It was pointed out by a donor that they couldn't make just a gift on our event page.  That in order to do that they still need to be a registrant.  I tried myself and they were correct-I thought when I set the page up that donors could just plop in an amount under the “additional donation” part but you can’t unless you are registered.  So I contacted support because this just didn’t make any sense.

The first answer I was given by support was to have them go to our regular giving page.  That is unacceptable. If we send out an email for the event I shouldn't have to include two links (one for tickets and one for gifts) it will be confusing plus how would we know if it was a donation for general operating or to the benefit on the regular giving page without donors noting what the gift was for?  Donors should not have to jump through extra hoops or write in comments what their gift is for-making a gift should be easy not cumbersome. 

The other option that support gave us (because this is a problem for other organizations)  was to set up a zero registration which was the “work around” that other organizations are doing, which is unacceptable.  Again that is confusing, an explanation would need to be provided (In order to make a gift to this event please do a zero registration and then put your gift amount in the additional gift field) and what if people thought they could do the zero registration and attend the event for free? 

In short donors should have the option of NOT attending the event but still making a gift to said event on the event page.