Help with the Covenant House Virtual Candlelight Vigil

Everything you need to know but were afraid to ask.

What is the difference between Starting a Vigil, Joining a Vigil, and Lighting a Candle?

Starting a Vigil:

If you sign up through the “Start a Vigil” link, you are given the opportunity to lead your very own Virtual Candlelight Vigil. You will be the Vigil Leader and have permission to edit the “Our Vigil” page for your Vigil team. Because you are also a participant in the Vigil, you will also get a personal page. Just like all Vigil participants, Vigil Leaders can recruit friends and family to join their Vigil using the tools in “My Vigil Headquarters.” However, Vigil Leaders have access to some tools that are not available to other Vigil participants. For example, only the Vigil Leader can run the “Our Vigil Donation Report” from “My Vigil Headquarters.” Likewise, only the Vigil Leader can register new participants to the Vigil from “My Vigil Headquarters” using the “Register New Vigil Participant” form. And only the Vigil Leader can edit the “Our Vigil” page for their Vigil.

Joining a Vigil:

If you sign up through the “Join a Vigil” link, you are first directed to select the Vigil that you would like to join. You will be asked to search the list of all Vigils currently in progress and choose the one that you would like to join. You will then be directed, via the “view” link next to the Vigil of your choice, to the main page for that Vigil. From the Vigil's page, you then click the “Join Our Vigil” page and fill out the registration form. After joining, Vigil participants can recruit friends and family to join their Vigil using the tools in “My Vigil Headquarters.” Also, All Vigil Participants can create their own Personal page, through which their friends and families can make donations which will be counted toward the Vigil participant's fundraising goals.

Lighting a Candle:

If you click the “Light a Candle” link, either from the left navigation area or from any Vigil page or Personal page, you are given the opportunity to make a donation. Every $25 donated “lights” a candle of hope and salvation for the kids at Covenant House. Unlike starting or joining a Vigil, you do not have to register for the event in order to light a candle. If you want your donation and the associated candles to count toward the fundraising goals of a particular Vigil participant, you must click the “Light a Candle” link within that participant's Personal page.

How do I Start a Vigil?

Click on “Start a Vigil” and fill out the registration form. You will be able to name your Vigil, set fundraising and participation goals, and light the first candle. A donation of $25 is required to light the first candle in your Vigil. When you Start a Vigil you become the Vigil Leader.

Hints: These are listed in the order they appear on the registration form:

  • Email Address - Sometimes several members of a family want to set up “teams”. If this is the case make sure you use a different email address for each participant.
  • Personalized Web Page Link(s) - Create a unique URL for your campaign pages. You can edit a Personal page which displays your personal fundraising goals.As the Vigil Leader, you can also edit the “Our Vigil” page for the Vigil which you created because you are the Vigil Leader. The Vigil page is sometimes referred to as the Team page.
    • Example:
      Personal Page Link: John_Doe
      Team Page Link: Team_JohnDoe
  • Determining Fundraising Goals - Setting goals is optional but having them encourages people's generosity and their participation in your Vigil. You will feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment when you achieve your goals. Only you can determine how much is realistic.
    • Personal Fundraising Goal: How much do you think you can raise through your Personal page? This includes donations you make directly, as well as donations made when another donor clicks the “Light a Candle” link from your Personal page and makes a gift.
    • Number of candles lit: Indicates how many $25 donations you think will be made through your Personal page. Each $25 increment “lights” one candle.
    • Vigil Participant Goal: How many of your friends and family can you encourage to sign up for your Vigil through the “Join My Vigil” link on your Personal page?
    • Collective Vigil Fundraising Goal: How much can all of the participants in your Vigil raise? This includes all donations made through all of the Personal pages participants in your Vigil, as well as donations made through the Vigil page itself.

How do I Join a Vigil?

You can either join a Vigil started by someone you know, or you can pick a Vigil based on geographic location or even Vigil name. Here are the three ways to search for an existing vigil:

  1. You can search for a specific Vigil by the Vigil name, Vigil Leader's name, City, State or zip code.
  2. You can search for a vigil within a certain distance from your zip code.
  3. You can browse the names of all vigils in the complete list and choose one.

Once you pick a Vigil, click “view” to be directed to the Vigil page, then click “Join Our Vigil” to fill out the registration form.

Hints: These are listed in the order they appear on the registration form:

  • Email Address - Sometimes several members of a family want to set up “teams”. If this is the case make sure you use different a email address for each participant.
  • Personalized Web Page Link(s) - Create a unique URL for your campaign pages. You can edit a Personal page which displays your personal fundraising goals.
    • Example:
      Personal Page Link: John_Doe
  • Determining Fundraising Goals - Setting goals is optional but having them encourages people's generosity and their participation in your Vigil. You will feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment when you reach your goals. Only you can determine how much is realistic.
    • Personal Fundraising Goal: How much do you think you can raise through your Personal page? This includes donations you make directly, as well as donations made when another donor clicks the “Light a Candle” link from your Personal page and makes a gift.
    • Number of candles lit: Indicates how many $25 donations you think will be made through your Personal page. Each $25 increment “lights” one candle.
    • Vigil Participant Goal: How many of your friends and family can you encourage to sign up for your Vigil through the “Join My Vigil” link on your Personal page?
    • Collective Vigil Fundraising Goal: How much can all of the participants in your Vigil raise? This includes all donations made through all of the Personal pages participants in your Vigil, as well as donations made through the Vigil page itself.

How do I Set up my Vigil Page or my Personal Page?

After your registration is complete you will be directed to “My Vigil Headquarters”. Here you will able to customize your Vigil page (if you are the Vigil Leader) and your Personal page.

Hint: All Vigils consist of a main Vigil page (it may also be referred to as the “Team page”) and Personal pages for each participating member. Personal pages link back to the main Vigil page. This means that all candles lit through a participant's Personal page count toward the Collective Vigil Fundraising goal.

  • The Vigil page: This includes Vigil goals, names of members participating, a link to ”Join Our Vigil” and a link to “Light a Candle with Us.” Vigil Leaders may edit this page to include customized text and the photo of their choice.
  • Personal page: This includes your personal goals, a link to ”Join My Vigil”, and a link to “Light a Candle with Me.” You can edit your Personal page to include customized text and the photo of your choice.

When you access your Vigil page or your Personal page through “My Vigil Headquarters,” you will see that the page is in “preview” mode. To begin personalizing the page, click the “edit page” button. You can also choose to leave the page as is or customize it later. Visit “My Vigil Headquarters” anytime to make changes.

To insert customized text, click the  icon next to each section you would like to edit. Enter your text in the pop up window and then click the “save” button to save your changes.

Changing Photos: If you would like to replace the default photo with another image from our Candle Gallery, you must first download the image from the gallery to your computer. Go to the gallery page at and follow the instructions below.

  1. Right-click a photo (ctrl-click on a Mac), select "save picture as" or "save image as" or the equivalent, and save the picture on your computer in a place where you can find it again.
  2. Go to your Personal page or your Vigil team page, click the "edit mode" button, click the edit icon next to the image that is there.
  3. Click "import your image" and click "Browse" to select the image from your computer. Find the image you saved onto your computer, select it, and click "Upload."

How do I Invite People to Join My Vigil?

Once you have created your Personal page, the next step is to invite friends and family to help you meet your fundraising and participation goals. Visit the “Email Center” located in “My Vigil Headquarters” to easily send a note to all your contacts.

You can use the email copy we have provided, or you can write your own copy. To use our default Vigil invitation email text, copy the message at the top of the “Email Center” page and paste it into the "Compose Email Message" box. Then fill out the names and email addresses of you contacts.

Hint: You can create up to 6 personalized emails to send to your contacts. This is especially helpful when sending reminder emails. To create custom emails, choose “Blank Template” from the drop down menu write your own subject line and email copy. Make sure to click the “Save As” button to keep a copy of your email for future mailings.

How do I Light a Candle?

Being a Vigil participant is a commitment not everyone can make. You can still take part in this incredible event even if you don't want to start or join a Vigil. Just Light a Candle.

All it takes to Light a Candle is a donation of $25. You can Light a Candle as part of the event in general, by clicking the “Donate Now” link from the event homepage or by clicking “Light a Candle” from any page in the event website.

Or, you can Light a Candle with a specific Vigil or alongside a particular Vigil participant.

To Light a Candle with a specific Vigil, use the “Find a Vigil” link. Click “view” next to the name of the Vigil you would like to support and once on the Vigil page, click “Light a Candle with Us.”

To Light a Candle alongside a particular Vigil participant, use the “Find a Participant” link. Click “view” next to the name of the participant whose fundraising efforts you would like to support and once on their Personal page, click “Light a Candle with Me.”