---
title: Roles-Based Permissions
description: We've redesigned access control from the ground up! You can now mix and match 17 purpose-built roles, each with the exact permissions your team needs and nothing more.
---

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October 12, 2026

# Roles-Based Permissions

We've redesigned access control from the ground up! You can now mix and match **17 purpose-built roles**, each with the exact permissions your team needs and nothing more.

Access control sounds like an IT problem. But anyone who's ever handed someone the wrong level of access (or spent an afternoon cleaning up data a well-meaning teammate accidentally changed) knows it's actually a trust problem. We built our new roles system to fix that.

Whether you're running a five-person organization or an enterprise-wide program with dozens of contributors, you can now match permissions to purpose.

*Roles-Based Permissions is turned on for each organization individually. Want it and not seeing it in your Dashboard? Reach out to your Client Strategist to learn about gaining access for your organization.*

 

### Why Roles-Based Permissions

The old model gave you a blunt instrument: four broad roles (Admin, Writer, Reader, and Opportunity Manager) that bundled unrelated capabilities together. A coordinator who needed to publish opportunities could also see every participant record. A reporting analyst could also draft opportunities. We heard you, and we rebuilt the system around specificity.

The new model is **deny-by-default**. Every permission is off until a role turns it on.

**Roles are additive.** A user assigned multiple roles receives the combined permissions of all of them, and nothing they haven't been explicitly granted. Stack them to build exactly the right access profile for each person on your team.

### Roles Explained

The 17 assignable roles fall into five functional families. You'll also see the Owner and, on some existing users, one of our four legacy roles. Let's walk through each one!

### Owner

| Role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **Owner** | Held by one person per Dashboard. Carries every permission in the system, including Credential Overrides. The Owner's roles can't be edited and the Owner can't be removed. The current Owner can hand the role to someone else with the **Change Owner** button on the Users page. |

### Opportunity roles

| Role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **Opportunity Admin** | Full opportunity management across the whole Dashboard, not just their own. Includes Days of Service, Signature Events, and Programs, plus Opportunity Approval and Curate. |
| **Opportunity Coordinator** | Create, publish, and manage the opportunities they own, including from templates. Also includes Days of Service and Signature Events. Can't see or edit other users' opportunities. |

### Administrative roles

| Role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **User Admin** | Invite, manage, and remove Dashboard users from **Settings \> Users**, and change their roles. Because a User Admin can assign any role, give it only to people you fully trust. |
| **Billing** | Manage billing information, subscriptions, and payments from **Settings \> Billing**. Nothing else. |
| **Integrations** | Connect and manage third-party integrations from **Settings \> Integrations**, without access to the rest of your settings. |
| **Organization Settings** | Edit your Dashboard configuration in **Settings \> My Organization**. Also opens all three Web Tools, the Donations and Incentives pages (when enabled), and Brand & Site Management (when enabled). |
| **Outbox Viewer** | See every message your organization has sent to Participants through **Message Participants**, from **Settings \> Outbox**. |
| **Contact** | Receive your organization's notification emails, such as new registration alerts, daily "who's coming" summaries, weekly organizer updates, and account notices. Doesn't unlock any Dashboard pages on its own. |

### Data & reporting roles

| Role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **Reporting** | Access **Insights** and export data. Includes view-only access to Participants, opportunities, Days of Service, and Signature Events for report context. |
| **Participant Manager** | View and edit Participant records, update statuses, and manage Participant data across the Dashboard. |

### Credential roles (a tiered workflow)

Credential management follows a three-level hierarchy. Assign the highest tier that matches each person's responsibility.

| Role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **Credential Workflow Approver (Level 1)** | Review and approve credential submissions from **Credentials \> Statuses**. The entry point to the credential workflow. |
| **Credential Creator (Levels 1+ 2)** | Everything in Level 1, plus creating and managing credentials from **Credentials \> Manage**. |
| **Credential Overrides (Levels 1+2+3)** | Everything in Level 2, plus overriding credential restrictions and requirements. Only this role and the Owner can override, not even a legacy Admin. |

### Web Tools roles

Web Tools live in **Settings \> Web Tools** and shape what organizers see when creating opportunities.

| Role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **Web Tools - All** | Access to all three web tools: Tags, Footprints, and Suggested Questions. |
| **Web Tools - Tags** | Manage the tags suggested during opportunity creation. |
| **Web Tools - Footprints** | Manage the default options for opportunity footprints. |
| **Web Tools - Suggested Questions** | Manage the questions suggested during opportunity creation. |

### Legacy roles

You may still see these four roles on users who were set up before Roles-Based Permissions was turned on. They keep working, but they no longer appear in the role picker, so they can't be assigned to anyone new.

| Role | What it includes |
| --- | --- |
| **Admin** | Every permission except Credential Overrides. |
| **Writer** | Create, publish, and manage all opportunities, plus Participant management, Insights, and exports. |
| **Reader** | View all opportunities and Participants, and draft (but not publish) opportunities. |
| **Opportunity Manager** | Create opportunities and manage the ones they're assigned to. |

**Heads up:** when you change roles for a user who holds a legacy role, the legacy role is removed when you save. Before you save, check the new roles cover everything that person still needs.

Getting Started

The Owner and anyone with the **User Admin** role (or the legacy Admin role) can invite users and change roles from **Settings \> Users**.

### Invite a new user

1. Go to **Settings** and select **Users** from the sidebar.
2. Click **Invite User**.
3. Enter the person's email address and check at least one role.
4. Click **Next Step: Review Invitation**, confirm the details, then click **Send Invitation**.

### Change a user's roles

1. Go to **Settings** and select **Users** from the sidebar.
2. Find the user with the **Search by name or email** bar, or narrow the list with the role filter.
3. Click the edit icon to the right of their name. The **Change roles** window shows their current roles.
4. Check or uncheck the roles you want. You can search roles or use **Select All**.
5. Click **Next Step: Verify Changes**, review what's being added and removed, then click **Save Updates**.

Changes take effect right away. The person doesn't need to be re-invited.

### Change roles for several users at once

Select the checkboxes next to the users you want to update, then click **Change Roles** above the table. Bulk editing works when every selected user currently has the same roles. The Owner can't be selected.

### Organizations with Chapters

If your Dashboard has Chapters, changing roles for a single user adds a **Choose organizations** step. Pick which organizations the change applies to. Each role box cycles through three states: checked adds the role, unchecked removes it, and a dash leaves it as it is. You can also review users from your Chapters in the **Users in Child Organizations** section, when it's enabled for your account.

### Keep in mind

- **Role Change History**, at the bottom of the Users page, records who changed whose roles and when.
- A user left with no roles stays on your Users list but can't do anything in the Dashboard. To take someone's access away entirely, use the remove icon instead.
- If your organization signs in with SSO, your identity provider may set roles automatically at each login. Check with your Client Strategist before changing roles by hand.

FAQs

**Can someone hold more than one role?**

Yes, and this is by design. Roles are additive, so assigning Reporting and Participant Manager to the same user gives them both sets of permissions combined.

**What's the difference between Opportunity Admin and Opportunity Coordinator?**

Opportunity Admin manages every opportunity in the Dashboard, plus Programs, Opportunity Approval, and Curate. Opportunity Coordinator only sees and manages the opportunities they own. Both can create opportunities and work with Days of Service and Signature Events.

**I don't see Admin, Writer, Reader, or Opportunity Manager in the role list. Where did they go?**

Those are legacy roles. Users who already have them keep them, but new assignments use the 17 roles above. To recreate a legacy role, combine the new roles that match what the person does. For example, Opportunity Admin plus Participant Manager plus Reporting covers everything a Writer could do, plus Days of Service, Signature Events, and Programs.

**When should I use Web Tools - All vs. the individual Web Tools roles?**

If someone needs every web tool, Web Tools - All is the simplest assignment. Use the individual roles (Tags, Footprints, Suggested Questions) when you want tighter control over which tools a user can access.

**Who receives notification emails about registrations and account updates?**

Anyone with the Contact role (and anyone with the legacy Admin role). Add or remove the Contact role to control who gets these emails.

**What is Legacy Reader, and do I need to do anything about it?**

No action needed. Legacy Reader is a baseline permission bundled into most roles so users can get around the Dashboard. You won't see it in the role picker, and it's managed entirely by the system.

**How do I transfer ownership of a Dashboard?**

The current Owner can click **Change Owner** on the **Settings \> Users** page and pick a new Owner from the existing users. If the current Owner isn't available, reach out to your Client Strategist or email support@goldenvolunteer.com and we'll help you through the transfer.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to your Client Strategist or email support@goldenvolunteer.com.

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