Using the Contributor Role

The Contributor role lets team members work on the parts of a strategic plan they're responsible for without giving them permission to edit everything.

A Contributor can add goals anywhere in the plan, and can edit, score, and add items inside the goals, action items, or tasks they are a champion or team member of. Everything else in the plan is view-only to them.

The Contributor role is available on Core and Solid plans. Organizations on Basic or Lite can contact Causey Support to request access.

What can Contributors do?

Contributors can:

• Add a new goal under any strategy, in any focus area.
• Edit, score (post progress updates on), and delete goals, action items, and tasks they're assigned to as a champion or team member.
• Add action items and tasks within their own goals.
• Record measurements and set targets on metrics attached to their own goals.
• Comment anywhere in the plan.
• Add documents and links to their own items.

Contributors cannot change focus areas or strategies, edit other people's items, reorder the plan, archive or remove metrics, or manage tags and library categories.

They also cannot access Settings.

How to assign the Contributor role

Administrators can assign the Contributor role to new or existing team members.

1. Open Settings, then select Members.
2. Find the team member and change their access level to Contributor. You can also select Contributor when inviting someone new.
3. Make sure they're assigned as a champion or team member of the goals they'll be working on.

If a Contributor isn't assigned to anything yet, they'll see a message on the plan encouraging them to add a goal or ask an administrator to assign them. Administrators will also see a warning on the Members page.

How Contributors work with their items

When Contributors add a new goal, Causey automatically makes them its champion. They must remain a champion or team member of that goal to keep editing it.

Contributors can use the My items filter to focus on their assigned work.

Each item also has a Who can edit this? panel explaining who can make changes.

Editors and Administrators can continue to edit and reassign items as usual.

How to adjust Contributor editing permissions

Administrators can control how far down the plan Contributors are allowed to edit.

1. Go to Settings, then Organization.

   Find Contributors may edit.

   Choose one of the following:

   • Goals and below: Contributors can edit their assigned goals and items within them. This is the default.
   • Action items and below: Contributors can edit assigned action items and tasks.
   • Tasks only: Contributors can edit assigned tasks.

Focus areas and strategies are never editable by Contributors.

Good to know

• If a Contributor tries to remove themselves from a goal they created, Causey asks them to add themselves back so they don't lose editing access.
• Locked and inactive plans are read-only to Contributors, just as they are to Editors.
• If an organization moves below Core, existing Contributors keep their permissions. The Contributor option simply becomes unavailable for new assignments.