Which Permissions Should I Enable For Action Network Administrators?
Who Can Change Action Network Permissions?
Within each Action Network Group there should ideally only be one person with access to change the permissions for each administrator. In almost all cases this should be the Chair. If, for some reason, the Chair is not able to make changes, they can make a request by raising a support ticket. If we receive s support ticket from someone asking to have their permissions changed we will refer them to the Chair of their Local/Regional Party or Group.
Can I Just Give Everyone All Permissions To Save Time?
The simple answer is no. We hold a large amount of personal and sometimes sensitive information on our members and supporters and we have a responsibility to make sure this information is handled correctly and access to it is controlled. Each time we give someone access to this data there is a risk involved. This risk is assessed and where it's seen as low, and there is a legitimate interest in someone having access to the data it is granted.
What Do The Different Permissions Mean?
Permission | Explanation | Who Needs This Permission & What Are The Risks? |
Settings | Administrator can edit group settings, invite and approve administrators, set up fundraising and ticketed event pages that don't require donor email addresses, set administrator permissions, and set the parent of this group in the network. | In almost all circumstances only the Chair should have this permission enabled. Someone with this permission can edit their own permissions which means they can control the data they have access to regardless of whether it is necessary for their role. They would also be able to edit the permissions of others, including adding and removing other admins of the group. |
Launch Email | Administrator can launch and send emails targeted to the group's list. | This permission should be enabled for those who need to be able to send emails to those on your mailing list. Although you may only want one person to have this permission it's a good idea to have at least one other person check and confirm they're happy for an email to be sent. Anyone with this permission needs to have a good understanding of different cohorts of your mailing list, and good email-targeting practice. They should also be comfortable in checking and understanding email statistics produced after emails have been sent. |
Reports | Administrator can download report data and mass add or remove tags and subscriptions. | This permission is useful for those in Membership Officer positions, or those managing an election campaign. This permission allows for the exporting of large amounts of activist data, and is therefore high-risk. Anyone with this permission needs to have a good working knowledge of GDPR. It also allows administrators to subscribe activists to email en masse, and so users with this permission will need to understand that explicit consent is needed for subscriptions. |
Activists | Administrator can access search and add activists and edit individual records, as well as receive pending merge notifications. | This permission is useful for Membership Officers, and grants access to view, edit and add activist records. As this permission gives access to all of the information held on an activist at local party level access should be limited only to those who need it, who understand their obligations when it comes to GDPR. |
Contributions | Administrator can issue refunds, edit or cancel recurring contributions, convert one-time contributions to recurring when viewing activist records, and upload or manually add or edit transactions, as well as receive contribution failure notifications. They can also create and manage ticketed events and fundraisers. | It's likely the only people who need this permission are those holding a Treasurer or Fundraising position within your party. As this permission allows changes to be made to donations, it's important that only those who need this access have it. The greatest risk is that someone may edit a donation in error, creating additional charges for past donors. |
Advanced Uploads | Administrator can use advanced upload features, such as overwriting custom field data or unsubscribing activists in an upload. | The Upload tools within Action Network are powerful and allow administrators to add, edit or delete activist data. Occassionally those with Membership Officer or Treasurer roles may need to use this function, but we recommend only completing an upload if you are confident in what you are doing. There are several risks involved in completing an upload of activist data- including the risk of accidentally deleting the Activist Record of anyone included in the upload, or subscribing activists to email who have not given their consent. |
Overwrite Network Custom Field Data | Administrator can choose to overwrite parent group custom field data when editing activists. (Without this permission, editing an activist will not overwrite custom field data on parent groups.) | This permission allows for updates to activist data custom fields, that will flow-up to national party level, and can be useful for Membership Officers. The greatest risk involved is that an administrator enters incorrect data, or edits a field that is updated automatically- such as the various membership fields. |
Syndication | Administrator can create syndication packages to be shared with other groups. | This permission may be useful for regional parties and field organisers. There are limited risks associated with this permission, but it won't be of use to those at local party level. |
What Permissions Should I Give To Those In My Party?
Although we can make recommendations as to which permissions should be enabled per party role it is a decision that will ultimately have to be made at your group level. You may have officers whose role combines elements of more than one typical committee role, and so may need to give additional permissions to someone based on their actual responsibilities.
The key things to consider before granting a permission are:
- Does the administrator have a legitimate interest in having the permission?
- Does the administrator need access to this permission to achieve what they need to or can they achieve the same result without this permission?
- Would members understand and be happy that this administrator would have access to their data?
- Is the risk in giving access to this administrator acceptable?
Below are some examples of the typical permissions that would be given to different users based on their role within the party.
Permission | Digital Staff | Field Organiser | Chair | Treasurer | Internal Comms Officer | Membership Officer | Other Local Officer | Local Data Officer |
Settings | Yes | Yes | ||||||
Launch Email | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
Reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Activists | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Contributions | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
Advanced Uploads | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
Overwrite Network Custom Field Data | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
Syndication | Yes | Yes |
What Is A Local Data Officer?
A "Data Officer" would be a party activist who goes through a GDPR induction and signs an agreement to handle data securely. This is something we'll be rolling out over Summer 2021, with the hope these activists will be able to offer digital support to their local/regional party or group.
What Should Happen When A New Committee Is Elected?
As only the Chair of a local party should have access to add/remove administrators and change their permissions the ideal process would be.
- The outgoing Chair will add the new Chair to be an Administrator, and give them the "Settings" permission.
- Either the outgoing or incoming Chair should remove any Administrators who no longer need access.
- The incoming Chair should complete an audit of the current permissions for each Administrator to ensure they reflect what is required for their roles.
If for some reason there is any difficulty in completing the above the incoming Chair should raise a support ticket so that we can give them the permissions required.
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