drop-down menu.
- Select Campaign Management, then View Table Registrations.
- Find the sponsor’s table and select the three-dot menu on the far right of the row.
- Select Edit Table.
- Select the three-dot menu next to the guest you want to remove and choose Remove from Table to free up their table seat for someone else while keeping the sponsor registered for the event, or Delete attendee to remove them from the event entirely — only use this if that’s really the intent.
A guest bought tickets for other people under their own email, and now those guests show the purchaser’s card on file. Can we fix this?
- Go to Campaign Settings in the left menu and choose your event from the drop-down menu.
- Select Campaign Management, then View Ticket Registrations.
- Find the attendee and select the three-dot menu on the far right of the row with the guest’s name.
- Select Edit Ticket to correct their email address, then Save.
- Click on the three-dot menu again and select Resend Registration Email so the correct guest receives their own link.
Note: organizers can’t enter or edit a supporter’s card details on their behalf. Once the email address is corrected and the registration email is resent, the guest needs to add their own payment info themselves.
We’re sold out of public tickets, but want to give sponsors or community partners free tickets. Is there a private registration link we can send them?
RallyUp doesn’t currently support private or hidden registration links — registrations can only be added for ticket types that are actively available on your Campaign Page. As a workaround, add more ticket inventory for the type you need, then hide that ticket option from your public Campaign Page.
- Go to Campaign Settings in the left menu and choose your event from the drop-down menu.
- Select Campaign Management, then View Ticket Registrations.
- Select Actions, then Add Ticket, to manually register your sponsors and partners from the backend without charging them.
Manually added tickets like these won’t count toward your Campaign’s displayed revenue, but recipients still receive the standard registration email.
How do we get notified when someone registers or signs up for our event?
- Go to Campaign Settings in the left menu and choose your event from the drop-down menu.
- Select Campaign Management, then Campaign Setup.
- Go to Options in the timeline at the top and select Checkout Options.
- Scroll down to Add people you want notified each time a donation is made and add your email address. You’ll get an email each time someone completes a purchase or registration.
Note: this notification isn’t specific to a particular ticket type or table — you’ll be notified for any purchase made on the Campaign, not just, say, table sign-ups.
Check-In & QR Codes
(See “Running Event Day in RallyUp” for the step-by-step check-in click path staff use at the door. The questions below are about setup and mechanics.)
If we turn on QR Code Check-In after guests have already registered, do we need to do anything else?
Yes, you’ll need to resend each guest’s registration email so they receive their QR code. Right now that resend has to be done one guest at a time; there isn’t a bulk resend option yet.
- Go to Campaign Settings in the left menu and choose your event from the drop-down menu.
- Select Campaign Management, then View Ticket Registrations.
- Find the attendee(s) and select the three-dot menu on the far right of each row.
- Select Resend registration email.
How does QR Code Check-In actually work at the door?
A volunteer scans the guest’s QR code on their phone and taps a confirm button; the app then advances to the next guest. It’s quicker than manually searching for each guest’s name and marking them checked in.
Can we change the guest list so it sorts by last name instead of first name?
Not directly within Campaign Management’s View Ticket Registrations screen (Campaign Settings in the left menu → select your event → Campaign Management → View Ticket Registrations). If you need a different sort order, export the list to CSV and reorder it there.
Refunds & Cancellations
We need to cancel our event or Campaign. How do we refund attendees?
For most Campaigns, you can cancel and refund credit card payments directly from your RallyUp account — our Help Center has step-by-step instructions for processing those refunds yourself. Raffle-type Campaigns are a special case: because of legal and regulatory requirements around Raffles, we generally recommend against canceling a Raffle once it’s underway. If you do need to cancel one, email approvals@rallyup.com with your Campaign name and ID, the reason for cancellation, and the email address on your Stripe or PayPal account. You’ll need to notify every donor and refund each donation, and keep documentation on file in case a regulator (such as a gaming commission or attorney general) later asks for proof that all donations were refunded. Platform fees and payment processing fees (including tips) are non-refundable.
Can I refund just one ticket from a multi-ticket purchase?
Not currently. Refunds process against the full transaction, so if a guest bought multiple tickets in one purchase, you can’t refund a single ticket out of that group. If a partial refund is needed, you’ll need to refund the full transaction and have the guest repurchase the tickets they’re keeping.
Ticket Pricing & Configuration
Can we change the price of a ticket type after our event page is published?
If no one has purchased that ticket type, yes. However, once a ticket type has had purchases, its price can’t be edited directly. If you need to offer a different price going forward, create a new, separate ticket/registration option at the new price rather than editing the original.
Still have a question that isn’t covered here? Reach out anytime — we’re happy to help.