Organisation directories

A directory stores details about organisations rather than individual people – partner churches, local community groups, member organisations and the like. You can show a directory on your website, with an optional map and a ‘find my nearest’ search, and use it for organisational mailing lists. This guide covers creating a directory, adding organisations and their staff, displaying it, and splitting it into sub-directories.

Create a directory

A directory is a special type of group, so you create one much like any sub-group.

1. Select the group or contact database you’d like the directory to sit beneath.
2. Open Advanced Options from the group’s summary.
3. Choose Create a sub-group, give it a name (for example ‘Partners’), and set the group type to Directory.
4. Click Create Group.

Your new directory won’t show on the site until you’ve added an organisation and set it to display – both covered below.

Add organisations

There are three ways to get organisations into a directory.

One at a time

1. Select your directory and open the Organisations tab.
2. Choose Create a new organisation, enter a name and description, and click Create Organisation.
3. Add any further details, such as an address, under the relevant tabs, saving as you go, then close.

From a CSV file

If you already have an organisation database, export it as a CSV file, then on the Organisations tab choose Import organisations from a CSV file and follow the import wizard.

Let organisations register themselves

1. On the directory’s Summary tab, open Advanced Options.
2. Under Registration Options, choose who can register an organisation – site visitors, for example.
3. People who meet that criterion will see an Add another organisation to this directory link on the site.
4. To approve a submission, open the directory, go to the Organisations tab, select the applicant and choose Approve this organisation’s application.

Add staff members

You can store staff members against an organisation and show them in its details.

1. Open the directory, go to the Organisations tab and click the organisation’s name.
2. Open the Staff tab.
3. Either add an existing site member, if the person is already on your site, or add a new member to create them directly.

Giving a staff member the editor permission lets them manage their own organisation’s details from My Organisations under My Area, and sends them their login details.

Display your directory

Once a directory has organisations in it, add a directory component to the page so visitors can see the listing. Two display options are worth knowing:

• Where’s my nearest? – adds a postcode search that orders organisations by distance, so someone can find the nearest to them.
• Include map – plots the organisations on a zoomable map by postcode.

Split a directory into sub-directories

A large directory can be broken into smaller ones – a directory of churches split by denomination or region, say.

1. On the directory’s Summary tab, open Advanced Options.
2. Choose Create a sub-directory, name it (for example ‘Baptist’) and click Create directory.

You can then add organisations to the sub-directory, and use the Classification tab on an organisation to place it in more than one sub-directory at once.

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Good to know

• Creating a directory needs the group structure permission, and the Directory group-type option needs the Directory Admin permission – your site administrator can grant these.
• Organisations can also link through to a full group so they carry their own articles, events and rotas, and you can store extra custom details against them. Both are covered in the other guides in this section.