Customer Snapshot
- Event Founded: 2008
- Amount Fundraised: $24K+ ($50K+ between multiple events)
- Years on GiveSignup: 3 years
- Team Fundraisers: 30+
About Autism Society of Texas
Every spring, Autism Society of Texas brings its community together for the Texas Autism Walk in Cedar Park, supporting programs that connect people with Autism, their families, and caregivers to resources across the state. After years of cobbling together donor-management software and Google Forms to run an event-scale walk, the organization moved to GiveSignup — and has steadily expanded how it uses the platform ever since.
The Challenge for the Organization
Before GiveSignup, the team relied on their previous platforms — tools built for donation management rather than event registration. Without built-in t-shirt sizing or team tools, staff resorted to Google Forms and manual spreadsheets to track sizes and team rosters, a process Kate Ferguson, who has been with the organization for six years, said the team had tried “probably the fourth or fifth” platform before landing on GiveSignup. The breaking point came after the organization’s 2023 Autism Walk, where sizing and team-management issues made clear the previous system couldn’t keep up.
We just love how easy GiveSignup is to use… all the tools are so well designed for walk-run events..
Jacquie Benestante — Autism Society of Texas
Features That Drive Results
Business Team Registration
New this year, the business/corporate team feature lets companies register employees as a group and handle payment on the back end. The Autism Society of Texas used it for the first time at the El Paso Autism Walk & 5K with El Paso Electric Company, and plans to bring it to the Texas Autism Walk going forward.
Inventory Management for T-Shirts
Also new this year: automatic t-shirt inventory tracking that closes off sizes as they sell out, replacing a manual process that previously left the team guessing — and disappointing walkers on event day.
That is amazing… to have that inventory tool — this was the first year we used that, and it was phenomenal..
Kate Ferguson & Jacquie Benestante — Autism Society of Texas
Fundraiser Retention (“Bring Back My Fundraiser”)
The platform’s fundraiser-retention setting carries returning fundraisers’ pages over year to year and prompts team captains to bring their teams back, automatically re-inviting past team members. The organization plans to keep this setting active for future events.
Email Marketing
The team uses GiveSignup’s built-in email tools to message current and past participants, with the ability to filter recipients — for example, separating messaging to virtual walk registrants from in-person participants — something the team said was far simpler than previous workarounds involving Mailchimp exports.
Thank You for Registering Email
Event Details Email
Post Thank You Email
RaceDay CheckIn App
On event day, the team uses the RaceDay CheckIn App for a streamlined process, plus day-of, walk-up registration for participants who show up without registering in advance — allowing the team to close online registration ahead of time while still accommodating late walk-ups. Volunteers were trained via a homemade video ahead of the event.
Event Flexibility Tools
When a venue fell through in 2024 and the walk had to move dates by three weeks, the team discovered GiveSignup’s built-in postponement and rescheduling tools — features developed in response to COVID-era event disruptions — after already having rebuilt the event manually.
Why It Worked
Beyond the feature set, the team pointed to GiveSignup’s support team as a differentiator. When a last-minute parking-fee issue threatened to require refunding every registrant at the El Paso walk, the account management team resolved it with a backend funds transfer rather than mass refunds.
We’re always so grateful… it’s like, we can do this, we can fix this..
Jacquie Benestante — Autism Society of Texas
Summary
Three years in, Autism Society of Texas has gone from patchwork workarounds to a steadily expanding feature set — business teams, inventory management, and fundraiser retention among the latest additions — with GiveSignup’s registration, communication, and race-day tools now central to how the organization runs both the Texas Autism Walk and its El Paso event.
