Publishing, archiving and redirecting
Take a club live, read the status alerts on a club's screens, archive or restore a club, and redirect an archived club's visitors.
A new club is not live: its home page and its ambassadors' story pages can't be visited, and it can't take real donations. Its ambassadors' join pages do stay open, so anyone with the address of one can still join: Supporter Club creates their membership and a simulated donation, and no money is taken. This page covers taking a club live, the alerts that tell you a club's state, finding its public page, and what to do when the club's campaign is over: archiving it, redirecting its visitors to another club, and restoring it.
Before you publish
A club can go live only when both of these are true:
- Its earlier set-up steps are done. The club's purpose is described, its pages have been designed, and your organisation's own set-up is finished. See Launching your first club.
- It can take real money in every currency it accepts. Each currency the club accepts must reach, through your organisation's payment routes, a payment provider that has been cleared to take real donations. The simulated payment provider never counts. See Currencies and routes and Payment providers.
Adding an ambassador is a set-up step too, but it doesn't hold back publishing.
Take a club live
- Open the club. At the foot of the sidebar, select the Get your club set up panel.
- On the Make your club live step, select Go live. The Publish club screen opens.
- Final checks. Read the checks. The screen warns: "Before you continue though, you should be sure that you are happy with the design of your club's pages, because you won't be able to make changes once your club is live." Select View pages to check your pages, or Continue to move on. Despite the warning, going live doesn't lock anything: see What you can change after going live.
- Notify ambassadors. Choose whether to send the club-published emails (see Emails sent when a club goes live), then select Continue.
- Publish club. The screen reads "It looks like you're ready to make your club live and start fundraising! Once live, this club takes real donations through your organisation's cleared payment connection." Select Go live.
- The screen shows "Your club is now live! 🥳". Select Finish to return to the club.
You can leave at any point with Cancel; the club stays unpublished.
What you can change after going live
Supporter Club doesn't lock any of a club's pages or settings when it goes live. You can still edit and republish its pages, assets and documents, and change any of its settings, as you could before.
What you can't do is go back through the Publish club screen. Your Notify ambassadors choice is final, and the club-published emails can't be sent again from there. There is no way to unpublish a live club other than archiving it (see Archive a club).
If the club is already live, opening the Publish club screen takes you to the club's Home screen instead. If one of the earlier set-up steps is still outstanding, it takes you to the club's set-up steps, where that step and its button are shown.
When the club can't go live
If payments hold the club back, the Make your club live step is not available. It shows one reason and one link to fix it. If you reach the Publish club screen, it shows the same reason and link in place of Go live, with Back to club.
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "This club can't go live yet — connect your organisation's payment account so it can take real donations before you publish." | Select Go to payments and connect a payment provider. |
| "This club can't go live yet — your organisation's payment connection hasn't been cleared to take real donations yet." | Select Go to payments. The provider must clear your connection; check your account with that provider. |
| "This club can't go live yet — your organisation's payment connection has had its clearance withdrawn." | Select Go to payments and resolve the issue with your provider. |
| "This club can't go live yet — point one of this club's payment routes at your organisation's cleared payment connection before you publish." | Select Choose the currencies this club accepts. None of the club's currencies reaches your cleared connection yet. |
| "This club can't go live yet — some of the currencies it accepts don't reach your organisation's cleared payment connection, so donations in those currencies would not be charged. Choose the currencies this club accepts." | Select Choose the currencies this club accepts. Remove those currencies, or route them to your cleared connection. |
| "This club can't go live yet — some of the currencies it accepts have no payment route at all, so donations in those currencies would fail. Choose the currencies this club accepts." | Select Choose the currencies this club accepts. Remove those currencies, or add a payment route that covers them. |
For setting up payment providers and routes, see Payment providers and Currencies and routes.
Emails sent when a club goes live
The Notify ambassadors step has a Send published mailer box, ticked to start with.
If it's ticked when the club goes live, your organisation's Club published workflow sends two emails, subject to the conditions below:
- "🎉 A Supporter Club is Live!" to all club managers: everyone in your organisation with administrator access.
- "🎉 Our Supporter Club is Live!" to all of the club's active ambassadors.
If you untick Send published mailer, neither email is sent, to administrators or to ambassadors.
Even with the box ticked:
- Neither email is sent if the Club published workflow is switched off for this club. A new club starts with it switched on. See Organisation automations and enablements.
- An email is not sent to an address Supporter Club has marked as undeliverable: one where an email bounced permanently, or whose owner reported an email as spam. Supporter Club still sends to an address whose last email bounced only temporarily.
- Both emails are sent as Transactional messages, so they still reach people who have opted out of your emails. If you change a send step's Purpose to Marketing, its email is no longer sent to anyone who has opted out.
Both emails use the Club published workflow's own design and subject lines. For your organisation's built-in workflows, see Organisation automations and enablements.
Status alerts on a club's screens
The top of a club's screens shows an alert when the club is not live and taking donations normally.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| "This club is not yet live." | The club hasn't been published. Publish it as described above. |
| "This club has been archived and redirects to the "club name" club." | The club is archived. Its visitors go to the named club. |
| "This club has been archived, with no redirect configured." | The club is archived. Its home page shows Not Found. |
| "This club is live, but some of the currencies it accepts have no payment route at all, so donations in those currencies are failing." | Select Choose the currencies this club accepts and fix the club's currencies or your routes. |
| "This club is live, but some of the currencies it accepts no longer reach your organisation's cleared payment connection, so donations in those currencies are not being charged." | Select Choose the currencies this club accepts and fix the club's currencies or your routes. |
| "This club is live, but donations cannot currently be taken: your organisation's payment connection is no longer cleared to take real money." | Select Go to payments and resolve the issue with your provider. |
A live club stays live when one of the payment problems above appears. Supporter Club does not unpublish it; the alert stays until the problem is fixed.
The public club page
Once a club is live, its Home screen has a View page button. It opens the club's public home page in a new tab. The button appears only while the club is live.
A visitor to the club's home page sees:
- the page, if the club is live;
- the redirect club's home page, if the club is archived with a redirect. This is a permanent redirect ("301 Moved Permanently");
- Not Found, if the club is not yet live, or is archived with no redirect.
Archive a club
Archive a club when its campaign is over. Archiving unpublishes the club, and its home page and ambassador story pages go offline or redirect (see below).
The Archive panel and its warning say the club will no longer accept new memberships or donations. That is not entirely so:
- Archiving does not stop recurring donations. Supporters who give monthly or yearly to the club keep being charged as before.
- Without a redirect, the club's ambassador join pages stay open after archiving, as for a club that was never published. Anyone with the address of one can still join: Supporter Club creates their membership and a simulated donation, and no money is taken.
- Open the club, select Settings, then select the Admin tab.
- On the Archive panel ("Archive this club so that it can no longer accept new memberships."), select Archive club.
- Read the warning: "Archiving this club will cause the club home page and all club ambassador pages to become unreachable and you will no longer be able to accept donations."
- Under "Would you like to redirect supporters to a different club?", choose one:
- Yes, enable redirect, then pick a club from Select a club. Only your other live clubs are listed. Visitors are sent there with a permanent "301 Moved Permanently" redirect.
- No, don't enable redirect. The screen warns that links to the club, such as those in social media posts or past emails, will return "404 Not Found". However, if a club is still selected in Select a club, that club is saved as the redirect anyway, and visitors are redirected there. This happens if you picked a club before switching to No, don't enable redirect, or if the club had a redirect before it was last restored. After archiving, check the Redirect panel (see Change an archived club's redirect). If it names a club, change it to No redirect.
- Select Archive club to confirm. The screen asks: Are you sure you want to archive the "club name" club?
If you don't choose an answer, or choose Yes, enable redirect without picking a club, the club is not archived and the dialog shows an error.
After archiving:
- The club is no longer live, and its screens show the archived alert.
- In the Clubs list, the club moves to the Archived tab.
- With a redirect, visitors to the club's home page, its ambassadors' story pages and its ambassadors' join pages are sent to the redirect club's home page.
- Without a redirect, the club's home page shows Not Found. An ambassador's story page sends visitors wherever that ambassador's own redirect points, if one is set; otherwise it shows Not Found. See Unpublishing, redirects and inactive ambassadors.
Change an archived club's redirect
The Redirect panel is on the Admin tab of the club's settings.
- For an archived club, it reads "Visitors to this club will be redirected to club name instead." or "No redirect configured".
- For a club that isn't archived, it reads "Archive this club before you can configure a club to redirect to."
To change the redirect of an archived club:
- On the Redirect panel, select Edit.
- Choose another live club, or No redirect.
- Select Save changes.
Supporter Club refuses a redirect that would send visitors round in a loop between clubs, with "Redirect club will result in an infinite loop".
Restore an archived club
- Open the archived club, select Settings, then select the Admin tab. The Archive panel reads "This club has been archived. You can restore it to make it active once again."
- Select Restore club.
- Read the note: "Restoring this club will cause the club to become active again, but you will have to publish the club once more in order to make it reachable and before you can start accepting donations."
- Select Restore club.
The club moves back to the Active tab, unpublished. Its redirect no longer applies, and its home page shows Not Found until you take it live again, as described in Take a club live.