For student clubs
Club event RSVPs on WhatsApp, in one guest list
Avently sends each member their own WhatsApp invitation with Yes and No buttons, asks the members who say yes about food, and writes every answer to one guest list. Your executive sees the count before anyone orders the food.
The problems
Replies in four places
A form for the welcome night, another for the iftar, a ticket page for the gala, and replies in the group chat in between. Nobody on the executive has the whole count, and whoever holds the forms spends the week before each event merging them.
Food ordered before the number is known
Club money is tight, and it is often paid back only after the event. Order for 80 and have 45 turn up, and the club absorbs the difference. Order for 45 and have 80 turn up, and some members go without a meal.
The list leaves with the executive
The member list lives in the Outreach Director’s phone or personal Drive. When they graduate in spring, next year’s executive starts again from the group chat, just before the student union asks for an up-to-date membership list.
What Avently does
- Sends each member a WhatsApp message addressed to them by name, with the event name, date, and Yes, No and STOP buttons.
- Sends members who say yes a link to a mobile event page with the venue, a maps link and add-to-calendar buttons.
- Asks the members who say yes your follow-up questions, such as a dietary list (vegetarian, vegan, halal, none) as a list menu. Members who say no get a thank-you and nothing more.
- Understands typed replies like “yes” or “sure”, and lets a member reply CHANGE to change their answer.
- Sends reminders when you choose, only to members who have not answered, at most two each.
- Writes every answer to a guest list in the Google Drive of the account you connect, and shows it on a live dashboard. Connect the club’s Google account and the list stays with the club.
- Handles up to 250 guests per event.
Hi Amara 👋 You’ve been invited by Sarah to Annual Members’ Dinner on 7 November. Can you make it? Tap a button below to RSVP.
Yes, I’ll be there
Can’t make it
STOP - Opt out
What it costs
The first 25 invitations each month are free. After that, the club pays per invitation sent. See pricing.
What it doesn’t do yet
- It is not an attendance roster. Avently records who said yes, not who came. There is no check-in.
- It only reaches members on WhatsApp. There is no text-message fallback for members who are not on WhatsApp.
- Invitations do not reach US phone numbers. Members with Canadian numbers, and most other countries, receive them; members with US numbers do not.
- No message to all confirmed guests. If the room or time changes, tell confirmed members yourself.
- No links to Instagram, Discord, Eventbrite or Google Forms. Avently runs its own invitations and guest list.
Common questions
Is Avently free for student clubs?
The first 25 invitations each month are free for every account. Past that, you pay per invitation sent, so a small club event can cost nothing and a larger one is priced by the number of members you invite. See the pricing page for current rates.
Do members need to download an app?
No. Members answer in WhatsApp by tapping a button or typing a reply. The event details open as a web page on their phone.
Can we invite members who have US phone numbers?
Not with invitations. Meta blocks this category of message to US numbers, so members with a US number will not receive them. Canadian numbers and most other countries work.
What happens to our guest lists when the executive changes?
Each guest list is kept in the Google Drive of the Google account connected to Avently. If the club connects a shared club Google account, next year’s executive signs in to the same account and finds every list there. If an executive connects a personal account, the lists stay in their Drive.
Can we use the guest list for our student union paperwork?
The guest list shows who said yes and their answers to your questions, with the date they replied. It is not a record of who attended, so check what your student union asks for before you submit it.
Get started
Send your next event’s invitations on WhatsApp and see who is coming, and what they eat, in one guest list. The first 25 invitations each month are free.