Getting Started with HelpOut

What HelpOut Does

HelpOut is a free tool for organizing the people around your school. If you need a sign-up sheet for a bake sale, a headcount for a team party, a schedule for parent-teacher conferences, or a group gift for a coach, HelpOut gives you a page you can share with anyone.

There is nothing to install. HelpOut runs in the browser on a phone, tablet, or computer, and the people you invite never need an account — they just open your link and respond.

HelpOut lives at helpout.us.

Signing In

HelpOut uses your FutureFund account, the same sign-in you use for FutureFund, BeeKeeper, and Connect. Go to helpout.us and click Sign In. If you don’t have a FutureFund account yet, you can create one during sign in.

Your name, email address, password, and 2-step verification are all managed on your FutureFund account. See Account and Security for what you can change inside HelpOut itself.

The Four Event Types

Every HelpOut event is one of four types. Pick the one that matches what you need from people:

Type	Use it when you need	What guests do
Show Up!	A headcount	Answer Yes, Maybe, or No and say how many are coming
Bring It!	A list of things brought	Claim items from your list
Sign Up!	People spread across times	Claim an open time slot
Gift It!	Money for a group gift	Contribute toward a gift card

Each type is covered in detail under Event Types.

Creating Your First Event

Sign in and go to Events.
Click Create Event, or click one of the four tiles to jump straight to that type.
Choose your event type and click Next.
Fill in the title, description, date and time, and anything else the type asks for.
Click Finish.

Your event page is created immediately and is live at its own link.

You can change almost everything about an event after it’s created — including the date, the items, and the header image. The one thing you can’t change is the event type.

Getting People There

Open your event and click Share. From there you can:

Copy Link — paste it into a text message, a group chat, or a social post
Paste Emails — paste a list of addresses and HelpOut emails the invitation for you
Select from Address Book — invite a saved list of contacts in one click
Download QR Code — print it on a flyer or put it on a slide

Details are in Sharing and Invitations.

Watching Responses Come In

Open your event and click Entries. The page updates on its own as people respond, so you can leave it open. You can download everything as a spreadsheet at any time with the Download button.

If you’d rather be told than check, leave Send email notifications when a response is received turned on when you create the event. HelpOut emails you every time someone responds.

What It Costs

HelpOut is 100% free. Unlimited events, unlimited guests, no contracts and no upgrade prompts.

The only money that ever moves through HelpOut is on a Gift It! event, where supporters contribute toward a gift card for someone. Those contributions carry a credit card processing fee that is added on top of the contribution so the full amount reaches the recipient. See Contributions and Payments.