Event Types

Choosing a Type

Every HelpOut event is one of four types, chosen in the first step of the event builder. The type decides what your guests are asked for and how their answers are organized.

Type	The question it asks	Best for
Show Up!	“Are you coming, and how many?”	Meetings, game nights, back-to-school nights, parties where you just need a headcount
Bring It!	“What will you bring?”	Potlucks, class parties, teacher appreciation weeks, snack bars, supply drives
Sign Up!	“Which shift will you take?”	Parent-teacher conferences, volunteer shifts, carpool schedules, tryout times
Gift It!	“Will you chip in?”	Coach’s gift, teacher’s gift, retirement gift, end-of-season thank you

Picking Between Them

Do you need a number, or a list? If you only need to know how many people are coming, use Show Up!. If you need to know who is covering what, use Bring It! or Sign Up!.

Is it about things, or about times? Bring It! gives guests a list of items with a limit on each. Sign Up! gives guests a calendar of time slots. If your volunteers need to be at a particular place at a particular time, use Sign Up!.

Are you collecting money? Only Gift It! collects contributions, and only toward a gift card for one named recipient. HelpOut is not a general fundraising tool — for selling tickets, memberships, or products, use FutureFund instead.

Nothing stops you from running more than one event for the same occasion. A class party often works best as a **Show Up!** event for the headcount plus a **Bring It!** event for the food.

What Every Type Has in Common

Regardless of type, every event gets:

Its own shareable page with a title, description, and header image
Email invitations, a copyable link, and a printable QR code
An Entries tab that updates live and downloads as a spreadsheet
A Messages tab for emailing everyone who responded
Email confirmations sent to guests automatically

The event type can’t be changed once the event exists.