Provider Approval
People who can provide assistance must be approved before they can claim needs in Need Connect.
Providers must be approved by Need Type. Providers can access the Connect Board if they are an approved Need Type Provider of a Need Type whose associated Need Campaign record has Is_Default is set to Yes.
Provider Fields
- Contact_ID: The Contact associated with this provider.
- Need_Type_ID: Identifies which Need Type a provider said they can help with.
- Other_Need: Provides additional information if "Other" was selected in the Connect Form.
- Provider_ID: The provider who said they can help with this need.
- Approved: Indicates whether this provider has been approved to help with this Need Type. Approved providers see needs of this Need Type on the Connect Board.
New Need Type Provider Notification (Optional)
Once Need Connect creates a provider and Need Type Provider record, we recommend you notify your staff using an Item Notification to expedite the approval process. See Need Connect Item Notifications for more information. Alternatively, if only one staff member does all the approving, you can create a process to assign a task to that specific person.
Approve Need Type Providers
- Determine your criteria to approve providers.
- In MinistryPlatform, go to .
- Open the Approve Providers view.
- Review the information about the provider(s).
- Click Edit (or select to mass Assign multiple records), and change Approved to Yes or No as appropriate.
- Click Submit to submit the records to the process that notifies providers they received an assignment.
- Click Save.
Approve "Other" Type Providers
If a provider offers to help with a Need Type that was not predefined, staff should review it.
You can manually assign needs to providers that offer to help with a Need Type of "Other" (a write in, not selected from predefined Need Types) because this Need Type doesn't display on the Connect Board.
- In MinistryPlatform, go to .
- Open the Other Types Not Approved view.
- Review the Other Notes to determine the following:
- Is this help that is appropriate? You can remove it or follow up.
- Is this actually an existing Need Type? You can change the Need Type.
- Is there a trend? You can add a new Need Type to accommodate it.
- Click Edit.
- Set Approved to Yes.
- Click Save.
The need shows on the Connect Board for the provider under "My Assignments" with the details and contact information.
See Need Management.
Automated Provider Emails
Send a Provider Invite to providers approved as a Need Type Provider. This email includes a link to the Connect Board by the Need Connect Provider Invitation Process.
The Provider Assignment email automatically sends to providers who claim a need, and you can manually send the email to providers that you assign to a need. This email includes a link to the Connect Board.