Everything You Need to Know About Church Settings

Overview

This article provides an in depth review of all the settings available for CarePortal Churches. To access Church settings the Primary Point Person will login into CarePortal at system.careportal.org and then click Settings in the menu on the left hand side.

Intended Audience 

• CarePortal Churches: Primary Point Person

This Article Covers

• Modifying Church Contact Information & Demographics 
• Auto Activate My Church
• Auto Approve Members
• Enable Groups
• Respond To Point Person
• Upgrade to a Connecting Church
• Adding or Removing Church Leaders

Note: You will need to click save to apply any changes made on your settings page.

Modifying Church Contact Information & Demographics

From the Church settings page you can edit your Church name, address, phone and website information. You also have the ability to adjust the affiliation, average attendance, location type & economic conditions as well. These were question answered during your churches initial enrollment into CarePortal. Any of these can change over time so you have the ability to modify them from this settings page.

You also have the ability to upload a Church logo. To do so, click the "Choose File" button under the "Church Logo" section and select the logo you want to display on your church page.

Auto Activate My Church

If you have uploaded Response Team members then enabling this feature can be a great asset is getting requests to your church members automatically. When this option is set to YES request sent to your church are automatically sent out to your Response Team. Click here more information regarding Response Teams.

Auto Approve Members

This setting controls how members of your church can sign up to be a part of your response team. There are two ways that members can join your churches response team without being added by a Point Person.

• When a church member responds to a request they will be prompted to search for their church. If your church is already active within CarePortal the will be able to join your your response team based upon the auto approve settings you have selected.
• A church member can also visit your public CarePortal church page. This URL can be found on the dashboard for any Point Person or Pastor logged into CarePortal. 

When either of the above options are used the Auto Approve Members option you have selected will be followed. Here is an explanation of the three choices:

Auto Approve Members set to: 

• Yes - This option will allow anyone to join your response team simply by entering their email address and selecting your church. The primary point person will receive an email notifying them of the new response team member. If they do not recognize the individual, a Point Person can log in and remove the individual from their response team.
• No - When this option is selected, the primary point person will receive an email notifying them that someone would like to join your church's response team. This request must be approved by a point person before the individual will be able to respond to requests on behalf of your church.
  • Custom Emails: You will notice that when you select "No" you enable the option to create Custom Emails. This option allows for you to customize the emails that go to your church response team applicants. This can be beneficial if you have additional requirements in place for individuals to join your response team (such as background checks). You can add the requirements to these email notifications to let your applicants know the steps they must taken in order to be approved to join your church's response team.
• With PP Email - This option will allow anyone to join your response team by entering their email address, selecting your church AND entering the email address of the primary point person for the church. This email address acts as a passcode that will allow your church members to join your church's response team. The primary point person will receive an email notifying them of the new response team member. If they do not recognize the individual, a Point Person can log in and remove the individual from their response team.

Enable Groups

This option allows a church to enable small groups. You will need to designate someone to be the Small Groups Admin for your church. This role can be assigned to the Primary Point Person or anyone else within the Church. See Adding Church Leaders for specific instructions on how to add a Small Groups Admin.

After you have designated a Small Groups Admin you will be able to set the Enable Groups option to Yes. Doing so will allow Small Groups to enroll in CarePortal. Visit https://careportal.org/small-group/ to find your church and start the group enrollment process

Respond to Point Person

If Respond to Point Person is set to Yes, all responses from your church's Response Team will go to the Primary Point Person. The Primary Point Person will need to collaborate those responses and then respond to the request to let the agency worker know your church is willing to help. The agency worker will not be notified unless the Primary Point Person responds.

If Respond to Point Person is set to No, all responses from your church's Response Team will go directly to the agency worker who submitted the request.

Upgrade to Connecting Church

This option will allow your church to become a Connecting Church. You will need to designate a Family Advocate & make sure your church meets the additional requirements as well. Please review the Should My Church Become a Connecting Church? article before enabling this option.

Enable Church Entered Needs

This option will allow your church to submit needs into CarePortal. Please review the Should My Church Use "Church-Entered Needs?" support article to see if this is a good option for your church to use! You must designate a Family Advocate in order to enable this option.

• Yes - This allows anyone on your response team to submit needs from your church's public request page
• Yes (Limited) - This option only allows for Church Leaders to submit needs
• No - Your church will not be able to submit needs but will continue to receive requests submitted by CarePortal agencies

Adding or Removing Church Leaders 

Church Leaders are going to be users that have designated roles to help manage your Church within CarePortal. Please review this article for a breakdown of the available roles applicable to Church leaders. 

• To remove a role from a current leader, click the trash icon to the right of their phone number
• To add a new user or a new role to a current user, click the "+Add New Leader" text
  • Enter the email address of the new user.
    • If they are in the system, you can select them from the drop down and the information we have on file for them should populate. 
    • If they are not in the system you will need to enter their first & last name and provide a phone number
  • You will want to ensure the "System Email" box is checked in order for the user to receive email notifications regarding CarePortal requests
  • Select the appropriate role for the user. Note: Currently, the role of Primary Point Person cannot be changed by the current Primary Point Person. Please reach out to your Regional Manager if you need the Primary Point Person changed.
  • Click Continue to save the new user and verify that the changes show up in the Church Leader table