Profile FAQs

Your CNPS profile will allow you to easily update your contact information, interests, and email subscriptions at any time. You can also view your current membership information and donation history (if applicable).

If you are a Perennial (monthly sustaining) member, you will also have access to the Service Center in your profile, where you can view your payment history and schedule, and edit your payment method.

Please view our privacy policy to learn more about how CNPS stores and uses your personal information.

When logged in to your profile, you will be able to see the following data fields:

• Name, suffix(es) and title (if applicable)
• User name
• Member ID (if applicable)
• Email address
• Mailing address, and whether or not you would like to receive postal mail
• Phone number
• Date and amount of your first, last, and largest gifts, as well as year-to-date and lifetime giving totals
• Membership status (active/lapsed) and type, join and expiration dates
• Sustained giving status (if you are a perennial member)
• Chapter and second chapter
• Chapter newsletter preference (mailed/emailed/do not send)
• Interests
• Email preferences and subscriptions

If you are a perennial (monthly sustaining) member, you will also have access to the Service Center in your profile, where you can view your payment history, schedule, and active payment method.

If your contact information is incorrect (your name, email, phone, address, etc.), or if you would like to update your interests, you can make updates directly in your profile by clicking “Edit Your Profile” above the “Biographical Information” section. Be sure to click “Save” at the very bottom of the page when you are done.

If your chapter, second chapter, or chapter newsletter preference is not correct, you can update it by contacting CNPS via cnps@cnps.org or 916-447-2677.

If your giving and/or membership information does not appear to be correct, please see the Profile Field Help section below for more details on why something might not appear correct. If you still think something may be incorrect, please contact CNPS via cnps@cnps.org or 916-447-2677.

If you are a perennial (monthly sustaining) member and you would like to change your recurring payment method, you can go to the Service Center section in your profile, where you can edit your credit card and billing information.

Please note: it may take up to 10 days for the information in your profile to be fully synced to the main CNPS database, including when you join or renew your membership. During this time information in your profile may look like it has reverted, but within 10 days or less it will show your updated information. If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact CNPS.

When logged in, you can update the following data yourself:

• Name, suffix(es) and title (if applicable)
• User name
• Email address
• Mailing address, and whether or not you would like to receive postal mail
• Phone number
• Interests
• Email preferences and subscriptions

To update your chapter, second chapter, or chapter newsletter preference, please contact CNPS via cnps@cnps.org or 916-447-2677.

If you are a perennial (monthly sustaining) member, you will have access to the Service Center in your profile, where you can also edit your recurring payment method.

To update your chapter, second chapter, or chapter newsletter preference, please contact CNPS via cnps@cnps.org or 916-447-2677. You can edit your contact info, user name, interests, email subscriptions, and recurring payment method (perennial members only) directly in your profile, anytime.

If you are editing your profile, first make sure to scroll to the bottom and click “Save.” Then, once saved, you will be brought to the profile view page (in the “Personal Profile” tab).

On the profile view page, scroll to the bottom and click “Done.” You will be brought back to the welcome page, where there is a “Log Out” button.

If you are a Perennial (monthly sustaining) member, you will have access to the Service Center when logged in to your profile, and here you can edit your payment method.

1. Click on the Service Center tab. You will be brought to a page with a summary of your recurring gifts.
2. Click on [ view details ] next to your active gift information. You will be brought to a page with additional details about your membership gift.
3. On this screen, click [ edit ] next to Payment Method. A dialog box will open in which you can enter a new credit card and billing information.

Note: if you need to cancel your Perennial membership, please contact cnps@cnps.org.

Here is the login page for existing users: https://secure2.convio.net/cnps/site/UserLogin

If you have ever given CNPS your email (this could have been via an online form, registering for an event, signing up for a membership, making a donation, etc.), our system has automatically created an account for you and assigned you a user name (which you can change once you set your password and log in). To access your account and log in to your profile, you will need to request your user name, then set your password.

To do this, go to https://secure2.convio.net/cnps/site/UserLogin?CMD=ForgotLogin and enter your email address that CNPS has on file. You will receive an automatically-generated email (it can sometimes take a few minutes to send; be sure to check your spam folder if you do not see the email) from cnps@cnps.org with “Your CNPS Login Information” in the subject line. This email will contain your user name, and a link to set or reset your password. Follow that link to set up a password, and be sure to note your new login credentials somewhere secure. (If there is no account associated with the email provided, the system will email you and let you know that your account does not exist, with a link to create a new account.)

If you complete the new user signup form and get an error message that your email is already in use by an existing account, this is likely because we already have your email on file from a previous interaction (such as a membership transaction, donation, event registration, email signup, etc.), and the system automatically created an account for you and assigned you a user name (which you can change once you set your password and log in). To access your account and log in to your profile, you will need to request your user name, then set your password. Please see “How do I log in to my profile for the first time?” above for details.

If CNPS already has your email on file from a previous interaction (such as a membership transaction, donation, event registration, email signup, completing an online form, etc.), the system automatically created an account for you and assigned you a user name (which you can change once you set your password and log in). If you receive emails such as the CNPS e-newsletter, it means we have your email on file. If you’re still not sure, you can follow the steps outlined in “I forgot my user name, how do I recover it?” in the User Name & Password Help section below to request your user name. If we have your email on file, you will be sent an email with your assigned user name, and a link to set your password. If we do not have your email on file, the system will email you and let you know that your account does not exist, with a link to create a new account.

Here is the webpage where you can create an account for your CNPS profile: https://secure2.convio.net/cnps/site/ConsProfileUser

“9/9/1949” is a fictitious date we use in the “member since” field to indicate that you were a member before we converted member database systems in 2009.

The fields that begin with “external” (e.g., “External First Gift Amount”, “External Last Gift Date”, etc.) show your giving history. It is “external” because it is fueled by legacy data from our main database, which syncs to your profile. So “External First Gift Amount” is the amount of the first donation you made to CNPS. We know this is funky but do not have a way to suppress “external” from the field label, so we find it helpful to just pretend like the word “external” is not even there!

If your membership status shows as “unknown,” it means you are not currently a CNPS member. You can join or renew anytime at www.cnps.org/join. If you think this is erroneous, please contact CNPS via cnps@cnps.org or 916-447-2677.

(Note: Family memberships are currently being phased out. Any family memberships purchased before April 2019 will remain active until expiration, and your profile will reflect the membership as usual, but they are no longer available for purchase.)

Family memberships only show on one of the member’s account profiles. Let’s say for example, you have a family membership which you share with your spouse, and both of you have emails in our system. The family membership may only show on your profile, but not your spouse’s, or vice versa. Our main membership database has the ability to link you and your spouse together on the same membership, but unfortunately there is no way to show this within the account profiles. If you don’t see the family membership on your profile, your spouse can log in to their account, and the correct membership information should be there. Rest assured that in our main database we have the correct information for you and show you both as members either way.

If you’d like, we can combine your two account profiles into one, however the account profile will then only be associated with one name and email, not both of yours. If that’s what you’d prefer, contact breilly@cnps.org to combine accounts. (This will not impact your membership record in our main database, you will both still have member records, just not separate account profiles that you can log in to.)

If your status under the sustained giving information section shows as “unknown,” it means you are not currently a perennial (monthly sustaining) member. Learn more about how you can make a greater impact over time as a perennial member at www.cnps.org/perennial-membership, or join now at www.cnps.org/join!

If you are a Perennial member, your membership will still show an expiration date, even though it will automatically renew. Our system requires an expiration date to be recorded, and the date will be updated when your membership renews. As long as you are seeing other sustained giving information correctly in your profile, we have everything correct and your membership will not expire, even though there is a date in your profile.

Available interests are:

• Conservation
• Education
• Native Plant Gardening
• Native Plant Science
• Stewardship (Invasives & Restoration)

Your interests may help CNPS customize the content you receive from us so it is more appropriate for you. Use the checkboxes to indicate the topics you’re interested in.

Your email subscriptions are the types of email communications you are signed up to receive. Available subscriptions are:

• California Native Plant Society News (gardening tips, conservation, plant science, and more)
• CNPS Plant Science Training Workshop Announcements
• CNPS Rare Plant Treasure Hunt Updates
• Conservation Action Alerts
• Local Chapter News (garden tours, plant sales, field trips, volunteer opportunities, and more)

Use the checkboxes to subscribe and unsubscribe from these mailings.

The “preferred format” field tells CNPS how you’d like to receive the emails you’re subscribed to: plain text, or HTML. HTML includes interactive links, images, and other formatting, whereas plain text is just the text of the email with no design or interactive elements. Unless your email host has certain settings enabled, most of the emails you receive are in HTML format, and we recommend this option for the best experience.

Due to our data processing schedule, it may take up to 10 calendar days for information updated in your profile to be fully synced to the main CNPS database. During this time information in your profile may look like it has reverted, but within 10 days or less it will show your updated information. If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact CNPS.

Due to our data processing schedule, it may take up to 10 calendar days for updated membership information to be fully synced to the main CNPS database. During this time information in your profile may look like it has reverted – it may even be correct one day, then revert, then correct a few days later! – but within 10 days or less it will show your updated information permanently. As long as you received an email confirmation of your membership, we’ve received it too. If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact CNPS.

To reset your password, go to https://secure2.convio.net/cnps/site/UserLogin?CMD=ForgotPassword and enter your email and user name. You will receive an automatically-generated email (it can sometimes take a few minutes to send; be sure to check your spam folder if you do not see the email) from cnps@cnps.org with “Reset Your Password” in the subject line. This email will contain a link to reset your password. This link is valid for 72 hours, so if you do not reset your password within that time frame, you will need to repeat this process to request a new reset password link.

Go to https://secure2.convio.net/cnps/site/UserLogin?CMD=ForgotLogin and enter the email address associated with your account. You will receive an automatically-generated email (it can sometimes take a few minutes to send; be sure to check your spam folder if you do not see the email) from cnps@cnps.org with “Your CNPS Login Information” in the subject line. This email will contain your user name, and links to either reset your password or go straight to the login page if you know your password. Be sure to note your login credentials somewhere secure. (If there is no account associated with the email provided, the system will email you and let you know that your account does not exist, with a link to create a new account.)

To change your user name, log in to your profile at https://secure2.convio.net/cnps/site/UserLogin. From the welcome page, click the link to “View and update your user profile.” You will be taken to the “Personal Profile” page. Click “Edit Your Profile” above the “Biographical Information” section. Find your user name in the “Biographical Information” section and edit it to the user name you’d like. Click “Save” at the very bottom of the page when you are done. Be sure to note your new user name somewhere secure.

If you do not know your password, please see “I forgot my password, how do I reset it?” above. If you do know your password, you can change it in your profile. Log in to your profile at https://secure2.convio.net/cnps/site/UserLogin. From the welcome page, click the link to “View and update your user profile.” You will be taken to the “Personal Profile” page. Click “Change Your Password” above the “Biographical Information” section. Enter your current password, new password, and a reminder hint, then click “Save.” Be sure to note your new password somewhere secure.