Giving Tree Sign Up Sheet (free, online)

How to set it up

A paper giving tree works until the tags leave the building. Someone takes a tag on Sunday, forgets which child it was by Tuesday, and on the due date eleven tags are unaccounted for and two children have three gifts each. Putting the tree online fixes the part paper can't: each tag is a spot with the child's age, gender and wish, one person claims it, and the coordinator sees at a glance which tags are still open and who has what. The physical tree stays up as the invitation; the page is where the tags live.

Organizers who moved their tree to JustSignup told us the two things they liked best were that a donor claims a tag with a name and an email and nothing else, no account, and that the reminder before the due date did the chasing for them. Write the tag rows by age group rather than one per child when privacy matters ('girl, age 4, likes puzzles' is enough), and add the shifts that come after the tree on the same page: a sorting evening, a wrap morning and the delivery drivers, so the people who claimed tags can take a shift in the same visit.

Questions people ask

How do we keep the children's names private?

Don't put them on the page. Give each tag a number and a short description (age, gender, a wish), and keep the list that matches tag numbers to families offline. Donors only ever see the number, and the gift comes back labeled with it.

Can someone take more than one tag?

Yes. A donor can claim several spots in one visit, and a Sunday school class or an office can take a whole age group. Ask for a phone number at signup so the coordinator can reach them if a gift hasn't come in by the due date.

What happens when a gift doesn't arrive?

Everyone who claimed a tag gets a reminder before the due date. If a gift still isn't in, the coordinator can release the tag so it shows as open again and someone else can take it, with no paper to reprint.

What does it cost?

The first 14 days are free, every feature, no card. After that, Pro is $12 a month or $99 a year for the whole organization: unlimited tags and pages, co-organizers, hours for the volunteer shifts and no branding line. Cancel anytime.

Why not a paper sheet or a Google Form?

A paper sheet lives in one place and fills up with the first people who walk past it. A Google Form takes forty signups for a row that needed two, and you find out in the spreadsheet. An online sign-up sheet closes each row when it's covered, sends a reminder the day before, and gives every person a link to cancel so the spot reopens. See the side-by-side with Google Forms.