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Quick Links to these categories:

Getting Started
 Child Protection
 Email, Letters, Labels and Reports
Contributions
Data Management and Data quality
Groups
Contacts and Households
Support
Views

Comprehensive guides designed for newbies are highlighted in red.  These resources are essential for learning Ministry Platform.

Ministry Platform Prayer Card

Getting Support:

Instructions for sending screen shots:   handout   (These are great skills to have for more than just Ministry Platform)

Level-One Phone support:  1-800-669-2509

Live chat – available 9 a.m.-6 p.m.:   You can chat with MP support representatives: https://acst.force.com/s/login/. This is great when you need help now.  This requires a different set of login credentials.   Your Ministry Platform user ID and password won’t work.   The user ID is your email and the password is something you would have set up when you accepted the portal invite.    Once you log in, click the Chat with an Expert button.  If additional support is needed they will submit a ticket on your behalf.   If you don’t have login credentials, you’ll have to call support at 1-800-669-2509 and have them assist you with your issue.  (While you’re talking to them, have them help you get login credentials for chat support.)


Getting Started

Logging in and changing your password:     Interactive Video    handout

Tour the Contacts screen:    handout

Finding people:   Please watch this 9-minute video designed to help you find people in MP. 
This video would be appropriate for everyone who uses MP.     interactive video      handout  

Setting up your browser
Opening Excel or PDF in your browser:  By default, browsers will download Office or PDF files. However, you can set your browser to automatically open the file in its appropriate software:    handout

Views

A view can help you learn more about the people in your parish or it can help you organize your most-used fields on the screen.  Or a view can be a quick way to move around in Ministry Platform.

Age Range or Birthday Range - Creating a view that will allow you to find parishioners by age for Date of Birth:  Using this handout, you can easily create a view that will let you find parishioners by age or date of birth.   handout

Child Protection - ProtectTrack

Instructions for entering Child Protection certification and clearances through in Ministry Platform

Contacts and Households


Learning Activities #2 - People skills:  Broken down into short interactive training, this series of training will teach you some essential skills     MP Video

Households:   Inactivate or REactivate:      Handout

Adding Sacraments:   handout   (MP training:   Interactive Training)

Advancing student grade information:  Handout

Fixing NO MEMBER records:    handout

Combining Duplicates and other data quality issues:      Handout.   What does MP consider a duplicate?  Read the rules.

Contact Attributes:   Contact attributes are used to record information about a person's talents and skills.  They are a great place to add notes about a person.  handout

Adding a Family:  Whether a person has registered as a new family or you are adding them because they are enrolled in your Religious Education program or some other group, this handout should help you.   Handout 

Households - Splitting individuals out of a household:  Removing someone from a household (Often used in cases of divorce) or combining households (Often used after marriage).     Handout 

  • The handout includes information for how to split people in 3 common scenarios.   The videos below are broken into one video per scenario.
  • If splitting a household would result in an empty household use the Combine Household tool.
  • Below you will also find instructions for setting up a non-Custodial parent.   This happens because divorce is splitting a family and you need to list the child in one parent’s household and yet maintain a connection to the other parent.  It lets us avoid creating a duplicate contact for the child or children.

Email, Letters, Labels and Reports:

Sending a simple email to active contacts over 18:     interactive video      Handout

Sending Birthday Greetings:    Handout    Covered in these instructions
  • Sending a simple email.  This is a basic skill you can use for many purposes
  • Creating a fancy template.  This is an intermediate skill you can use for many purposes
  • Scheduling automatic delivery of a birthday greeting daily.
  • Printing labels for mailed birthday greetings
  • Printing a hardcopy list of parishioners with upcoming birthdays
Sending an email to advertise common parish events:  Sample templates are available for your use in advertising common parish events through email. Sample templates exist for the following events.   If you would like to see additional events, contact Kathy Papalia.     Handout
  • Ash Wednesday
  • Bake Sale
  • Christmas Greetings
  • Feather Party
  • Festival
  • Lenten Dinners
  • Mass Times – Christmas
  • Mass Times – Holy Week
  • Pet Blessing
  • Spaghetti Dinner
  • Summer Picnic
Sending an email to alert parishioners to a scam:   These instructions will help you copy our stock "Scam Warning" template so you can customize it for yourself.   Then you can use that template to alert parishioners to a fraudulent attempt to scam money from parishioners.    Handout

Sending your bulletin:   These instructions will show you how to create a template for delivery of your weekly bulletin.    Video

Checking the status of sent messages:     Handout

Printing letters:  Learn how to use MP to send a letter to selected records.     Handout 

Printing labels:   Handout   Printing labels for parents of group members:   handout

Printing Census Reports, rosters or producing parish directories:   Handout

Sending $250 acknowledgement letter:     handout

Communicating with parents:  handout     Printing labels for parents of group members:   handout

Merging information from MP into a Word document:   These instructions will help you create a personalized letter using Ministry Platform data and a Word merge.     video      handout

Printing giving by parishioner:   This report will allow you to print a report showing all giving for a person.   This differs from printing the EOY report because you can choose to print giving for specific funds.   You can run this report for a specific person or multiple.  handout

Sending iGiveCatholic email:  Instructions for creating/editing email templates for iGiveCatholic.   Pre-designed templates exist for sending email Prior, Day of, and Post.   All you need to do is customize the text to meet your particular parish needs.   handout


Contributions

Learning Activities #3 - Contribution Skills: Broken down into short interactive training, this series of training will teach you some essential skills     MP Videos

Batches: Posting Payments in a batch - Handouts  Streamlined Instructions     Detailed Instructions   

CSA letters:  Depending on how your parish chooses to send letters, one of these options my suit your needs:

Option 1 - Printing labels for a generic follow-up letter or thank you letter that is not customized with the recipient's name or address.

Option 2 - Printing letters through MP that are personalized with the recipient's name, address and salutation.   (While the letter content can be edited the format cannot.)  

Option 3 - Merging letters with Microsoft Word that are personalized letters with the recipient's name, address and salutation.  Both the content AND the format can be customized.  (You will also need to download the appropriate merge document from the list below.  Other letters are available by request from Kathy Papalia.)  (If you would feel more comfortable doing this with Kathy, please feel free to call 814-824-1184.)

CSA pledge entry:   handout

End of Year Statements: While most often printed after December 31 as "end of year" statements, statements can be produced at any time. Handout

Envelope Numbers
Printing Envelope company export:   Handout
Assigning an envelope number:     Handout

Finance Office Annual Reports:  Determining yearly offering by household:    handout

Printing giving by parishioner:   This report will allow you to print a report showing all giving for a person.   This differs from printing the EOY report because you can choose to print giving for specific funds.   You can run this report for a specific person or multiple.  handout

Submitting CSA Pledges & Payments Each Month:   Handout

Moving Donations after divorce or due to error:  See the instructions under the heading Households - Adding or Removing people which is found in the People section.

Vanco Integraton:   Instructions for working with the Vanco integration     Handout

Working with Funds:     handout

Groups:

Audience – Religious Ed Staff and any parish staff tasked with creating groups.

Creating a Group      Handout
Adding members to a Group      Handout (also includes special needs/allergies)
Creating Buildings and Rooms    Handout
Creating an Event, Associating a Group with an Event (16:15) and event recurrences (17:20)     Handout
Attendance  Handout  
      Viewing attendance for a particular student     Handout
Auto-promoting students to the next group    Handout

Printing labels for Group members or their Parents:   handout

Sending an email to Group members:  handout

Data Management and Data quality

Deceased Person Tool (Training by Melissa):  In the event a parishioner passes away, running the Deceased Person Tool will ensure proper procedures and settings are in place.     Handout

Faith Magazine subscription management:   Handout

Sneak Peek Demos