Introduction to Groups

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The groups feature allows your organization's supporters to organize and join groups of fellow supporters. The groups can be based on geographic shape (our supporters in New York, our supporters in a specific parliamentary constituency, etc.), location (a single point location, not a shape), or virtual (our supporters in various locations who are interested in animal welfare).

Our goal for these groups is to help your supporters feel more connected to one another and, by extension, more connected to your organization. We hope that these groups can also act as mini-labs for organizing — allowing members to work together to run campaigns, plan events, and foster leadership. For organizations, groups also allow you to find your most committed supporters – people that you can quickly call upon if an issue arises in their community.

Event Image by Conor Samuel on Unsplash

Petition Image by Đăng Nguyễn on Unsplash

Generally, groups are created by members and managed by trusted volunteers who have been approved to be the group's organizers. Each group has its own forum, membership list, events, and petitions. However, each group is also part of a group collection – a set of groups that all share a common theme. 

When a supporter goes to the collection's lookup page, they have the option of joining an existing local group or applying to create their own. Groups in the collection are always approved by admins, and all group organizers must go through the same application process before they're given their organizer privileges.

Within each group, members have access to a threaded forum. Group organizers help moderate the forum and can also organize group events and group petitions. 

Admins have full access to all groups and can monitor the forums. They can also take a high-level view of the collection to quickly see all group-sponsored events and campaigns. 

Learn more about a supporter's experience of groups or learn how to get started.