What are verifications?
"Verifications" is a low-friction, digital security system that is built-in to your programs.
It is designed to create exclusive community engagement programs with the best-in-class privacy controls - while giving its members a secure, easy way to verify their identity online.
Verification badges act as gatekeepers that control access to your programs.
Using these, you can restrict access for different members of your community - like 'Alumni', 'Student', 'Board Member', or 'Class Captain'.
This way, you can make sure that no one is granted access to something private before you can confirm that they are indeed alumni.
What makes most digital security systems of today inadequate?
Traditionally, for anything private or exclusive in a digital space, people have relied on sign-up walls (where you need to create an account to get access).
We did this too. Here's what we learned from our experience:
Especially in alumni communities, people engage infrequently.
Many forget their password or how they are "supposed" to log in.
This blocks them from getting value when they need it -- frustrating them.
Or, they create duplicate accounts that mess up your records.
To measure engagement you need people to log in
Unless logged in, you can't identify who is engaging with you; engagement data can't be tracked for that constituent. For users to log in, first they need to sign-up.
Signup forms can be long since you try to capture as much information in one go and having to do this for every new program you launch -- causes people to drop off.
Very few have the resources for a unified login-system
The best schools identified this problem and typically have single-sign-on systems across all their programs (like a Harvard key, Stanford ID or Princeton key)-- but everyone can't afford to build or maintain this.
How will Verifications solve this?
Almabase is uniquely positioned at the intersection of your members, their records on your database, and the programs they want to access.
This allows Verifications to quickly cross-reference details across these systems to validate members while still giving a really smooth experience.
Here are some finer details on how verifications as a security mechanism solve some key problems for communities better than old-school login frameworks:
How will Verifications help me improve engagement?
Verifications are a lego-block that you can use to supercharge your programs.
It can be layered onto any program.
You can even embed it on your existing websites to put content behind a gate to limit who can access it and to track which constituents engage with it.
Here are a few ways this can help:
Measure how constituents engage without needing them to signup.
Fine-tune who can access your programs to align with organizational goals.
Frictionless login for members to participate in exclusive programs.
Capture data in context and push it to constituent records and to your database.
How can a member get a verification badge?
Verification badges are assigned to a user's record in two ways:
It might already have a badge — because the attributes on the constituent record meet the criteria for that particular verification badge.
If a member doesn't have a verification badge that they think they are eligible for, they can apply for it via a verification form.
Administrators review the application, and add this new verification badge to their record if they meet the requirements for it.
To learn more about how verifications work, and more detailed instructions on how to manage them, click here.