INTRODUCTION
For mission-driven education nonprofits, events are where advocacy and relationships come to life: donor dinners, policy convenings, staff retreats, and partner meetings that move the work forward. But when you are a lean team juggling national programming, even a single last-minute dinner in another city can derail your week.
That was the reality for Ray Galloway, Operations and Events Manager at The Education Trust, a U.S.-based nonprofit advocacy organization focused on educational equity for students of color and students from low-income families. Ray manages all events for the organization’s national office, from multi-state advocacy meetings to internal retreats and staff engagement activities.
When The Education Trust began increasing its mix of smaller, off-site experiences—happy hours, intimate VIP dinners, and team‑building lunches—Ray needed a way to source restaurants and private dining spaces with the same efficiency and rigor they already applied to hotel sourcing on the Cvent Supplier Network. That’s where the Cvent Vendor Marketplace, Powered by Reposite, came in.
CHALLENGE
Time‑Consuming, Manual Restaurant Sourcing
Ray’s portfolio includes both national education events and internal programming. The number of events for the organization is beginning to climb as they lean into more dinners and relationship-focused experiences. Event sizes for the non-profit range from small boardroom-style gatherings of 15–25 attendees up to the organization’s largest 180-person convention.
“For six restaurants in a particular city,” Ray notes, “I would have to go into six different websites, put in the information six different times to see if this space is even available.” Because the work was layered on top of Ray’s core responsibilities, it stretched across multiple days. For a nonprofit with tight budgets and high expectations from funders, every hour sunk into basic research was an hour not invested in strategy, content, or stakeholder management. Ray needed a way to bring the same structured, technology-enabled sourcing discipline they had for hotels to restaurants and small off-sites—without adding staff or sacrificing control.
SOLUTION
Simplified Sourcing on the Cvent Vendor Marketplace, Powered by Reposite
Reposite’s curated marketplace and AI-assisted RFP workflow replace manual online searches with a centralized, planner-friendly workspace. Ray discovered Reposite while searching for a better way to handle restaurant sourcing, especially for VIP dinners, happy hours, and other small-format experiences.
When Reposite became available, I thought, this is perfect. I can do team‑building lunches and dinners and things of that nature.
A High-Stakes Test: VIP CEO Dinner in Austin
The real test came when The Education Trust’s CEO, traveling to a conference in Austin, decided at the last minute to host a private dinner for 12 VIP guests in a city where Ray wasn’t on the ground.
Instead of a multi-day manual search, Ray submitted a single RFP through Reposite, and curated viable options within the required walking radius and budget. Five restaurants responded to the RFP; Ray pre-vetted them, excluding any out-of-budget options or those with insufficient menu diversity, and passed along a short list of three finalists for executive review. The chosen restaurant not only met the criteria but also flexed as the guest list grew beyond the original 12, accommodating additional attendees without sacrificing the space's intimacy.
The result?
(Sourcing on Reposite) was a lift off my shoulders. The happiest person was the CEO, because everyone enjoyed the restaurant, and it made her look good because she was able to make this happen in Austin. Using that example of that last-minute turnaround enabled us to contract with Reposite. And we have just renewed our contract with Reposite for another year.
RESULTS
Hours Saved, Stress Reduced, and Strategic Capacity Unlocked
Although The Education Trust is still relatively early in its Reposite adoption curve, Ray already sees clear operational impact—particularly in time savings and executive satisfaction.
With Reposite, I can just go into [the tool], create that RFP, put in the city, and then it will send it out to all the restaurants that fall within that category and have a private dining room in that particular city. That saves me at least two to three hours of work each day that I would have to do that.
BEST PRACTICES
Scaling High‑Impact, Equity‑Focused Events
The Education Trust’s next fiscal year will see an uptick in both education-focused state events and relationship-driven dinners, driven in part by the CEO’s desire to host more of these intimate experiences. Armed with Cvent’s event management platform and Reposite’s vendor sourcing capabilities, Ray and other nonprofits can leverage technology to improve their sourcing experience, regardless of the event's size and scope. Other non-profits can create similar benefits:
- Handle more events with the same staff, thanks to consistent time savings on vendor sourcing.
- Keep a tight grip on nonprofit budgets and optics, quickly screening out venues that exceed room rate or F&B expectations.
- Shift focus from manual research to strategic design—ensuring every event advances the organization’s core mission: equity in public education.
CHALLENGE
- Restaurant and private dining sourcing was manual and fragmented—searching Google, visiting individual websites, checking capacity, submitting separate RFPs, and waiting on scattered responses—which stretched across days and pulled time away from strategy and stakeholder management.
- Last-minute requests caused stress and unpredictable outcomes since the planner would often not be on-site.
SOLUTION
- Reposite’s curated marketplace and AI-assisted RFP workflow centralize vendor and restaurant sourcing in a single, planner-friendly workspace, eliminating the need for manual online searches.
- Collecting relevant information in a streamlined format enabled the organization to make best-fit decisions easily.
- With a single RFP through Reposite, Ray received five restaurant responses, vetted them, and secured a restaurant that met all criteria and comfortably flexed as the guest list grew.
RESULTS
- Saving 2–3 hours per sourcing request by using Reposite instead of manual Google and website research.
- Reposite delivers faster turnaround and a smoother stakeholder experience.
- Successful sourcing on the Cvent Vendor Marketplace strengthened executive confidence, supported the decision to contract with Reposite, and enabled expansion of small-format, relationship-driven events without adding headcount.
Why Cvent
