Categories are the labels your workspace uses to describe what role a person plays — Client, Vendor, Sponsor, Volunteer, Speaker, and so on. They're a controlled list everyone on your team picks from, so the same kind of person always gets the same label.
Why categories matter
Without them, one team member types "Sponsor," another types "sponsor," and a third types "Sponsorship Partner." A month later you can't get a clean count of how many sponsors you have. Categories fix this by giving everyone the same chip to click instead of a text box to type into.
Where they live
On a person's profile, look at the Categories card in the right sidebar. Click the pencil to open the picker, check the categories that apply, click Save. Each one renders as a colored chip with an icon.
Defaults you start with
Your workspace was seeded with a category set that fits your org type. You can rename, recolor, archive, or add new ones at any time.
- Church & ministry: Member, Visitor, Volunteer, Staff, Speaker, Guest, Donor-Only
- Missionary & nonprofit: Supporter, Donor, Prayer Partner, Speaker, Board Member, Volunteer
- Agency, company, freelancer: Lead, Client, Past Client, Vendor, Partner, Sponsor, Speaker, Referral
Managing the list
In the sidebar, open People → Categories to manage the catalog. (This used to sit under Settings — it now lives with the rest of People.)
- Add new: click New Category, give it a name, pick a color and icon, and save. It's immediately available in every person's picker.
- Rename: hover any category and click the pencil. The chip's color and icon are editable from the same modal.
- Reorder: drag categories up or down. The order here is the order they appear in the picker on each person's profile.
- Archive: the archive icon hides a category from the picker without deleting it. Anyone who already had it stays tagged. Restore it from the Archived section at the bottom of the page any time.
Seeded vs custom
Categories tagged with the small System badge were seeded with your workspace. They behave exactly like custom categories — you can rename, recolor, or archive them. The label is just there so you can tell which ones came pre-built.
Categories coexist with the auto badges
The colored chips at the top of a person's profile (Member, Donor, Volunteer, Contact) are computed automatically from data: someone who has given becomes a Donor, someone with a member profile becomes a Member. Categories are a separate, manually-applied layer. Both can be true at once — for example, a person can have the auto Donor badge and the Sponsor category you applied.