A well-designed member portal is the foundation of a seamless association or nonprofit experience. But many organizations struggle with usability issues, disconnected logins, and clunky navigation in their portals. In this post, we’ll explore how to enhance your portal using Salesforce, Fonteva, and CMS integration to create an intuitive, branded, and accessible experience for your members.
Fíonta works with member-based and nonprofit organizations almost exclusively. These organizations often come to us because they want to invest – or have already invested — in a portal that frankly doesn’t function very well for their members. Common issues include:
- Confusing navigation – Members struggle to find renewal links, resources, or event registrations.
- Multiple logins – Separate credentials for the website, portal, and event pages create frustration.
- Cumbersome payment processes – Renewing membership or buying event tickets involves too many steps.
- Slow performance – Salesforce and Fonteva portals can be sluggish if not optimized properly.
- Lack of visibility – Members can’t easily track their event attendance, invoices, or engagement history.
It’s not just members who might have trouble, though. Organizational staff may be frustrated with siloed systems that require data updates across multiple platforms or portal templates that don’t align well with the organization’s branding. Frequently, a member portal that doesn’t work well for its intended audience results in high support overhead for organization staff, taking time away from other critical tasks.
“Sometimes members and staff who are less technical have difficulty knowing where to go to look for or update something. On the other hand, members who are really sophisticated expect more than what comes out of the box for an overall look and feel,” says Kat Onderdonk, senior Salesforce consultant at Fíonta. “In addition, the experience of paying for memberships and events can be really arduous. We want to make things as easy and pleasant as possible so that members and staff can reflect well on your association’s brand and add value.”
The good news is that we also see common themes when it comes to building a successful, valuable portal experience. Your organization can hit it out of the park with features and functionality, including:
Watch a demo to see how we’ve transformed a standard Fonteva portal using Experience Cloud into a branded, intuitive space where members can manage profiles, register for events, donate, and access key resources.
- Branded, professional styling – A consistent look and feel across the website and portal reassures your members that the portal is secure.
- Single Sign-On (SSO) – Unified login credentials across all platforms for ease of use.
- Intuitive navigation – Prioritizing key actions like renewing, registering, and accessing resources.
- 360° Member View – Members can see event attendance, membership status, invoices, and donations in one place.
- High self-service functionality – Reducing reliance on staff for renewals, event sign-ups, and profile updates.
- Easy join and renewal process – No member should abandon sign-up due to complicated forms or unclear steps.
- Accessibility compliance – Ensuring WCAG-compliant design at the highest level possible to support and welcome all users.
Organizations have to think strategically when planning or remediating a portal, and this is where partnering with an experienced consultant can offer terrific value. At Fíonta, we routinely apply the lessons learned when designing and developing websites to our portal work, even when building in Fonteva or Salesforce. This approach means that we may recommend the following tasks as part of your portal project:
- User Experience (UX) Audit: A UX expert examines all your user-facing interfaces and documents the experience. Where are the user pain points? Where are the accessibility issues? Where are the things that do not align with your needs?
- User Research: We engage with members and staff, asking questions to gain insight into how your existing systems work for them and what improvements they would like to see.
- Information Architecture (IA) Optimization: Information architecture is the overarching way that the user sees the different data at the highest level and all the distinct levels down. Structuring content for logical navigation and quick access leads to a more efficient (and happier) experience for your members.
- Wireframing and Prototyping: Testing layouts before development to ensure they are working as intended can save you costly revisions down the road. We do this with low and high-fidelity wireframing and, when necessary, with clickable prototypes before the real buildout begins.
- User Experience Testing: UX testing allows Fíonta to observe members and staff as they navigate your systems. We can see in real time what works well and where adjustments may need to be made based on the actions of these representative users.
All of the tasks listed above can be applied retroactively to existing portals, and some of them can be largely managed internally if needed to maximize budget and promote buy-in.
Lastly, if you already have a member portal, you may be wondering, “What’s next?” We would suggest exploring AI-powered personalization to recommend events, content, and resources based on each unique member’s behavior; implementing added automation to reduce manual data entry and administrative overhead; and strengthening integrations to enhance synchronization between your AMS and CMS, ticketing system, online storefront, and more. Every improvement should always be evaluated for its ultimate value to your members and/or your team – we would never recommend adding AI to your portal if it wouldn’t result in a better experience.
A well-optimized member portal is essential for streamlining engagement, reducing staff workload, and enhancing the member experience. Whether you need Fonteva customization, Experience Cloud enhancements, or CMS integration to improve that experience, Fíonta can help.
Is your member portal working for you? Contact Fíonta to explore a portal transformation that elevates engagement and simplifies operations.