Coronavirus Response: How to Support Your Community

Posted by CG Kennedy

graphic showing people virtually connected with text saying How to Support Your Community

As the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) affects gatherings in schools, churches, college campuses and more, the SignUpGenius team is committed to supporting community organizers. We’ve seen coronavirus affect our community here in Charlotte, N.C., and we want to do our part to empower you as you work to take care of the people around you.

We recommend that anyone organizing groups of people in the United States follows the CDC’s guidelines on preventing COVID-19’s spread in communities. They have also provided tips on how to prepare in case COVID-19 spreads in your community. If you live outside the U.S., please see the World Health Organization’s latest updates on the spread of the disease.

Canceling or Postponing Your Event

Please reach out to our support team if you need assistance with your sign ups, and we’ll help as soon as we can. If you need to cancel or postpone your event, here are some tips that could help:

If you need to communicate with people who have signed up on an active sign up, the simplest way to get in touch is to email them from the Messages area of your account.
In addition to emailing group members, you can turn off automatic reminders by viewing reminder settings within a sign up, so that participants do not receive a reminder for a canceled or rescheduled event. After reminders are turned off, you can add an access code so that no one can access the sign up until the event is rescheduled or more information is sent to update the group.
Need to refund people for payments made through a sign up? You can fully or partially refund a buyer by accessing the Admin’s Toolbar at the top of your sign up and clicking the Add/Edit/Delete People button. You will see the refund icon next to each person who has signed up and paid.

Transitioning from an In-Person to Online Event

If you’re able to meet online in lieu of an in-person event, here are a few of the most affordable options we found:

Google announced that G Suite and G Suite for Education customers will be able to access advanced Hangouts Meet features.
Zoom offers a free plan where you can host up to 100 participants for up to 40 minutes, with an unlimited number of meetings. Their paid plans offer a longer meeting duration (up to 24 hours long) if that is better for your group.
If you need to communicate with a larger group of people at a certain time and want them to tune into a live stream, YouTube has instructions on how to live stream on their platform. If you want to communicate via social media, you can live stream to your friends on Facebook and within Facebook Groups, or you can stream to your followers on Instagram.

How to Help Remotely

We’re already seeing hundreds of sign ups flood our site in response to COVID-19. Here are some ideas of how you can support your community while remaining at home to best prevent spreading the virus:

Collect money on a sign up to provide food for kids living with food insecurity who don’t have access to school meals anymore or elderly people who are more at-risk. Once the money is collected, you can use it to set up a food delivery service that will keep fridges stocked with groceries. You can also donate to an organization like Meals on Wheels, which provides food to senior citizens who can't go out and buy groceries.
Schedule cleaning shifts and recruit small groups of volunteers to disinfect offices, classrooms, places of worship, etc.
Hospitals, urgent care centers and more can set up medical training shifts, screening clinic appointments, and other healthcare-related activities that will help test for and prevent the virus.
Local government agencies and community groups can staff a COVID-19 helpline and remotely communicate with call center workers through a sign up.
Set up smaller meetings with people (and link to an online meeting site in the sign up description) for information sessions, response strategy collaboration and beyond.

Create a Sign Up

In a time when it seems like the best thing to do for our global community is to physically isolate, it can feel like we are helpless to do anything together. But as we’ve already seen through the sign ups you’re creating, it’s still possible — and still necessary — to take care of each other.

As we're thoroughly washing our hands and self-quarantining to prevent the spread of this virus, let’s join forces to look after our loved ones, neighbors and community.

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Coronavirus Response: How to Support Your Community

graphic showing people virtually connected with text saying How to Support Your Community

Canceling or Postponing Your Event

Please reach out to our support team if you need assistance with your sign ups, and we’ll help as soon as we can. If you need to cancel or postpone your event, here are some tips that could help:

If you need to communicate with people who have signed up on an active sign up, the simplest way to get in touch is to email them from the Messages area of your account.
In addition to emailing group members, you can turn off automatic reminders by viewing reminder settings within a sign up, so that participants do not receive a reminder for a canceled or rescheduled event. After reminders are turned off, you can add an access code so that no one can access the sign up until the event is rescheduled or more information is sent to update the group.
Need to refund people for payments made through a sign up? You can fully or partially refund a buyer by accessing the Admin’s Toolbar at the top of your sign up and clicking the Add/Edit/Delete People button. You will see the refund icon next to each person who has signed up and paid.

Transitioning from an In-Person to Online Event

If you’re able to meet online in lieu of an in-person event, here are a few of the most affordable options we found:

Google announced that G Suite and G Suite for Education customers will be able to access advanced Hangouts Meet features.
Zoom offers a free plan where you can host up to 100 participants for up to 40 minutes, with an unlimited number of meetings. Their paid plans offer a longer meeting duration (up to 24 hours long) if that is better for your group.
If you need to communicate with a larger group of people at a certain time and want them to tune into a live stream, YouTube has instructions on how to live stream on their platform. If you want to communicate via social media, you can live stream to your friends on Facebook and within Facebook Groups, or you can stream to your followers on Instagram.

How to Help Remotely

Collect money on a sign up to provide food for kids living with food insecurity who don’t have access to school meals anymore or elderly people who are more at-risk. Once the money is collected, you can use it to set up a food delivery service that will keep fridges stocked with groceries. You can also donate to an organization like Meals on Wheels, which provides food to senior citizens who can't go out and buy groceries.
Schedule cleaning shifts and recruit small groups of volunteers to disinfect offices, classrooms, places of worship, etc.
Hospitals, urgent care centers and more can set up medical training shifts, screening clinic appointments, and other healthcare-related activities that will help test for and prevent the virus.
Local government agencies and community groups can staff a COVID-19 helpline and remotely communicate with call center workers through a sign up.
Set up smaller meetings with people (and link to an online meeting site in the sign up description) for information sessions, response strategy collaboration and beyond.

Create a Sign Up

As we're thoroughly washing our hands and self-quarantining to prevent the spread of this virus, let’s join forces to look after our loved ones, neighbors and community.