4. Send My ChurchSuite invitations to your members
In this article
Introduction
Customising the My ChurchSuite invitation emails
Allowing My ChurchSuite login
Sending individual invitations
Bulk-sending invitations
Managing the My ChurchSuite invitation process
Introduction
My ChurchSuite is the ideal way for members to stay connected and up to date with everything that’s going on. It is designed to help maximise member engagement. Through My ChurchSuite, members can manage their details and those of their children, sign up for events, join small groups, keep on top of the rotas they’re serving on, and much, much more!
Access to My ChurchSuite is granted through an invitation process that is initiated and controlled from within your ChurchSuite account, which means you can fully manage people's access. Note that My ChurchSuite invitations sent through the Children module are sent to the email address specified in the Child Email field, which can be a parent/carer email address or the child's email address.
Members can access My ChurchSuite through any web browser on any device, or using the free iOS or Android apps available from the respective app stores. Before proceeding, see the related support article titled Activating My ChurchSuite.
Families with shared email addresses
My ChurchSuite can still be accessed individually by family members who share the same email address. While the login email address may be the same for multiple family members, their individually set password will define which account they are logged into.
In the event that family members use both the same email address and set the same password, they will be presented with a list of matching accounts to choose from:
Follow the instructions in this article to send each family member a personalised My ChurchSuite invitation email. Each family member can respond to the email in turn, clicking the registration link to set their unique password.
Customising the My ChurchSuite invitation emails
You can customise the My ChurchSuite invitation, adding content to introduce your recipients to My ChurchSuite and explaining why you're inviting them. Head to your account Presets accessed via the My profile option on your User menu. User the Search to filter within a long list of presets to locate the Invitation presets - they have a 'ChurchSuite' template. There are two emails - one for contacts, which are sent from the Address Book, and one for children, which are sent from the Children module. Select Edit from the preset Actions to make changes.
Important!
Highlighted in the example image below, the Go to My ChurchSuite "merge field" must always be present in the invitation email body. You can move it, re-label it, and add additional email content before and after it, but the ::my_registration_link:: merge field itself must always be present and not tampered with. This merge field is used to generate each recipient's unique registration link to access their My ChurchSuite account, and without it, recipients will be unable to register and set their password. Note also that My ChurchSuite invitations can only be sent via the processes outlined later in this article - any attempt to "engineer" or use the preset email or merge field in any other way will result in registration links not being generated, and the recipient will be unable to set their password.
Optionally customise the Email From Name and From Email address, adding a designated individual or department and a managed email address to which replies will be delivered. The HTML editor tools can be used to customise the invitation message content further, embed other links, or insert images and styled text. For the child invite, you should ensure the language is appropriate for a younger audience. Save any changes made.
Allowing My ChurchSuite login
Access to My ChurchSuite for contacts and children can be managed person-by-person. You will be unable to send My ChurchSuite invitations, and people will be unable to access My ChurchSuite if the Allow My ChurchSuite login is disabled on their profile or if they do not have an email address. Similarly, Allow My ChurchSuite login can be revoked at any time. Select Edit to make changes to a person's details.
Scroll down the Edit pop-up to the Login & Privacy section and tick to Allow My ChurchSuite login. Each person's default privacy settings are derived from the module settings, but you can make changes to a person's privacy settings if appropriate. Save any changes made.
Using batch actions, you can make bulk changes to My ChurchSuite access for multiple contacts and children. Working from the Contacts or Children section of the respective modules, select the people to be changed (or 'select all') and choose Edit from the batch Actions.
The Contacts and Children sections are paginated, so increasing the pagination can reduce the number of pages needed to process the batch action—you'll need to run a batch action for each page.
On the batch Edit pop-up, and noting the number of records the changes will be applied to, set the Allow My ChurchSuite login value to Yes. Update any of the other privacy settings if appropriate. Click Save to process the changes for all the selected people.
Sending individual invitations
From a person's profile, select Send invite from the My ChurchSuite actions. The option is only shown if the person has an email address and Allow My ChurchSuite login is enabled - an email address is required to send the invitation and for the recipient to log into My ChurchSuite. Additionally, you cannot send child invitations for a child under the Age of Consent specified in the Children module settings - see the related article on Activating My ChurchSuite for further information.
The sent invitation email is logged in the person's Communication log. The email contains an obfuscated summary of the person's current contact details, inviting them to update any incorrect information once they've logged in. Here's an example...
From the invitation email link, recipients are taken to the My ChurchSuite registration page to add and confirm their password. App users must complete their My ChurchSuite registration in a browser before they can use their email address and password to access My ChurchSuite in the app.
After completing the registration process, the My ChurchSuite Home page opens.
We've created a My ChurchSuite User Guide, which you may wish to share in its current form or use as a basis for producing your own guide customised for the My ChurchSuite features you are using in your context.
Bulk-sending invitations
To bulk-send My ChurchSuite invitation emails, navigate to the Communication section of the Address Book or Children module as appropriate. In the first section, choose the people to invite. You can search/select names individually from the scrollable list, 'Select all' or select a grouping of people from one or more Tags (or Groups - Children). The following example is from the Children module, but the same principle applies in the Address Book for bulk sending invitations to contacts.
Continuing down the Communication page, locate the Send My ChurchSuite emails button. This will send invitations to all the selected people. Note the Options to Exclude those already invited.
Managing the My ChurchSuite invitation process
In addition to the Inactive Contacts/Children and Recent Logins reports in the Address Book and Children module Reports sections, there are Smart Tag conditions that can give helpful insight into My ChurchSuite engagement. See our related support article for further information on creating Smart Tags.
There are Address Book and Children module conditions for:
- Has My ChurchSuite Login, i.e. Allow My ChurchSuite login is enabled
- Invited to My ChurchSuite, i.e. an invitation has been sent
- Last Login
For example, you could add a Smart Tag that identifies people who have been sent My ChurchSuite invitations but never logged in - perhaps to remind them what they're missing out on!
