FAQ - Organizing an Exchange
There are three different ways of inviting people to join in an Elfster gift exchange.
- 1. Enter each person's email address into our bulk invite box
- 2. Invite people from your address book such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL
- 3. Share a sign-up link that you can put in an email, on a blog/online community or in your Facebook feed
Yes. You can share the sign up link on your Facebook wall by clicking "Invite your Facebook Friends" on the Exchange homepage. You can also copy the sign up link (Control + C) and paste it (Control + V) into your Google Group/Yahoo Group/etc., or post it on your blog or online forum. Anyone who clicks on the link will be able to join the exchange.
Names are automatically drawn the day after the sign up deadline.
Tip: If you have
already gotten all of the responses from your exchange participants before the
sign-up deadline, you can initiate the draw yourself by clicking on the
"Draw names" button at the top of the exchange home page. Once names have been
drawn, no more people can be added to the exchange.
Yes. To do this:
- + Go to your Exchange homepage
- + Click on the
name of the person you want to restrict - this will bring you to
their individual setup page
- + On this page
you will see a list of all the other people in the
exchange
- + Choose the people you don't want
the selected person to be able to draw and then click the "Save"
button.
Yes. To do this, go to the exchange homepage and click on "Peek at draw".
Tip: To see just a specific participant's draw without viewing everyone's draw:
- + Go to the
Exchange homepage
- + Click on the person's name in the list of replies
- + Click the "Show me their draw"
link at the top of the page - their draw name will be displayed at the top of the page
- + Click the "Hide" link to hide
the name.
Yes. To to this:
- + Enter their first and last name as usual on the exchange
home page
-
- + For the email address, just use your own email address, that way any email
messages for "offline" participants will be directed to
you - as the organizer, you can accept on behalf of the person
without even viewing the email
- + From the Exchange homepage, click on the
person's name - this will take you to their individual setup page
- + Click on the "Accept for this person"
button
- + You can then communicate the exchange details with
offline participants in whatever way is most convenient for them.
You should fix this before drawing names and before the sign-up
deadline. To fix it:
- + Go to the Exchange homepage
- + Click on
the person with the wrong email address
- + Click on the button next to their email
address that says "Change" (if you did not originally add this person to Elfster, the message will be a bit different)
- + Enter their correct email
address, and click the "Change" button.
Yes. Both can register via the sign-up link. Warning: When multiple people are signing up
from the same computer, make sure you log off before signing up the next person. Any email they receive from Elfster will always include the name of the person it is for, so
that it is easy to keep things straight.
Make sure participants have added santa@elfster.com to their address book. Also, make sure they check
their junk mail or bulk mail folders. If you are in an office environment, let your IT team know
that you are expecting and want to receive email from the address santa@elfster.com.
Tip:You can send them the sign-up link instead.
To do this:
- + Click the "Undo draw" button
- + Add the person
- + Accept on their behalf
- + Draw names again
-
Warning: This will reshuffle the names
so be sure to tell your participants' draws have changed.
It's a little more work but it's possible, as you should first jot down who each person drew. To do this:
- + Go to the Exchange homepage
- + Click on each person's name and click the "Show me their draw" button and write it down
- + Back on the Exchange homepage, click the "Undo draw" button
- + Add or remove people from the exchange as you normally would
-
- + RSVP on behalf of the new participant without actually sending an invitation since you know for sure that they will be participating
- + Go into each participant's settings page and check as excluded everyone but their previously assigned person
- + Go to the exchange home page and click "draw names"
- + Finally, go back and unckeck the restrictions so that they don't apply to future exchanges
-
To do this:
- + Click on their name from the Exchange homepage
- + Click the "remove this person" button
Note: If names have already
been drawn, Elfster will make the necessary adjustments.
Think of the exchange like a circle where everyone is buying
for the person on their right. When a person is removed, we
close the circle by telling the person to the left of the
deleted person that they now have to buy for the person
to the right of the deleted person. We'll send an email to let them know, but as the organizer you may want to follow up yourself as well.
By default, the organizer of an exchange is automatically added to an exchange as a participant.
You don't have to add yourself in. If you will not be participating in the exchange
but only organizing it, when you create the exchange, uncheck the box that says
"Include yourself in exchange".
Can't find your question in the list? Send an email to
help@elfster.com.
We will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
