Directories are a valuable member benefit, and they can even serve as a non-dues revenue stream!
Because directories are powered by Groups, you also gain the flexibility to:
Create as many directories as you need, with settings unique to each one.
Include both members and non-members.
Rely on automatic updates as Groups change.
Customize each directory for your target audience.
Monetize listings with advertising opportunities.
Before You Get Started
Learn the essentials of member directories on Novi – how members can search, which records appear, and what details are displayed for each person or organization included.
Create a group (if you haven't already) to define which members will appear in your directory.
Create a New Directory
Once you’ve created or determined the group you’ll use for your directory, head to the backend of your site. From the navigation, go to Members → Segments → Directories, then click Add Directory.
The New Directory modal will be displayed:
At the top of the New Directory modal, add the following details:
Name: Enter the name of the directory, which will display on the frontend.
Members To Include: Select the Group to include in the directory from the drop-down list. Each directory is populated from a single group, so only one Group can be selected from this drop-down list.
Visibility
Choose who can see the directory:
Public – Available to everyone (including non-members). To display contact information publicly, toggle Show Contact Info to Public ON.
Specific Groups – Restrict access so only designated groups can view the directory.
Note: If an individual member has set their record to Hide Contact Info, their details will remain hidden even if the directory is public. An admin can also toggle this on for members from directly within the directory's settings after the directory has been created.
Now you can start configuring what you'll display within this directory.
Directory Display Settings
Novi directories are highly configurable, allowing you to control how listings appear and what information is shown on profile pages. Use the Settings and Profile Pages sections when editing a directory to toggle features on/off and customize the experience.
Map View: Displays members on a Google Map, using the organization’s Shipping Address.
If Show Address for People is enabled, an additional option appears: Only Display City & State for People. When enabled, individual pins will show only the city/state location (not full addresses).
Category View: Allows members to be organized and displayed in alphabetized categories.
When toggled on, scroll down a bit to select the Key Category Field from the available drop-down list.
Category View creates unique filtered directory pages which you can use to provide unique content or sell ad space.
Featured Listings: Displays premium directory listings for select members at the top of the directory along with Featured information. Enable and customize how Featured and Basic Listings appear directly within your directory settings in the Profile Pages section. If turned off within a specific directory's settings, all listings will be considered "featured."
Sort Order: Choose how listings are displayed:
Random (recommended) – Shuffles the order to provide equal visibility.
Alphabetical – Lists by name, with featured and dues-paying members displayed first.
Order of display always follows: Featured members → Dues-paying members → Inheriting members → Non-members.
Profile Details Settings
Show Address for People: By default, addresses for individuals are hidden. Toggle this ON to display Shipping Addresses.
Item of Note: Before enabling this feature, we recommend informing individuals that their address will be visible in the directory. If allowed, individuals can control the visibility of their address through the Member Compass, or admins can manage this setting on their behalf.
Once the feature is turned on, an additional option – Only Display City & State for People – will become available.
Show Effective Member Type: Display the effective member type for those who inherit their member benefits from a related record. The member type label shown is based on the Display Name for Directories field in member type settings. If this is toggled on, it will also apply to the member type filter and category view, when applicable.
Hide People Profiles From Directory List View: Toggle this ON to hide individual person profiles from...
Directory search
Directory filter results
Directory member list pages
Hidden people will still display under their company’s directory profile (if the Related People List is enabled).
Special Offer: Displays an company's specials offers in the directory. These will display based on Featured and Basic list settings, as set up in your Association Settings.
Item of Note: Special Offer must be toggled ON in a directory for the Special Offers field to become a visible on a company/organization record.
Related People List: Determines whether staff lists and contact information on company profile pages will be shown. Information in the Staff listings will display based on Featured and Basic list settings, if enabled.
Filters
Filters make it easy for website visitors to narrow down results in your directory.
Available Filter Types
Location-based fields – City, State, County, Zip Code, Country
These filters still work even if full addresses are hidden.
Member Type – Options are based on each member type’s Display Name for Directories.
If two member types share the same display name, it will only appear once in the filter list, and members from both types will be grouped together.
Custom Fields – Must be either:
Checkbox fields (shown as Any / Yes / No), or
Set-of-options fields (shown as a dropdown).
Groups & Committees – Appear in the filter list with a suffix, e.g., Award Winners (Group) or Board (Committee).
How Filters Work
Filters can be added individually from the drop-down menu when building a directory. After selecting your chosen filter, click +Add.
Multiple filters can be added, and you can drag and drop to change their display order.
On the frontend of your site, some filters allow directory visitors to select multiple options at once:
Example: choosing several Member Types to display together, or selecting multiple values from a checkbox/set-of-options custom field.
If a record matches any of the selected values, it will appear in the results.
Directory Categories
If Category View is enabled in your directory settings, you’ll need to select a Key Category Field. This field determines how listings are grouped and displayed, creating unique, filtered directory pages.
These category pages can also be used strategically — for example, to highlight specific content or to sell targeted ad space.
Available Key Category Fields:
Member Type
Any custom field that has been configured to act as a Member Directory Filter (these will appear in the drop-down if they’ve already been added as filters for the directory).
Example:
A custom field called Areas of Expertise could be used as your Key Category Field, allowing visitors to browse supplier members by the specific services they offer.
Profile Pages
The Profile Pages section controls which fields display on each member’s profile page when opened from within the directory.
What Can Be Shown
System Fields – Several system fields like contact information, logos or headshots, bios or organization overviews, member type, key dates such as Member Since and Original Join Date.
The Name field is always required and cannot be hidden.
Committees & Groups – Will display only if the member record is currently assigned to the committee or group. They appear with an indicator in parentheses, e.g., Board (Committee) or Award Winners (Group).
Custom Fields – Will display only if the member record has a value for that field.
How to Configure
Each field has a Shown/Hidden toggle, so you’re always in control of what appears.
If Featured Listings is turned on for the directory, you’ll also see a Display column with a dropdown menu option to decide whether each field should display in:
Basic Listings only
Basic & Featured Listings
At the bottom of the list, you can add additional committee, group, or custom fields. Choose the fields from the dropdown and click +Add. You can reorder these additional fields as needed, but they must remain below the system fields.
📌 Note: If you choose to hide the Address field here, the related settings (Map View, Show Address for People, and Only Display City & State) at the top will automatically turn off to keep things consistent. The opposite is also true. If you turn these settings on within the Profile Pages section, the related settings at the top will turn on.
Search Engine Optimization
Each directory includes SEO settings to improve how it appears in search engines:
Page Title – The title displayed in search engine results.
Description – The summary shown in search engine listings.
URL Prefix – Creates a unique directory URL.
This must be unique and cannot duplicate a static page URL.
Activating a Directory
Once you’ve finished setting up your directory, you’ll need to make it active before it appears on your site.
Use the Active/Inactive toggle in the top-right corner of the directory editing page.
You can leave the directory inactive to test settings before publishing.
Now that your directory is active you can customize the directory content on the frontend and add the directory to the website navigation, homepage, and many other places!
Hiding Individual Profiles in a Directory
After creating your directory, you can also choose to completely hide certain profiles from the website. To do this, go to the Directory Members tab → Hide on Website column.
Toggle a profile to Hidden to remove it from the directory (and all other directories).
If a member has already requested to be hidden, or if an admin has set this on their member record in the Settings tab on that record, the toggle will already appear as Hidden.
Adding New Directories to Your Website Navigation
This is an important step to make sure the directory you created appears to your members on the frontend of your website.
Go to Static Content > Website Navigation
Search by the directory name, or expand the Directories folder to view a list.
Drag and drop it into your navigation.
Directory Visibility Settings
When determining a directory's visibility settings mentioned above, it's important to think about the implications of choosing to make your directory public or locked down to certain groups.
Visibility Locked Down to a Specific Group
If you choose to lock your directory to a group, that means only the members of that group can see any of the profiles or information in that particular directory. Anyone who is not in the group (or not logged in, since the site won't know they are in the group) would receive a restricted content message.
This helps protect the information in the directory from those who either don't have the proper benefits to see it or even potentially bad actors like web scrapers.
Public Visibility
If you choose to make a directory public, remember that means anyone, logged-in or not will be able to see the directory.
Going this route, making a directory public, you can take it a step further to say if contact info is public or only available to logged-in members.
If you choose to show contact information to the public as well, that means that anyone viewing the directory can see the directory members' emails, phone numbers, and addresses (for companies). For some associations, this may be a member benefit - these members want to be contacted by directory visitors. However, keep in mind that this may open the members up to the bad actors looking to scrape emails for email lists.
Our website tools have technical safeguards in place to help protect against robo-scrapers (for example, the use of ReCaptcha and page view limitations that a regular user wouldn't hit); however, it's difficult to distinguish between a real user of your site and a human that's looking to scrape emails from your public directory.
For this reason, you might consider hiding contact info for your public directories. This way, while anyone can see the directory profiles, only logged-in members would be able to access the contact information.
To take it a step further, you may also consider enabling the Member Directory Contact Form, which shows a form to contact members rather than revealing their real email addresses. If enabled, you can also choose to utilize the Contact Form Limit setting which limits the number of messages a user can send via the contact form within a certain timeframe.
Learn More About Directories