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Invitation Models

Should you encourage congregants to sign up for Realm on your website or should you send invitations? This article explains each invitation model.

In order to take full advantage of all that Realm has to offer, you'll want to make it as easy as possible for congregants to find small groups, communicate with each other, access personal giving history, or register for events. But it's also important to balance this transparency with privacy concerns and understand the benefits and risks of both invitation models. You'll need to decide if congregants will be allowed to register for events and/or anonymously give online to your church.

Tip: Keep in mind that invitation models are not "set-it-and-forget it". As an administrator, you can easily change your invitation model to serve various strategies or goals, but they do come with benefits and risks.

There are three types of invitation models. By default, all accounts are set to the invite only model when you first purchase or convert to Realm.

To see what invitation model you're using, go to Settings > Security & Privacy and click the Invitation Model tab. You can select from the invitation model types:

  • Invite Only - Individuals can only be invited by the church. They can not send a request to create a Realm account.

  • Invite + Realm Account Sign Up Requests - Individuals can be invited by the church and can send a request to create a Realm account. Administrators must approve or decline the request.

  • Open - Anyone can automatically sign up and create a Realm account.