Invite Families - Member Portal

The Member Portal is a great tool that saves time for the parish office and can help create an engaged community. We know at times it is difficult to get the community to respond to new ways of doing parish business so it may be beneficial to do some preliminary work prior to inviting them into the member portal.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

How to Invite Families
More Information about the Member Portal
How Families Can Register
What Parishioners Can See

How to Invite Families

Pro-Tip: Prior to sending out Member Portal invitations, you may want to add a blurb in the bulletin letting parishioners know the benefits of using the Member Portal and ask your pastor to speak about the upcoming Member Portal invite.

It's a good opportunity to explain to parishioners that they will not receive the invite unless the parish office has their email. Families need a valid email in order for them to log in to the member portal.

Important Note: A staff member cannot be registered for the Member Portal with the same email they use to access the database for their staff duties. Security access levels differ for employee access and member portal access. The employee will need to use a different email for Member Portal access.

To invite your parishioners to the member portal:

Scroll to Families > Family Explorer.

Filter your Status column so it is equal to Active and New families only. You may also include any other statuses you want, but you should not include deceased and inactive families in your filter. (To learn how to filter your data, please refer to How to Use Family Explorer.)

Once you have filtered your data, select which families you want to invite. You can select all families by checking the box next to the Family Name heading. You can select specific families by checking the boxes next to these families' names.

Now go to Families > Invite Families.

The following pop-up screen will appear.

The subject line will include the name of your Parish which is pulled from the name you entered under Administrative > Church Maintenance. The body of the letter can be edited and personalized with the exception noted below.

Important Note: Please take caution when changing the letter. You do not want to change any of the fields in brackets. No changes should be made to {{salutation}}, {{firstname}}, {{lastname}}, and {{link}}. This data will automatically be populated based on each family.

Once you've made your desired changes, you can press Send.

Pro-Tip: Prior to pressing the Send button, it is a good idea to save your custom letter in a word document so you can copy, paste and use it again in future invites.

More Information about the Member Portal

The Member Portal Invite will get sent to all families that match your search parameter (Active families only if you followed Step 2 above), and have a valid email address listed. If a family has already registered for the Member Portal, they will not receive another invitation (so you are free to continue inviting Active families overtime).

The screenshot below shows you the invitation the parishioners will receive (or the personalized message that you create). Within the body of the letter, each parishioner will receive a unique link that is tied to their Family Record ID.

Note: This link expires in 10 days. If the link has expired do not resend the original link. Send the family a new member portal invite by locating and opening up their family record, then going to Families > Invite Families. An invitation will only be sent to the family that you are currently viewing.

No further action is needed by the Administrator. As long as the parishioner opens the invitation, clicks on the link, and completes the registration they will have access to their family information.

Parishioners that register for the Member Portal will automatically appear in Administrative > User Security with Member Portal access.

Pro-Tip: When a family with a status of New Register comes in, you can respond by inviting them to the Member Portal. You may use the Member Portal invitation to personally welcome them and invite them to sign up for the Member Portal. This note can include attachments and/or links (perhaps a detailed census form).

How Families Can Register

This video explains how parishioners can register for the Member Portal and what their view may look like on a small device. You are free to add this link to your parish website for your parishioners to reference

What Parishioners Can See

This section describes what parishioners will be able to see when they register and log into the Member Portal.

Main Family Page: When a parishioner logins to the Member Portal they will be brought to the main page of their Family Record. (They will not have access to any other families.) On this page the parishioner can edit their family and contact information such as their Name, Salutation, Status, Address, Email, and Phone Number. They can also click on the Members, Mailing Address, Pledges and Contributions tabs to edit and view additional information.

Note: The family note box is for parish use only and cannot be viewed or edited by the parishioner. This box will be grayed out and show three asterisks *** as displayed in the screenshot below.

Members Tab: The parishioner can add new member records by selecting New Member. Clicking on the members' names will allow parishioners to open their individual record. They'll be able to edit their name, contact information, address, add busy weeks, and add information found within the Miscellaneous tab. Parishioners have view only access within the Committees, Sacraments, and RE History tabs.

Note: Home address can be used to record a different address than what is in the Family Record. For example, a member might be away at college, in the military, or temporarily living in a different address.

Mailing Address Tab: The parishioner can change the Mailing Address (and/or Alternate Mailing Address) in the Mailing Address tab. To do this, they'll need to uncheck the box next to "Mailing Address", edit the address found at the top of their record, then click Save. To add/edit the Alternate Mailing Address they will need to check the box and make the appropriate changes.

Clicking on the Pledges or Contributions tab will allow them to see any pledges or contributions they have made in the past two calendar years. They will not be able to make changes to their pledges or contributions.

If the family member clicks on their name and then the Scheduling tab, they may view their individual ministry schedule or the entire schedule.

If your church has set up the payment link for online giving, then the member can go to the Donate tab and click on Subscriptions and the family will be brought to the parishes online giving form.