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The Referral Program is a vouching gate on new registrations. Someone signs up normally, then has to collect a set number of vouches from existing members before their account is activated. Each voucher answers three questions you write, and those answers stay on the new member’s profile. Built for membership organisations that admit people on the word of existing members: professional networks, associations with sponsorship rules, alumni bodies. Replaces the email thread where two board members confirm they know the applicant.
This is not the same feature as Invitations. Invitations are an existing member reaching out to someone new. The referral program is other members vouching for someone who has already registered. They are configured on the same settings page but work independently.

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Setting it up

Settings → Modules → Users & Profiles → Referral Program. Only Orgo administrators can change it. Referral Program settings with the Enable Referral Program switch, the Enable User Invitations switch, the Number of Referrals Needed for Signup selector and three referral question fields Both switches have to be considered together: the program only holds new signups when Enable Referral Program is on and the number is 1 or more. With the number left at None, the program is on but nothing is gated. Write questions that ask for something concrete, for example “How long have you known this person?”, “In what capacity have you worked with them?”, “Why should they be a member?”. The answers are stored verbatim and are visible on the profile, so they double as your admission record.

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What happens to a new signup

1

They register and confirm their email

Registration itself is unchanged: your normal registration form, the usual email confirmation code.
2

Their account is held

Once the email is confirmed, their status becomes Awaiting referral and a referral record with a unique link is created for them. They cannot sign in while they are in this state.
3

They receive their referral link

An email tells them how many referrals they need and gives them a link of the form https://<your app host>/refer/<code>. The confirmation screen shows the same link with a copy button and the message that they need referrals from N members of your community.
4

Members vouch

Anyone signed in who opens that link sees the applicant’s name, answers your three questions and sends. One member can only vouch once for the same applicant. Once the applicant has all the referrals they need, the link shows a notice saying so instead of the form, and a vouch that is refused shows the reason on screen.
5

The gate opens

When the number of vouches reaches the configured number, the account is activated, or set to Unapproved if Manual Approval is on. The applicant is emailed that they can proceed, and administrators are emailed too.
Every single vouch, not just the last one, emails all tenant administrators with the applicant’s name, the voucher’s name and the progress so far, for example 2 of 3. That email has its own switch, Referral received - Admin Notification, under Referrals at Settings → Modules → Emails & Notifications → Emails, next to the applicant’s own referral emails.
Someone whose account is awaiting referral cannot log in. Attempting to sign in returns them to their referral link rather than the dashboard. Plan for applicants sitting in this state for as long as it takes their contacts to respond.

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Who can vouch

On that tab, staff pick the applicant, answer the three questions for the voucher and press Submit referral. The vouch is recorded under the name of the member whose profile they are on, not under the staff member’s own name. The applicant picker lists the ten most recent people awaiting referral as Latest awaiting referrals buttons and has a member search restricted to applicants awaiting referral, so staff can work through the queue without collecting links. Submit referral stays disabled until an applicant is picked and all three answers are filled in. Chapter HR managers (and organization-wide HR managers) can also help an applicant along. On the Referrals tab of a member who is awaiting referral, a Referral link card shows that applicant’s link with a Copy button, so staff can send it to the people who will vouch. It works for members whose status was set to Awaiting referral by hand, who have no link yet: opening the tab creates it. Vouching is not anonymous. Each vouch is stored with the voucher’s name and their three answers, and appears on both profiles: under Referred by on the applicant’s Referrals tab and under Referrals given on the voucher’s. There is no rating, score or approval step on a vouch: submitting one counts.

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Members you add yourself are exempt

The gate only applies to self-signup. A member created by a signed-in administrator keeps the status you configured for admin-created users and gets no referral record, so you can always add people directly. Imported members are not gated either.
Completion is checked when a vouch is submitted and compares the count against the current requirement exactly. Lowering the requirement afterwards does not release people who already have more vouches than the new number. If you change the number while applicants are mid-flow, activate the affected people from the member directory by setting their status to Active.

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Seeing referral activity

On a member’s Referrals tab:
  • Referred by shows every vouch that member received, with the voucher and the full answers. When there are none it reads “No referrals received at this time”.
  • Referrals given shows every applicant that member vouched for, with the same answers. When there are none it reads “No referrals given at this time”.
Where the tab is. On your own profile Referrals is one of the tabs. On someone else’s profile it is not in the tab row: open More at the end of the row and choose Referrals. For the vouching cards it is offered to staff with HR_LOCAL over that member, while the referral program is on. When Enable User Invitations is on, the same tab also holds the invitation link, the invite by email box and the invitation history for members allowed to send invitations; see Invitations. Organisation-wide, the statistics page carries a Referrers leaderboard ranking members by completed referrals over 7 days, 30 days or all time, showing the top 20 with an option to expand to 50. That card is driven by the invitation link mechanism and appears when Enable User Invitations is on. A local center analytics page shows the same card for its own members. If the Gamification module is running with tiers, completing a referral awards points to the member who referred the newcomer through an invitation link. The amount comes from your gamification point rules and defaults to 100.

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Common scenarios

There is no partial mode: while the requirement is 1 or more, applicants cannot sign in until they reach it. If you want new people to have access immediately and be reviewed afterwards, leave the requirement at None and use Manual Approval or Adhesion instead.
Filter the member directory by the Awaiting referral status to see the backlog. Chapter HR managers can clear it from the Referrals tab, and any member can still be activated directly by changing their status to Active, which bypasses the gate. A second vouch from the same member for the same applicant is rejected, so the backlog cannot be cleared by one person vouching repeatedly.
Open the member’s profile, then Referrals (under More on someone else’s profile). Referred by lists each voucher with the answers they gave to your three questions. Referrals given is the reverse: the applicants this member vouched for.
Yes, in the voucher’s name. Staff with HR_LOCAL over an Active member open that member’s Referrals tab, choose the applicant under Choose person waiting for referral, fill in the three answers and press Submit referral. The vouch counts toward the applicant’s total and appears on both profiles as the member’s own, so only do this with the voucher’s agreement.
No. They are shown on the applicant’s profile and on the voucher’s profile to anyone who can see those tabs. Do not ask for anything you would not want the applicant to read.