API and Integrations

The HelpOut API

HelpOut has a read-only REST API available to every account. Use it to pull your events and responses into a spreadsheet, a dashboard, a website, or anything else you build.

Looking to connect HelpOut to your school’s FutureFund account — syncing volunteer lists and posting events to the family calendar? See [Connecting FutureFund](/helpout/account/futurefund) instead. This page is about the developer API.

Full endpoint reference: helpout.us/developer.

Getting Your API Key

Sign in at helpout.us.
Click Account at the bottom of the left sidebar, then API — or open helpout.us/users/api directly.
Click Copy to copy your key.

Your API key gives access to everything your team can see, including the names and email addresses of everyone who responded to your events. Treat it like a password — don’t put it in a public repository, a shared spreadsheet, or client-side code in a web page.

Authenticating

Every request needs your key in the X-API-Key header.

curl --header "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" https://helpout.us/api/v1/ping

Requests without a valid key return 401 Unauthorized.

Base URL

https://helpout.us/api/v1

Endpoints

Method	Path	Returns
GET	`/ping`	Your account’s email address — use it to verify a key works
GET	`/events`	Every event across every team you belong to, newest first
GET	`/events/:id`	A single event
GET	`/events/:event_id/responses`	Every response and contribution for an event

Events are addressed by their slug — the last part of the event’s web address. An event at helpout.us/events/walnut-grove-science-fair has the id walnut-grove-science-fair.

If you’re on more than one team in HelpOut, `/events` returns events from all of them, not just the ones you personally created. If you’re the only person on your team, nothing about this changes what you get back.

Events

curl --header "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  https://helpout.us/api/v1/events

Each event includes its id, url, title, eventat, description (as plain text and as HTML), eventtype, location, owner, imageurl if a header image is attached, and timestamps. Gift It! events also include recipientname, recipient_email, and the contributions total.

Responses

curl --header "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  https://helpout.us/api/v1/events/walnut-grove-science-fair/responses

Responses and contributions come back in one list, and the fields tell them apart:

Show Up! responses have quantity and rsvp
Bring It! and Sign Up! responses have quantity and a slots array. Each entry in slots has a name and a quantity, which is how many of that item or time the guest claimed. On Sign Up! events each slot also carries start_date and end_date.
Gift It! contributions have amount and processing_fee

All timestamps are UTC in ISO 8601 format.

Rate Limits

Endpoint	Limit
`/events` and `/events/:id/responses`	100 requests per minute
`/ping`	10 requests per minute

Going over returns 429 Too Many Requests. If you’re syncing on a schedule, poll every few minutes rather than continuously — event data doesn’t change that fast.

Scope

The API is read-only. Events, responses, and contributions can’t be created or changed through it, and it only ever returns data your key’s owner can already see in HelpOut — their own team’s events, or every team’s events if they belong to more than one.