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Create an event campaign

Give volunteers and staff the tools to host their own events.

Event campaigns let your supporters and staff create and submit events using a set of defaults you define. As an Admin, you control the event types available, the approval process, default messaging, and more. Each event campaign generates its own unique form URL that you can share with potential hosts.

Before You Start

Event campaigns can be configured by Admins under the Event Campaigns tab. You can run multiple campaigns simultaneously — for example, one for house party hosts and another for a weekend of action — since each campaign supports its own instructions, date ranges, and event types.

Create an event campaign

Navigate to the Event Campaigns tab in your dashboard, then click Create new event campaign

Work through the following configurations:

  • Title — The name of your event campaign form.

  • Slug — The URL you'll share with potential hosts (e.g., mobilize.us/yourslug/event/create/). Choose something clear and memorable.

  • Description — An overview of the campaign shown to hosts when they open the form. Supports Markdown formatting.

Access and approval

  • Who can access the campaign — Decide whether the form is open to the public, limited to your organization's supporters, or restricted to staff only. Read more here: Recruit Volunteer Hosts

  • Who can approve submitted events — Choose whether events require approval before going live, and designate who can approve them (admins, organizers, or trusted volunteer hosts). See Manage Volunteer Hosted Events for details on the approval workflow.

  • Organization email — Enter a contact email for your organization. Best practice is to use a monitored alias like [email protected]. This is used for host communication and notifications.

Host instructions and defaults

  • Post-approval instructions — After an event is approved, Mobilize sends the host an automated email. Use this field to include resources, next steps, or anything else hosts need to get started.

  • Event types — Select one or more event types. Hosts will only be able to choose from the types you select here.

  • Default event title — Set a naming convention for hosts to follow. Using brackets (e.g., [City] Canvass with [Your Name]) helps hosts know exactly what to customize.

  • Default event description — Pre-populate the event description to set tone, include key talking points, or provide a template hosts can edit.

Images, scheduling, and sharing

  • Event images — Upload approved images for your events. Mobilize rotates these randomly so you maintain visual consistency across host-created events.

  • Date and time restrictions — Optionally limit when events can be scheduled (useful for weekends of action or time-bound campaigns).

  • Recurring events — Choose whether to allow hosts to create recurring events. For one-time events like watch parties, disable this option.

  • Social media customization — Event campaigns support the same social sharing customization as your main feed.
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Pre-fill your Host an Event forms

Use URL Params to pre-fill your event campaign submission form with host information or a personalized event description when linking to your Host an Event form in host recruitment campaigns.

For example: https://www.mobilize.us/yourslug/event/create/?event_description=whatever+you+want!&[email protected]

Available URL parameters to use are: event_description, host_first_name, host_last_name, host_phone, and host_email

How Event Campaigns Sync to VAN and ActionKit

Events created through Mobilize’s event campaign feature will be synced with your integrations like other Mobilize events. However, these events will only be synced after they have been approved. The VAN integration allows event hosts to be synced to VAN, which can be accessed on the VAN settings page of your dashboard. There you will see a column titled “Host VAN Role,” which will map event hosts in Mobilize to the same role in VAN.

If you are using VAN, the event type that you choose in initial setup will need to be mapped in your VAN settings. Person record matching as well as volunteer attendance statuses and roles will all be synced in the usual fashion once the event has been approved.

Event campaign events will be included with your other promoted events to be displayed on promoting organizations Public Feed.

VAN

  • A source code will be attached to events created by volunteer hosts reading Volunteer Created.

  • Adds a tag to event attendees recruited through volunteer created events called `Volunteer Recruited`

ActionKit

  • Adds a custom field to the events data model {event_host_type: volunteer}

  • Adds a custom field to the signups data model `{event_host_type: volunteer}’

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