Introduction
In CiviPlus, you can automate the creation of membership certificates, allowing them to be printed, emailed, or accessed directly by members through the Self-Service Portal.
Simple certificates can be created using the built-in editor in CiviPlus, or for more elegant or sophisticated designs you can use a a third-party tool, then import the content as HTML. You can add images from the library and personalise the certficate using tokens.
This article details both methods and also includes instructions for creating credit card-sized membership cards.
Creating a Membership Certificate
There are just a few steps to create a Membership Certificate:
Confirm the Membership Type that the Certificate will relate to.
Create the Message Template which will hold the content/format of the certificate.
Create a Certificate configuration record, which links the Membership Type with the Message Template.
Generating or accessing the certificate
1. Confirm the Membership Type
A Certificate is linked to a particular Membership Type. This may already have been configured in CiviPlus, or you can follow the detailed instructions here to create it. For the purposes of this article we will simply use the "Gold Membership" that is included as an example Membership Type in CiviPlus, shown below:
2. Create the Certificate Message Template
Navigate to Mailings -> Message Templates and click the ADD MESSAGE TEMPLATE button. You can now complete the form to configure the Message Template that will be used to generate the Certificate.
Firstly, the Message Title is used to uniquely identify each Template. Give it a meaningful name so that it easy to understand what the template is going to be used for.
The Source field specifies how you are going to create the content of the Certificate
Select the default and recommended option Compose On-screen to use the built-in editor to format the main body of the certificate. Using this option you can also paste in the HTML for a Certificate created in a 3rd party tool.
If you choose the Upload Document option you can use a .docx or .odt file which contains the main body of the Certificate. This allows you have the Certificate generated in .docx/.odt format, which could be useful in certain circumstances. However, this approach has limitations and constraints (for example images in the
Next you specify the Subject. This is the text that will be shown in the subject line if the Certificate is emailed to a member. Note that you can personalise the Subject field using tokens, which are substituted when the Certificate is generated for values held in CiviPlus. So for example, if you move to the </> Tokens dropdown list and start typing in "First Name" you can add the {contact.first_name} token to the Subject field.
Note: The next three fields, HTML Format, Plain-Text Format and PDF Page Format are not available if you have decided to use an uploaded document as the basis of the Certificate body in the Source field as described above.
The HTML Format field is the built-in editor that allows you to configure the body of the Certificate, and you can also include tokens to personalise the Certificate. You can either use the editor to create the content from scratch (for simple certficates) , or you can copy/paste the HTML for a Certificate created outside CiviPlus into the editor and then tweak it to add images store in the CiviPlus library, and add tokens (for more complex certificates).
The Plain-Text Format field isn't really relevant for Certificates, which typically have at least a simple format, but you could use this field to send certificates to devices that can only handle text.
The PDF Page Format and Image Format fields allow you to specify the size for each of the formats - you can either accept the default or one of the alternatives (if any have been set up by your administrator).
The last option is to say whether the Message Template is Enabled or not.
3. Create a Certificate Configuration record
A Certificate Configuration record links a Membership Type to a Message template, and also defines under what circumstances a certificate is available, for example, contacts who hold Memberships of a particular status.
Navigate to Administer -> Certificates and click the NEW CERTIFICATE button. The screen below shows the form to update an existing Certificate configuration record, but it is exactly the same as for a new configuration record.
The Certificate Name is used to identity each specific certificate, and is available as a token to be included in the certificate message template, as well as appearing in the Self-Service Portal. The Type fields says what entity this certificate is associated with - it can be Events, Membership or Cases.
In the Linked to field you need to select the specific Membership Type that this certificate is related to, the name of the Message Template which defines the content and format of the certificate to be created.
You should always enter a value for the Status field - this what status the Member needs to hold in order to be eligible for the certificate. If you don't select at least one status (eg Current) then lapsed and cancelled members could also receive the certificate, which is probably not what you want to happen.
Start Date and End Date allows you to provide a window during which the certificate can be accessed.
The Download Format fields says whether a PDF or Image file type will be generated.
The Access for Related Contacts field is used to specify the user(s) who hold a relationship (A to B ) that allows them to access/download certificate in addition to the main contact. This might be useful where, for example, an organisational administrator needs to download Membership certificates for an organisation or individuals where they are the main billing contact.
Click the SAVE button and the Event Certificate Configuration record will be available for generating a certfiicate.
Generating and accessing the Certificate
There are a number of ways in which a Membership certificate can be created and accessed by users:
Within the Self-Service Portal navigate to the My Certificates, and then choose the MemberEvents tab. You will see any certificates that you are entitled to, and when you click the ፧ symbol in the Download column you can download the certificate in its original format (PDF or Image depending on how it is configured), or as an HTML file.
You can view a list of memberships (for example, by searching for memberships of a particular type and status), and when you have the list select the ones you want to generate a certificate for and from the Actions dropdown choose Print/Merge Documents for Memberships.
In the form that follows, select the appropriate Certificate Message Template and then click the DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT button (if you chose PDF Letter Print as the option) or SEND EMAIL button (if you chose Email as the action). The certificates will be generated and downloaded or emailed depending on your choise.
Note: This method of creating Event Certificates does not check for Membership Status, so include this parameter when you search for the Members you want to create certificates for