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October 22, 2026

Case Studies – United Way of Central Florida

Adam Hausman

For families with young children, a free class at a neighborhood park can be a lifeline. For a working adult with a modest income, a free tax prep appointment can mean real money back in their pocket. In both cases, the value disappears quickly if people drive across town, wait for an hour, and then get turned away at the door.

That makes registration and capacity planning a big part of how nonprofits deliver on their mission. Families need to know a spot is waiting for them, and staff need accurate numbers and data to plan, report, and reach the people who need them most.

Recently, RSVPify sat down with Gretchen Ceranic, Chief Impact Officer at United Way of Central Florida (UWCF), to learn how her team has used RSVPify for roughly four years to make sure every family who shows up at its Children’s Resource Center has a seat waiting for them.

About United Way of Central Florida

United Way of Central Florida works to strengthen families and communities across the region, with a focus on serving low to moderate income households with the highest need. One of its signature programs is the Carol Jenkins Barnett United Way Children’s Resource Center at Bonnet Springs Park in Lakeland, which offers free weekly developmental classes for children from birth to age five alongside a parent or caregiver.

The center’s programming includes one of the only Down syndrome playgroups in Central Florida, along with parenting trainings, sign language classes, and a free tax prep service each winter and spring. As Chief Impact Officer, Gretchen oversees this work and relies on clear data to show the board, donors, and the wider community who the center is reaching.

The Challenge: First Come, First Served

Before RSVPify, the Children’s Resource Center ran its classes on a first-come, first-served basis. That approach started to break down once the center moved to its new park location, where demand grew. Each class is capped at 12 children for good reason. Space is limited, and with 15 or 16 kids in the room, nobody gets much out of the session and families leave frustrated.

“We didn’t want families to pack their little ones up, drive 15, 30 minutes, and get turned away.”

The free tax prep program faced the same problem with higher stakes. Many of the people it serves are elderly, low-income, or hourly workers, and some would arrive an hour or more early hoping to get a spot. Others took the day off work, waited for hours, and were still turned away at the end of the day. For families living on hourly wages, a lost day is a real financial hit.

The center needed to:
- Guarantee a spot to every family who planned a trip to a class or appointment
- Hold each developmental class to its 12-child capacity
- Give families an easy way to cancel so open spots could go to someone else
- Collect registration details, waivers, and demographic data in one place
- Reduce the flood of phone calls that came in every tax season

The RSVPify Solution

RSVPify now powers registration for every class, specialty session, and tax prep appointment at the Children’s Resource Center. Families know their spot is secured before they leave home, and the UWCF team has the information it needs to plan, report, and reach new families.

Before RSVPify, families could arrive to find classes full. With RSVPify, families reserve a spot in developmental classes online before leaving home.

Guaranteed Spots, Every Week: Registration for the following week’s classes opens every Friday at noon. Gretchen’s team found that timing works best, since families who sign up much earlier tend to forget or have plans change. Each class closes at 12, so every child who comes gets the full benefit of the session. If a child spikes a fever the night before, parents can cancel on their own, and other parents often check back for openings and claim those spots right away. “The parents can sign up for the class that they’re interested in and know that they reserved that spot.”

Roughly 400 tax prep appointments booked during the season through RSVPify appointment scheduling

Tax Prep Without the Wait: With reserved appointment times, tax prep clients now arrive about five minutes early to complete paperwork and are seen on schedule. Between late January and mid-April, the center books roughly 400 appointments on top of its regular weekly programming. “These tax prep appointments have been a godsend. An individual can reserve their time and their day. There’s no long waits, there’s no potential that they get turned away.”

Fewer Calls, Less Administrative Burden: During tax season, the center typically fields about 500 phone calls. For years, staff took those calls and entered each appointment by hand, a task that had to be split across several team members. This past year, the team shared the RSVPify link directly and let people book for themselves. Staff who used to spend their days on the phone can now catch up on other work, and when someone does still call in, the team can check the dashboard and add them to an open spot directly. “It drastically cut down on our phone calls, which helped us with that administrative burden. Giving the end user the power to schedule their appointments, cancel their appointments if needed, has been really helpful for us.”

RSVPify registration reporting with demographics, locations, and data export for more meaningful outreach

Data That Drives Impact: Each family completes an annual registration that captures contact details, the child’s age, household income, demographics, and signed waivers for photo release and accidents. That gives UWCF one place to find every family’s email address and a quick, visual breakdown of who it serves, which can be exported to Excel for deeper analysis. Gretchen shares these numbers with the UWCF board and in the annual impact report sent to donors and the community. Her team also uses the location data to target outreach, boosting Facebook posts in specific zip codes and posting flyers at recreation centers in those neighborhoods. “Game changer on our end. It saves us a tremendous amount of time in multiple aspects and provides us with a lot more information than we had before.”

Reaching Families Who Need It Most: The data confirms the center is reaching the lower income families it aims to serve, and it shows where families are traveling from. Some drive 45 minutes to an hour and a half each week, often for the Down syndrome playgroup, which many discover through social media or a friend. As one parent shared with Gretchen: “My child has never seen another child that looks like them, and this is really special for us.”

Easy for the Whole Team: One administrative receptionist manages RSVPify day to day, setting up each week’s classes and creating new registration pages for one-off sessions like parenting trainings and sign language classes. Gretchen and two other team members log in as needed, mostly to check the dashboard for classes with low attendance that might need an extra marketing push. Automatic email reminders go out the day before each class, and branded emails help everything look like it comes from UWCF.

Support From Real People: For Gretchen, the support behind the platform has been just as important as the features. “We’ve never, ever had any kind of frustration when we have a question. It’s always a quick response. That’s why we stayed, really, because it’s working for us, and the support is fantastic.”

The RSVPify Factor

After about four years together, RSVPify has become central to how the Children’s Resource Center welcomes families:

Replaced first-come, first-served lines with guaranteed spots for every class and appointment

Kept developmental classes at their 12-child capacity so each child gets the full benefit

Handled roughly 400 tax prep appointments in a single season alongside weekly programming

Cut down sharply on tax season phone calls, freeing staff for other work

Delivered income, demographic, and location data for board updates, the annual impact report, and targeted outreach

Backed the team with fast, friendly human support whenever questions came up

“We love RSVPify.”

Partner with RSVPify for your nonprofit’s programs

Are you looking for an easy way to manage recurring classes, appointments, and community programs, so the people you serve never make a trip for nothing?

Contact our team to book a demo and learn more about features, pricing, and tools designed for nonprofits and community organizations of every size.

RSVPify is proud to support organizations like United Way of Central Florida as they open their doors to the families who need them most. We’d love to help tailor a solution to fit your organization.

Adam Hausman

About the Author

Adam Hausman co-founded RSVPify in 2013 and has been passionate about event tech and ticketing software ever since. Also founder of Greenlight Growth Marketing, he holds degrees from Indiana University (BA English/Psychology 2008) and the University of Illinois-Chicago (M.Ed. Secondary Education 2012). He lives in Maine with his wife, 2 kids, and 2 annoying cats.