Subcommunities

Subcommunities offer you the ability to create unique environments for curated groups of your main, or parent community. Subcommunities are linked to the main community but allow for a completely separate environment for members of the group. Branding, profile questions, event and content access, and member engagement are all separate and unique to the subcommunity and can be created and changed to cater to that curated group, separate from the parent community.

Spaces versus Subcommunities

Spaces allow for you as the administrator to restrict only content or event access to certain members within a community environment. Members of the space would see the branding, homepage, menu items, etc. as any other member, but would ADDITIONALLY see any content or events that were space-restricted. Learn more about spaces here.

Subcommunities are enabled as entirely separate tenants or environments, that are linked to the parent tenant. They allow for you as the administrator to offer access to an entirely different environment for subcommunity members. The branding, profile questions, menu items, member engagement, content and events, etc. would be specific to the subcommunity and only visible and accessible to members of the subcommunity.

You can have spaces within subcommunities but you cannot have subcommunities within subcommunities
All subcommunity members must be members of the main community and will have access to the main community's environment.

Managing Subcommunities

Customization of Subcommunities

Because each subcommunity is a unique community environment, you can customize nearly everything about it in a unique and separate dashboard.

Dashboard & Admin access

Each subcommunity has a unique dashboard or admin access to the back end of the platform. You can add admins to the subcommunity dashboard that are not admins to the parent community dashboard, and vice versa.

Settings

Because each subcommunity has its own dashboard, nearly every setting can be customized and unique. Some sign-up settings are set at the parent community level (work email suggestion or requirement), but all community and system settings are unique to each.

Collaborators

Collaborators can be added to subcommunities to contribute to the event lineup and content library. Define specific permissions for collaborators within the dashboard, and empower members to create their own events or publish their own content without full access to community and system settings.

Branding

You can customize the logos, primary color, taglines, banners, and more in the subcommunity dashboard to stand apart from the main, parent environment and limit member confusion.

Learn more about branding opportunities here.

Events & Content

Events and Content built in the subcommunity are only visible and accessible to those in that group. Subcommunity content and events are not automatically loaded in the main, parent community and vice versa: no events or content pieces are automatically loaded from the parent community into any linked subcommunities.

Channels & Messaging

Channel threads and all private Messages within the subcommunity stay within the subcommunity and are accessible only to members of that group.

Access controls

You can have Spaces within subcommunities to further curate content and events to select people within the subcommunity.

You can also limit sign ups to each subcommunity by invite only, application-based or open to all members of the parent community. Those settings are made in the dashboard, in Settings.

As a reminder, members of subcommunitites must be members of the main, parent community, too.

Integrations

Integrations that are enabled in the parent community are not automatically enabled in any linked subcommunities but can be turned on in the subcommunity dashboard.

Customization of Subcommunities Navigation & Exploration

In the parent or main community dashboard you can customize the titling, graphics, and language used for subcommunities. Change the menu item & header name for your subcommunities to match your branding - like Groups, Chapters, etc. Update the banner graphic on the subcommunity page, and the text to describe the subgroup in 'subtitle'.

All of this customization can be done in the parent or main community's dashboard, in Settings —> Customization —> Sub-Communities Page.

Member experience

From the homepage of the main community, you can customize the tab label that will direct main community members to the list of all subcommunities from the main menu on the left. The 'Explore' button in the upper left will also navigate to a list of subcommunities for users to browse.

All linked subcommunities will be listed with their community descriptions and logos. Parent community members can select the 'Join' button to sign up to join the subcommunities.

You can limit sign-up access, or keep the subcommunity open to all members of the parent community. If sign-up is limited to invite-only, admins invite and sign up all members of the subcommunity, and if sign-up is set to application, users will complete an external form to apply to join, and admins sign up all members that are approved.

These settings can be configured in the dashboard of the subcommunity, within Settings —> Sign Up Settings.

This is the user's sign up experience for an application subcommunity:

This is the user's sign up experience for an invite-only subcommunity:

If a member of the main community is a member of multiple subcommunities, they can pin up to 5 subcommunities to their homepage navigation bar at the top, to easily jump from one subcommunity to another. They will always have access to the main community as well.

Logged-in members will see an 'Explore' icon in the upper left-hand corner of their homepage that directs them to the main, parent community and a list of other subcommunities linked to that parent community.

I want to get started!

If you think this would be a great solution for your community structure, contact the Gradual team.