The Education Trust

Introduction
Challenge
Solution
Results
Best Practices

Events managed through Cvent annually

Webinars managed per year

2-3 Hrs

Time saved per event by sourcing through by Reposite

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 hotel-based programs, Cvent’s venue sourcing tools and filters already underpin a disciplined process. Ray narrows options by:

City and sub‑area (e.g., downtown in a large city like San Antonio)
Group size
Walking distance from the main venue
Room types and configurations

Ray also values being able to view digital diagrams and layouts to understand how a room can actually be set, beyond static photos.

Where things broke down was any time a stakeholder needed a restaurant, bar, or private dining room, especially in another city. Historically, that meant a fully manual, multi-step workflow:

Conducting broad Google searches in the destination city.
Navigate to each restaurant’s individual website.
Confirming whether they had a private dining room and sufficient capacity.
Submit separate RFPs or contact forms on each site.
Waiting for scattered, asynchronous responses in email.

“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.

The constraints were non-negotiable:

Location: Within a 5–10 minute walk of the CEO’s hotel, due to mobility limitations.
Format: A private dining room to enable an elevated experience.
Cuisine: American‑style, neutral, and accessible to a diverse group.
Budget: No more than $10,000, inclusive of alcohol.
Timeline: The dinner needed to be sourced, selected, and confirmed in under a week.

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.

2–3 Hours Saved Per Sourcing Request: Ray estimates that using Reposite instead of manual Google and website sourcing saves hours per sourcing request, especially given the stop-and-start nature of fitting this research around other priorities.
Faster Turnaround and Better Stakeholder Experience: Reposite enabled Ray to:
- Receive multiple tailored proposals within 24–48 hours.
- Narrow to a vetted short list aligned to budget and experience requirements within that same window.
- Confirm the restaurant selection within 48 hours after sharing options with leadership.
Strong Executive Confidence and Program Expansion: For an advocacy nonprofit, relationship capital is everything. The Austin dinner didn’t just “work”—it elevated the CEO in front of key guests. Plus, Ray had the assurance that accessibility, budget, and menu inclusivity needs were met. In other words, Reposite helped turn a high-risk, last-minute request into a proof point for expanding small-format, relationship-driven events—without adding headcount.

screen shot of Reposite and picture of students laying in the grass

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.

A pixelated blue symbol of a dollar sign with a checkmark on a black background.

Keep a tight grip on nonprofit budgets and optics, quickly screening out venues that exceed room rate or F&B expectations.

List to do icon with blue hearts inside a blue square on a black background.

Shift focus from manual research to strategic design—ensuring every event advances the organization’s core mission: equity in public education.

Products used:

Cvent Vendor Marketplace

Find and manage vendors for all event types with one tool

Cvent Webinar

Maximize attendee engagement

Cvent Supplier Network

Find the right venue to meet your needs

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.