> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.faithloft.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create and manage an announcement

> Write a church-wide or department update, publish it now or later, and review member engagement.

Use **Announcements** to post an update to the church-wide feed or a department's member feed. Choose the scope carefully: a church-wide announcement and a department announcement reach different audiences.

## Before you begin

* Open **Announcements** and choose a target from **Scope**. Your available departments and the **Church-wide** option depend on your access.
* You need announcement management access for the selected scope to create, edit, publish, schedule, archive, restore, or delete announcements. If **New announcement** or an action is missing, contact your church administrator.
* A department announcement is available to that department's members when the **Announcements** module is enabled for the department.

## Create a draft

1. Choose the announcement's target from **Scope**: **Church-wide** or a department.
2. Select **New announcement**.
3. Enter a required **Title** and optional **Body**. The title can be up to 200 characters; the body can be up to 10,000.
4. Turn on **Pin to top** if the announcement should appear ahead of other posts in the member feed.
5. Set **Expires (optional)** if the announcement should stop appearing in the member feed at a certain time. The expiry must be in the future and, for a scheduled post, after the publish time.
6. Leave **Allow comments** on if members should be able to comment. Turn it off to disable comments on the announcement.
7. Select **Save draft**.

The new announcement is saved as **Draft**. The form stays open so you can add a **Cover image** or files. A cover image must be PNG, JPEG, or WebP and no larger than 10 MB. You can attach up to 10 files, 25 MB each: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PNG, JPEG, or WebP. Uploads are saved as they finish. Select **Save changes** after editing the title, body, pin, expiry, or comment setting.

## Publish or schedule

Use the actions on the announcement card:

* For a **Draft**, select **Publish now** to post it immediately, or **Schedule** to choose a future **Publish at** time.
* A scheduled time must be in the future. If **Expires (optional)** is set, **Publish at** must be earlier than the expiry.
* For a **Scheduled** announcement, select **Publish now** to post it immediately, or **Unschedule** to return it to **Draft**.
* A **Published** announcement appears in the selected member feed until it expires or you archive it. The **Pinned** marker means it is prioritized in that feed.

Set the **Status** filter to **Draft**, **Scheduled**, **Published**, or **Archived** to find announcements in that state. Select **Refresh** to reload the current list or **Load more** to fetch another page.

## Update, expire, or archive a post

Select **Edit** on a non-archived announcement to change its title, body, pin, expiry, or comments setting. You can also replace the cover image, add files, or remove attachments. Archived announcements cannot be edited.

When an expiry time passes, the post stops appearing in the member feed and shows an **Expired** badge in the staff list. Its status remains **Published** until you archive it; **Expired** and **Archived** are different states.

Select **Archive** on a **Published** announcement when it should no longer appear in the member feed. To return an archived announcement to the feed, use **Restore**. Restoring publishes it immediately. Select **Delete** only when the announcement and its media should be permanently removed. Deletion cannot be undone and removes the cover image and attachments too.

## Review engagement

On an announcement that has been published, select **View engagement** to open its engagement details:

* **Reactions** shows reaction types and counts.
* **Read receipts** shows the read count and, for staff with the required access, the members who read it and when.
* **Comments** shows the member discussion. If comments were disabled, the panel says **Comments are turned off**. Staff with management access can delete a comment from this panel.

Use **Load more** in a long reader or comment list to see additional entries. If a section is unavailable, your role may not include access to that information.

## Check the audience and timing

Before publishing, confirm the **Scope**, title, expiry, and any attached files. A department announcement is limited to the selected department's member feed. A **Church-wide** announcement is for the church-wide feed. If the intended readers cannot see a post, check that the announcement is **Published**, has not expired or been archived, and that the relevant department has **Announcements** enabled.

Use [Messages](/portal/messages) when you need to send a targeted email, SMS, WhatsApp, or push message to a selected audience. Use **Announcements** for posts members can read and discuss in the church or department feed.


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