The member portal
The member portal is the self-service area for the people in your church. It lets members handle the everyday things themselves — giving, registrations, profile updates, and notification preferences — without needing to call the office.
Who it's for
The portal is for members, not staff. When someone signs in, they see only their own information and what your church has chosen to share, such as the member directory. Staff continue to work in the main Forge application.
What members can do
The portal brings the most common requests into one place.
Manage their profile
Members can keep their own details current, which saves your team from chasing updates.
- Update contact information.
- Change their profile photo.
- Set communication preferences.
- View their household and manage household members in a limited way.
View giving and statements
Members can find their giving history without asking the office for a copy.
- See their contribution history.
- Download giving statements.
- View year-to-date totals.
- Check progress on any pledges they've made.
Register for events
Members can browse what's coming up and sign themselves up.
- Browse upcoming events.
- Register for an event.
- View registration confirmations.
- Cancel a registration.
Submit and track requests
The portal is one of the ways requests enter Forge. Members can:
- Submit a prayer request.
- Request pastoral care.
- Report a facility issue.
- Track the status of a request they've submitted.
Requests submitted here arrive in your staff queue marked as coming from the member portal, so your team knows where they originated.
Set notification preferences
Members can decide how they hear from you. From the notifications area they can manage their email and SMS preferences. Forge respects these choices on future messages, so a member who opts out of a channel won't receive sends on it.
Tips
- Encourage members to update their own contact details in the portal. It keeps your directory accurate with far less work for staff.
- Point members to the portal for giving statements, especially at year-end, to reduce one-off requests to the office.
- Member access is tied to a person record. If someone can't sign in, confirm they have a record and an email address on file.
Common questions
Can members see other people's information? No. Members see their own profile, giving, and registrations. They can see the member directory only if your church makes it available.
Do members need a separate account? Members sign in to their own portal area. Their access is connected to their person record in your directory.
Where do portal requests go? Into your normal requests queue, flagged as submitted via the member portal so staff can triage them alongside everything else.
Was this helpful, or missing something? Let us know.