CRM [Beta]

The Roundtable CRM is your centralized place to manage contacts, track engagement, and coordinate outreach — all directly connected to the spaces and work you’re doing in Civic Roundtable. Whether you're running a working group, launching a campaign, or coordinating technical assistance, the CRM keeps everything aligned in one place.

Setting Up Your Hub

Customizing Your Hub

Make your hub uniquely yours by configuring:

  • Hub name and URL - Choose a name and custom URL.
  • Logo - Upload your organization's logo.
  • User permissions - Control who has access and what they can do.

Managing Users and Permissions

Before adding users to your hub, you must first share a Roundtable Space with them – this ensures users already have access to the Roundtable ecosystem before joining your hub. Once shared, you can assign one of two roles:

  • Member
    • Full access to all hub features and data.
    • Cannot view or modify hub settings.
  • Admin
    • Complete access to all hub features and data.
    • Exclusive access to CRM settings and configuration.

Hub Privacy

  • All CRM data remains completely private and internal to your CRM teammates. Members in Spaces cannot see any information entered in the CRM system, including member profiles, notes, or tags. Members will only see the content intended for them in their Spaces.
  • When logged into Roundtable, you can navigate to the hub via your account dropdown accessed via the top-right. When in Spaces, click your avatar and then select “Go to Hub”.

Connecting Your Spaces

How Connected Spaces Work

Connected Spaces are existing Roundtable spaces that you link to your hub. This integration automatically syncs space members and organizations, and keeps profile data consistent across the products.

How to Connect a Space

  1. Go to Settings → Connected spaces
  2. Press “Add connection”
  3. Select the space(s) that you want to connect.
    1. Note: You must be a Space Manager to connect a space.

Profile Syncing

  • Create new records: All space members and their associated Organizations are automatically added to your hub when connected.
  • Synced Profiles: People who are linked to a connected space will have their record automatically synced with their Roundtable profile. Any changes that member makes to their email, location, or other profile information will automatically update in your hub.
    • Note: Synced Person data cannot be manually edited in the hub. To add additional information, use tags or custom fields instead.
  • Automatic Upgrades: If you've manually added a person to your hub, and then you connect a space where a member exists with a matching email address, then the manual profile will be automatically "upgraded" to a synced profile.

Disconnecting Spaces

To disconnect a space:

  1. Go to Settings → Connected Spaces
  2. Click the more options menu (⋯)
  3. Select "Disconnect"

Note: Disconnecting a space won't remove space members or organizations from your hub. Person profiles will no longer sync automatically, allowing you to edit them manually if needed.

Adding Multiple Spaces

When connecting additional spaces to your hub:

  • Existing hub records won't be duplicated.
  • New spaces will appear in each person’s sidepanel.
  • Member profiles remain unchanged, since their Roundtable profiles are consistent across spaces.
  • Each connected space appears as a link in the sidebar, allowing you to easily filter for active members of that space.

Adding Records to Your Hub

There are three ways to add records – People and Organizations – to your hub:

Connected Spaces

Automatically imports all members and their associated Organization when you connect a Roundtable space

CSV Import

  1. Go to the People/Organizations tab
  2. Click Import / Export → Import CSV
  3. Upload a CSV file with the required fields entered

Duplicates will not be created if uploading CSV containing:

  • People that have email addresses that match the email address of a person already in the hub
  • Organizations that have the same name as the email address of an Organization in the hub

Manual Creation

  1. Go to the People / Organizations tab
  2. Click "Add person" / “Add organization”
  3. Fill in the required fields

Managing Records

Viewing and Managing Records

People / Organizations Tab Overview: Access all your records in one organized table with filtering and search capabilities. Export to CSV for external use or analysis. 

Record Sidepanel: Click on any record to open their detailed profile, including:

Notes

Collaborate effectively with your team using the built-in notes system to capture ideas, track interactions and preferences, and share insights for better coordination. Notes on person records support threaded conversations and resolution to help teams collaborate.

Creating a Note

  1. Open the sidepanel and navigate to the “Notes” tab
  2. Enter a note in the input and press the “Create” button

Starting a Reply

  1. Click the actions menu (⋯) on a note and select Reply to open the reply input
  2. Type your response in the "Add a reply..." field
  3. Submit your reply to add it to the thread
  4. Note: Replies are limited to one level deep to keep conversations focused and readable. You can reply to the original note, but cannot reply to replies themselves.

Marking Threads as Resolved

  1. Click the actions menu (⋯) on a note
  2. Select Resolve thread
  3. The entire conversation will be marked as resolved and collapsed. Click the thread to expand it and view the full conversation.

Reopening Resolved Threads

  1. Click the action menu (⋯) on a resolved thread
  2. Select Reopen thread
  3. The thread will return to its active state

Notes Privacy

  • Notes are private to your hub and are not shared with the contact. Any user in the hub can view person notes. Only note creators can edit or delete their notes.

Other Actions

For each record, you can:

  • Edit Profile: Modify contact information (unless the Person profile is synced from a connected space).
  • Copy Link: Share direct links to records with teammates.
  • Delete Record: Permanently erase all historical data and cannot be undone. Note that this doesn’t remove the connected person from any spaces.
  • Add to Lists: Organize contacts into targeted groups for campaigns and outreach.
  • Apply Tags: Categorize and organize for easy filtering and search.

Organizing Your Data

Custom Fields

Capture the specific information that matters to your team with custom fields. For example, track details like Department, Lead Source, Priority Level, Committee membership, Event Attendance, or Working Group participation.

How to Add Custom Fields:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Custom Fields
  2. Select "Add Custom Field"
  3. Choose from supported types: Text, Single-select, or Multi-select
  4. Configure field options and display order

How custom fields work:

  • Fields appear when creating or editing records
  • Custom fields display in the record sidepanel and in CSV exports
  • Single and multi-select fields automatically become table filters
  • Customize the field display order and order of dropdown options

Tags

Make your records easier to find and organize with tags.

How to Create tags

  • Navigate to Settings → Tags
  • Select "Add Tag"
  • Select tag name, color, and description (optional)

Adding Tags to Records:

  • Through the person record sidepanel
  • By selecting multiple people in the table and clicking "Add tags"

Lists

Create targeted groups of records for specific campaigns, outreach efforts, or organizational needs that serve as named, easily accessible collections for action.

Creating Lists:

  1. Click "Create new list" in the sidebar or create on-the-fly when adding records to lists
  2. Name your list and add an optional description

Adding Records to Lists:

  • From list view: Click "Add to list" button
  • From person record: Click "Edit" in the Lists section of their sidepanel
  • Via bulk selection: Check multiple people in the table and click "Add to list"

Exporting Lists: Easily export your lists to CSV for external use or analysis.

When to use Custom Fields vs. Tags vs. Lists

Feature Purpose Best For Examples
Custom Fields Capture structured, specific info Data you need consistently across records Department, Lead Source, Priority Level, Event Attendance
Tags Add flexible, persistent metadata Quick organization, filtering, segmentation VIP, Needs Follow-up, Attended Workshop
Lists Create actionable collections of records Outreach, campaigns, bulk actions Newsletter Recipients, Grant Applicants, Working Group Members

Analyzing Your Data

Hub analytics

You can gain insights into how your team is using the CRM. Visit the “Analytics” tab accessed via the left sidebar. 

Sending Emails

Roundtable's email functionality allows you to send professional communications directly from your hub to contacts, lists, and spaces.

Verifying your domain

To send emails through Roundtable using your organization's domain, you must first verify domain ownership by adding specific DNS records. Domain verification is essential for email deliverability and protects your domain reputation by preventing unauthorized use.

Why Verify Your Domain?

  • Improved deliverability: Authenticated domains help emails reach recipients' inboxes rather than spam folders
  • Recognition: Send emails from your organization's domain (e.g., yourorganization.gov)
  • Security: Prevents others from spoofing emails using your domain
  • Reputation protection: Maintains your domain's sending reputation

Getting Started with Domain Verification

Step 1: Access Email Domain Settings

  • Navigate to Settings → Email domains in your Roundtable hub
  • The domain field will be pre-populated with your account's domain (e.g., if logged in as madeleine@yourorganization.gov, it will show yourorganization.gov)

Step 2: Retrieve DNS Records

  • Click “Get DNS records” to generate the required DNS records
  • Copy the provided DNS records exactly as displayed
  • Share these records with your IT team or DNS administrator. If you want help drafting a message to your IT department, click here for a template.

Step 3: Add Records to Your DNS Provider

  • Your IT team will need to add the provided records to your DNS configuration.

Step 4: Verify Domain

  • After DNS records are added, wait for propagation (typically 15 minutes to 24 hours)
  • Return to Settings → Email Domains in Roundtable
  • Click "Check verification"

Troubleshooting

  • If you get an error after checking verification, it may be due to a time delay – please give up to 24 hours for the DNS changes to be reflected in Roundtable. Have your IT department check for typos or extra spaces in DNS records, and verify records match exactly what Roundtable provided.
  • If you aren’t sure how to proceed, you’re welcome to reach out to us at support@civicroundtable.com for assistance.

Creating an Email

You can create a new email in several ways:

  • From the Emails tab: Navigate to the Emails tab in the left sidebar and click "New email"
  • From bulk actions: On the People tab, select person records using the checkboxes, then click "Send email" from the bulk action toolbar
  • From list view: On any people list page, click "Email list" at the top of the page

Composing Your Email

Sender Information

The From field is automatically populated with your user account information, including both your name and email address. To update your display name, modify your user profile settings.

Important: Emails are sent from your organization’s verified email address. While they're processed through Roundtable, recipients will see your organization email (e.g., madeleine@yourorganization.gov) as the sender.

Recipients

Select recipients from To field options including:

  • People lists
  • Spaces
  • Individual people records

Note: Recipients must already exist as records in your hub. If you need to contact someone new, add them as a person record first. 

Email Content

  • Subject line: Enter a clear, descriptive subject for your email
  • Body: Compose your message using the rich text editor, which supports:
    • Text formatting (bold, italic, underline)
    • Headings and bullet points
    • Hyperlinks and emojis
    • Other standard formatting options
  • Attachments (optional): Include files up to 10mb in total

Email Delivery Details

  • The system automatically removes duplicates when sending – if someone appears in multiple selected lists, they'll only receive one email
  • Each email is sent individually to recipients – recipients cannot see other email addresses or reply to the group
  • An unsubscribe link is automatically added to every email
  • Recipient Limits:
    • Maximum 10 lists
    • Maximum 10 spaces
    • Maximum 1,000 individuals
    • Final merged list must be under 10,000 total emails

Managing Email Drafts and Collaboration

All hub users can view, edit, and send emails created by other teammates. This shared access helps coordinate outreach efforts and prevents duplicate communications.

Draft Emails

  • Contains all unsent emails from your team
  • Can be edited, deleted, or sent by any hub user

Sent Emails

  • History of all sent emails
  • Can be deleted, but not modified, once sent

Tracking Email Performance

Email Performance

After sending an email, you can monitor engagement through detailed analytics:

  • Delivered: Emails successfully delivered to the recipient’s email service provider
  • Bounced: Emails that were dropped due to bad recipient data
  • Spam: Emails that were marked as spam by a recipient or by their email provider
  • Opened: Successfully delivered emails that registered as opened
  • Clicked: Successfully delivered emails that registered a click on a link

Detailed Recipient Reports

Click "View recipient details" to access individual engagement data for each person who received your email. This report shows how each recipient interacted with your message, helping you understand the effectiveness of your outreach.

Person Profiles

Emails sent to people via the hub will appear in an Emails tab in the record sidepanel. This complete communications history provides:

  • Visibility: See all emails sent to each contact in one place for full context before follow-ups.
  • Personalization: Reference previous conversations to create more relevant messages.
  • Coordination / avoid duplicate outreach: Everyone can see communication history to prevent mixed messaging and improve collaboration.

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