Set up supporter roles
Decide which portal features each supporter can use, like downloading their giving history or liking and commenting on Updates, and give out roles.
A supporter role decides which features a supporter can use in your supporter portal. When you're done, every supporter will have the right role: the default for most people, and a different one for the groups you pick.
A role controls two kinds of features in the portal:
- Giving history: whether a supporter can download their giving history as a spreadsheet file.
- Likes and comments on Updates: whether a supporter can see how many reactions an Update has, react to it, read other people's comments, write comments, and change or remove their own.
Everything else in the portal works the same for every signed-in supporter.
Before you start: you need the View permission on Supporter portal roles in your team role to see supporter roles. Creating, editing and archiving roles, and choosing the default, each need their own permission on the same row. Giving a role to a supporter also needs permission to edit supporters. Administrators have all of these. See Permissions you need.
How supporter roles work
- Every supporter has exactly one role. Most supporters are on Automatic, which means they get your organization's default role.
- The standard Supporter role comes with Givable. It allows everything a role can allow. Until you change anything, every supporter has it, so the portal works exactly as it did before.
- Your organization's settings come first. A role can only narrow what your settings allow:
- If Let supporters export their giving to CSV is off under Settings > Supporter portal > Content, nobody can download their giving history, whatever their role says.
- If Reactions on updates or Comments on updates is off under Settings > Impact Stories > Engagement, nobody can react or comment, whatever their role says. Turn them on there, then use roles to decide which supporters can use them.
- Roles never touch a supporter's own records. Every signed-in supporter can still see their gifts, receipts and profile.
- Supporters never see their role. The portal shows or hides the feature; the role's name stays with your team.
Find your supporter roles
Go to Settings > Supporter portal, then select the Roles tab. You'll see two cards:
- Supporter roles lists each role. The standard role has a Standard badge, and the role everyone gets by default has a Default for supporters badge. Assigned on record counts the supporters you've given that role on their own record. People who get the role by default aren't counted.
- Default role is where you choose the role everyone gets unless you pick another on their record.
Create a custom role
Start a new role
On the Roles tab, select New role.
To start from an existing role instead, open it from the list and select Clone this role. The standard Supporter role can't be edited, so cloning it is the way to make your own version.
Name it
Enter a Role name, like "Major donors" or "Volunteers", and a Description if it helps your team. The name has to be different from every team role and supporter role in your organization.
Choose what it allows
Tick what supporters with this role can do. Anything you leave unticked is hidden from them in the portal. See What a role can allow.
Create it
Select Create role. Your new role appears in the Supporter roles list, ready to use.
What a role can allow
| Section | Row | Box | What it lets a supporter do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giving | Giving history | Download giving history | Download their giving history as a spreadsheet file. |
| Impact Stories | Update comments | View | Read comments on Updates they can see: other supporters' approved comments (when you show them to other supporters) and comments your team shared with supporters. A supporter always sees their own comments. |
| Create | Write a comment or a reply. | ||
| Edit | Change or remove their own comments. | ||
| Impact Stories | Update reactions | View | See how many reactions an Update has. |
| React | React to an Update, and take the reaction back. |
Create and Edit on Update comments need View on the same row, and React needs View on Update reactions, because a supporter writes and reacts where they can read. When you tick one of them, View is ticked too (you may be asked to confirm), and unticking View unticks the boxes that need it.
A few examples:
- Read only: tick View on both rows and leave the rest unticked. Supporters see comments and reactions, but can't join in.
- No comments: leave Update comments unticked. Supporters can still react, and still see the comments they wrote before.
Supporters can never approve, hide or remove other people's comments. Moderation stays with your team.
When a supporter changes their own comment
With Edit ticked, a supporter can change or remove a comment they wrote, as long as your team hasn't hidden or removed it.
- If comment moderation is set to Review first under Settings > Impact Stories > Engagement, a changed comment goes back to your team for review, and other supporters stop seeing it until it's approved again. The supporter sees Awaiting review on it.
- Otherwise the change shows right away, marked Edited.
- A removed comment disappears from the portal for everyone.
Edit a custom role
Open the role from the Supporter roles list, select Edit role, make your changes, then select Save changes. The page shows how many supporters have the role on their record, so you know who a change will affect.
Supporters who are already signed in pick up the change within a few minutes.
Choose the default role for supporters
Open the Roles tab
Go to Settings > Supporter portal and select the Roles tab.
Pick the default
In the Default role card, choose a role under Default role for supporters. Standard: Supporter is the standard role.
Save
Select Save changes in the bar at the bottom of the page. The Default for supporters badge moves to the role you picked.
Every supporter on Automatic now gets this role. Supporters you gave a role on their record keep that one.
Give one supporter a role
Open the supporter
Go to Supporters and open the supporter's record.
Open Portal role
Open the actions menu (the three dots at the top of the record), then select Portal role.
Check their current role
Current portal role shows the role they have right now and why:
- Assigned on this record: someone picked this role for them.
- Organization default: they're on Automatic and get your default role.
- Standard role: they're on Automatic and your default is the standard role.
Choose a role and save
Under Role on this record, pick a role, or pick Automatic to go back to the organization default. Select Save.
If you can open Portal role but can't change it, you can view supporters but not edit them. The window shows the role with a Close button instead of Save.
Give a role to many supporters at once
You can set a portal role on up to 1,000 supporters at a time.
Select the supporters
Go to Supporters. Use a filter or search to narrow the list, then tick the supporters you want. To include everyone who matches, tick the box at the top of the list, then select Select all with the total.
Set the role
In the bar that appears, select Set portal role. The window shows how many supporters you selected.
Choose and apply
Under Portal role, pick a role, or pick Automatic (the organization default) to clear the role on each record. Select Apply.
A message confirms how many supporters were updated, and how many already had that role.
If you select more than 1,000 supporters, nothing is changed. Narrow the selection with a filter or search, then try again. For a large group, it often works well to make their role the default instead.
Archive a custom role
Open the role from the Supporter roles list and select Archive, then Archive role to confirm.
Archiving is permanent. An archived role can't be assigned again or restored, and it opens read only. If you need it back, create a new role.
You can't archive a role while it's in use. If it's the default for supporters, choose another default on the Roles tab first. If supporters have it on their record, set them to another role or to Automatic first. The page tells you which of these is stopping you.
Permissions you need
These live in your team role, under Settings > Team > Roles, in the Administration section on the Supporter portal roles row.
| To do this | You need |
|---|---|
| See supporter roles and a supporter's portal role | View on Supporter portal roles (and permission to view supporters, for a supporter's role) |
| Create a role, or clone one | Create on Supporter portal roles |
| Edit a role, or change the default role | Edit on Supporter portal roles |
| Archive a role | Archive on Supporter portal roles |
| Give a role to one supporter or many | View on Supporter portal roles, plus permission to edit supporters |
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