If you’re part of a higher education team managing campus events, you’ve probably felt the pressure to do more with less—fewer staff, tighter budgets, and rising expectations for measurable ROI. But here’s the truth: most universities aren’t tracking the right event data. And without it, proving success is next to impossible.
In this blog, we’ll walk through your Salesforce event planning checklist for higher ed so your team can ditch the spreadsheets, align across departments, and finally show the real impact of your events.
Why Higher Education Event Tracking Matters
Today’s universities are running dozens, if not hundreds, of events every semester: from open houses and admitted student days to alumni galas and career fairs. But are you capturing the data that drives engagement, applications, donations, or student retention?
So how do you make sure your team is set up to track and manage events effectively in Salesforce? That’s where this next section comes in.
Your Salesforce Event Planning Checklist for Higher Ed
Use this checklist to ensure you capture the full scope of your event lifecycle before, during, and after each event.
Before the Event
Set your team up for success by handling logistics, personalization, and data setup early, right from Salesforce.
1. Event Campaign Set-Up
Use Education Cloud to create a campaign for each event. This helps associate registrations, outreach, and outcomes all in one place.
2. Personalized Invitations with Prefilled Contact Info
Use merge fields in emails to auto-fill contact details like first name, program of interest, or graduation year. With a tool like Blackthorn’s AttendeeLink, known contacts receive personalized links that open prefilled registration forms, reducing friction and boosting completion rates.
3. Start with a Template or Clone a Previous Event
Salesforce-native apps like Blackthorn support templates and cloning features so you can spin up events faster, with consistent branding, logic, and workflows without needing to rebuild.
4. Audience Segmentation
Define and tag your audience: Prospective Students, Current Students, Alumni, Donors, Parents, or Employers.
5. Registration Source Tracking
Capture UTMs or referrer data to identify whether attendees came from email, social media, SMS, or referral links.
6. Capacity & Waitlist Data
Ensure registration forms and landing pages connect directly to Salesforce so capacity thresholds and waitlists are automatically tracked.
7. RSVP Automation Setup
Schedule automated RSVP follow-ups to improve attendance rates.
During the Event
Keep everything running smoothly with real-time tools that connect onsite activity directly to your data.
8. Real-Time Notifications for Last-Minute Changes
Keep attendees in the loop with SMS or push notifications sent directly from Salesforce. Blackthorn’s native capabilities shine here, especially when sessions shift due to weather or venue changes.
9. Attendance Tracking
Use QR code check-ins or self-service kiosks to instantly sync attendee status with their attendee or campaign member record.
10. Onsite Issue Notes
If a donor mentions interest in a specific program, log it on their Salesforce record right then and there.
After the Event
Turn insights into action by tracking outcomes, measuring impact, and driving personalized follow-up.
11. Follow-Up Emails & Surveys
Trigger personalized thank-yous, surveys, or “next step” CTAs depending on audience type (e.g., donate, apply, meet with a rep).
12. Evaluate the Success of Your Campaign Compared to Similar Events
Set up automation to mark campaign members as Attended, No Show, or Waitlisted based on check-in data. This ensures consistent tracking and makes it easier to report on outcomes, compare event performance, and build targeted follow-up lists, all within Salesforce.
13. Pipeline Attribution
Connect event attendance to outcomes: Did they apply? Enroll? Donate? Book a meeting? Use reporting in Blackthorn to find out.
14. ROI Dashboarding
Combine event cost data with engagement outcomes to calculate event ROI in Salesforce and share it with leadership.
Pro Tip: Keep All Your Data in One Place
Higher ed institutions using Salesforce-native campus event management software unlock massive value. Track alumni engagement, link event attendance to advancement metrics, and connect participation data to stewardship cycles or future giving likelihood. For admissions and student success teams, event data can also reveal trends in retention, like whether students who attend orientation or advising sessions are more likely to enroll next term.
Why This Matters for Advancement, Admissions, and Student Success
Whether you’re hosting a virtual info session or a 500-person fundraising gala, understanding how people interact with your events is critical. With a proper event planning checklist, advancement teams can finally see who actually attended, admissions can fine-tune outreach, and campus operations can prove ROI and resource efficiency.
Don’t Just Run Events–Measure Them
With your event planning checklist in place, you’re ready to run higher ed events that truly matter. From managing campus events in Salesforce to automating RSVP follow-ups, it’s time to move beyond spreadsheets and disconnected tools.
Ready to stop juggling tools and start running smarter events?
Schedule a demo and see how Blackthorn works inside Salesforce.
