❖ Heads up! This article is intended for Site Managers.
When to use User Groups to restrict Opportunity access
The User Groups feature lets you group users with similar skills or backgrounds and share Opportunities with them. This is also a great feature for limiting access to your Opportunities so that only members of the User Group can respond to them.
✅ Best practice: This is a great alternative to Prerequisites! Prerequisites are always applied to all Opportunities no matter what. Use User Groups to apply restrictions in specific circumstances.
Depending on your need, you could consider creating a User Group if you want:
- To restrict access to specific Opportunities
- To stop particular groups of users from accessing Opportunities
- Access to the Opportunity to be limited to specific groups
- e.g., you only want members of a club, class, or fraternity to have access to an Opportunity or individuals with certain licenses or certifications
These are a few examples of why you would use a User Group to restrict Opportunity access. You may have a different reason for wanting to restrict Opportunity access. Whatever the reasons, we recommend using User Groups to achieve this. Here we cover the four steps for restricting access to your Opportunities:
Four steps to restricted Opportunity access
1. Setup your User Group(s)
The first step is to create your User Group(s). We recommend clear and relevant titles for your User Groups. This can be specific to your use cases, i.e., if the Opportunity you are trying to restrict access to requires special certifications, you might title the User Group "Licensed Veterinarians" or "Certified Lifeguards". 
✏️ Quick tip: You can add a Private Description that details limitations for that User Group. This is only shared with other Site Managers. For example, you might include a detail like, "Please do not share private Opportunities associated with this User Group with outside users." 
2. Add join questions to your User Group(s)
After you finish setting up your User Group, be sure to add join questions. These can help you vet the users in that group, e.g., you can require that they upload a copy of their current license or certification when joining the User Group. 
3. Add users
Now it's time to add users to your User Group. You, or a designated User Group leader can add or remove users.
✅ Best practice: We recommend inviting users to join the User Group. That way they will be asked to complete the Join Questions before they can join the User Group and see Opportunities.
4. Add private Opportunities to the User Group
The last step is to associate private Opportunities to the User Group. Be sure to set the privacy of these Opportunities to Private so that the members of the User Group can see and respond to them. 
Now, the User Group members in a User Group with the private Opportunity associated can access and respond to that Opportunity.
- Please note that all Opportunities have a URL that can be shared—including private Opportunities. This means another Site Manager could share a private Opportunity link with users outside the User Group.