How to best manage access to your donor database

Have you been wondering how to best manage team member access to your Little Green Light account? In this article, we share how you can use roles to manage the permission levels that your users have to your data, as well as answer some frequently asked questions and offer best-practice tips.

How many users can I add to my LGL account?

First and foremost, it’s helpful to know that your LGL subscription offers the ability to give unlimited users access to your LGL account, so there’s never any worry about your subscription pricing increasing as new users are added.

But, does that mean everyone should have the same level of access? Maybe, maybe not. Thankfully, that choice is yours, as each time you add a new user you can choose to set the level of access they will have to your data.

What levels of access are available in LGL?

By default, there are four user “roles” you can select from when adding a new user to your LGL account: Administrator, Gift Entry, Fundraiser, and Volunteer. The level of access is highest at the Administrator level and decreases at each step down, especially in terms of “read” and “write” access to giving data. In LGL, you can have multiple users in any role, so if your entire Development team needs full access they can all be set at the Administrator level.

One of the main reasons you’ll want to assign roles to your users is to help keep your data secure. Here are a couple of tips we recommend:

• Make sure that every user in your Little Green Light account has their own unique user name and password (and use secure passwords). This will allow you to inactivate any user who no longer needs access to your database. It will also let you step up or step down a user’s access as needs arise.
• Ensure users have access to only the information and the functionality they need. Not only will this help keep your donor information confidential, it will also encourage your users to stay focused and not get distracted by features offered by LGL that are not relevant to their jobs.

Learn more best-practice tips about keeping your LGL data secure in this article.

Should my volunteers have access to my LGL account?

We often are asked if volunteers should be given access to LGL so that they can record their volunteer hours. Since that could become a cumbersome process to manage (especially if you have lots of volunteers), we recommend using an online form instead. Learn how you can create a volunteer hours form in LGL in 4 steps (includes how-to video).

What level of access should I give my board members?

The answer to this depends on the board member, but many organizations like to give their board members Fundraiser access. This allows the board member to see giving data but not to add or edit gifts.

How can I clean up my Team Member roles after I’ve created them?

Now that you’ve read through some of our recommendations, are you wondering how best to update your LGL user roles? Check out these helpful Knowledge Base articles to learn how you can make updates:

• How do I add additional team members or remove a team member?
• Best practices: Managing your team member profiles

By following these suggestions, you’ll have a framework for how you can best manage user access to your LGL account. If you have further questions, be sure to reach out to our support team by using the request form located on the Help page in your LGL account.