In this article, we'll explain how you can use Raiser's Edge NXT Events and Trellis to streamline your event management and save time.
How do Events work in RE NXT?
The Events feature in RE NXT tracks event details like participants, RSVP status, fees, and payments.
Participant records show attendance, but cannot store contact details directly. To display a participant’s name, they must be linked to a constituent or non-constituent record.
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If linked, the participant’s name and contact info appear.
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If not linked, the participant is considered “unknown” and shown as a “Guest of [Host Name]”.
How Does Trellis Integrate with Events in RE NXT ?
When a ticket is purchased through Trellis, a participant is created in the connected RE NXT event.
Assigned Tickets
If a ticket is assigned during checkout, after checkout, or via the Check-In Tool, Trellis will:
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Attempt to match the attendee to an existing constituent using your constituent match settings.
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If a match is found, the participant is linked to that constituent.
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If no match is found, Trellis will create a new constituent record to link to that participant.
Trellis prioritizes matching with a constituent over a non-constituent, and cannot control whether a non-constituent record is created—those are created automatically by RE NXT if the ticket is assigned during checkout.
Unassigned Tickets
If a ticket is not assigned during checkout, Trellis will default to assigning all tickets to the purchaser.
The participants are still created in RE NXT but appears as a “Guest of [Host Name]” with no contact information.
If the ticket is assigned later, the guest participant is automatically updated.
Who Becomes the “Host” in Raiser's Edge?
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If the purchaser is also a ticket holder, they become the host of the party in Raiser's Edge.
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If the purchaser does not hold any tickets, Trellis will assign the first ticket holder as the host.
The host designation is important because unassigned guests will appear as “Guest of [Host Name]” in RE NXT.
A Note About Partial Reassignments
Each time an attendee is updated in Trellis, the matching process restarts. This can lead to duplicate records if the updated contact info is incomplete or inconsistent.
Example:
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John buys 4 tickets but doesn’t assign them at checkout.
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Later, he asks the organizer to assign one ticket to Martin Smith, but doesn’t provide Martin’s email.
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The system creates a constituent for Martin Smith (with John’s email).
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At the event, Martin provides his real email and the record is updated.
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The match fails due to the different email, so RE NXT creates a second constituent for Martin.
To avoid duplicates, always collect complete contact information—especially names and emails—before updating attendee records.
If you want to learn more about how to show fees and payments in the Events module, check out this article.
Did this answer your question? If not, please reach out to the Trellis Support team via the blue chat icon or email support@trellis.org.