Accept your repository invitation
This is the step that trips everyone up, so we're going to be extremely precise. After you send FFC your GitHub username, we send you an invitation to your charity's repository. You have to accept it once before you can edit anything. Here is exactly what it looks like, who it's from, and three different ways to accept it.
You are on step 4 of the complete site-owner path: ① GitHub account → ② turn on MFA → ③ send FFC your username → ④ accept the invitation → ⑤ set up your assistant.
The one thing to understand first
The same invitation shows up in more than one place, and you only need to use one of them to accept:
- An email from GitHub, and
- Your GitHub notifications at github.com/notifications when you're signed in.
There's also a direct accept link for your repository (Route C) that always works. If a place looks empty, it's almost always because you're signed in as the wrong account — check that first, below.
What your repository is called (the pattern)
Every FFC charity site lives in a repository named FFC-EX-your-domain inside the FreeForCharityorganization. Once you know your charity's website address, you know your repository address. These are three real, live FFC charities — open any one to see a finished site and the repository behind it:
Environmental nonprofit
savewatersaveplanet.orggithub.com/FreeForCharity/FFC-EX-savewatersaveplanet.orgSee how each repository name is just FFC-EX-followed by that charity's domain? Yours follows the same rule. (These are real examples — you'll only ever be invited to your own.)
Before anything else: are you signed in as the right person?
The #1 reason an invitation seems “missing” — even in your notifications — is being logged into a different GitHub account than the username you gave FFC (for example, an old personal account, or a second account on a shared computer). The invite was sent to one specific username, so you must be signed in as that exact person to see it.
Check it: open github.com, look at the circular profile picture in the very top-right corner, and click it. The username shown at the top of that menu must match the one you sent FFC. If it doesn't, sign out and sign back in as the correct account.
Three ways to accept — pick any one
Accept from the email
The easiest way, if you can find the email
Look for an email that looks like this:
- From:GitHub <notifications@github.com> (the sender name is just “GitHub”)
- Subject:“[FreeForCharity] @clarkemoyer invited you to collaborate”
GitHub
<notifications@github.com> to you
[FreeForCharity] @clarkemoyer invited you to collaborate
@clarkemoyer has invited you to collaborate on the FreeForCharity/FFC-EX-mitchellnchistory.org repository.
You can also copy this URL: github.com/FreeForCharity/FFC-EX-mitchellnchistory.org/invitations
- Gmail: the Promotions and Updates tabs, then Spam.
- Outlook: the Other tab and the Junk folder.
- Search your email for the word invited or github.
When you find it, click the green View invitation button. It opens GitHub in your browser and shows the green Accept invitation button — click that. Done.
Accept from your GitHub notifications
Works even if you can’t find the email
Signed in as the right account, open github.com/notifications (or click the bell icon in the top-right of GitHub). Your repository invitation appears in the list — open it and click the green Accept invitation button.
If the list looks empty: double-check the account (the warning above), and make sure the filter at the top is on Inbox / All rather than a narrower view.
Accept from the direct repository link
The surest way — a link that goes straight to the accept button
FFC will give you your repository's web address. Signed in, open it with /invitationson the end — this goes straight to the accept button (yours will have your charity's name):
https://github.com/FreeForCharity/FFC-EX-mitchellnchistory.org/invitations
Some repositories also show a green banner at the top of the main repo page (github.com/FreeForCharity/FFC-EX-mitchellnchistory.org) — if you see it, its Accept invitationbutton does the same thing. It doesn't always appear, which is why the /invitations link above is the reliable one.
You've been invited to collaborate on the FreeForCharity/FFC-EX-mitchellnchistory.org repository.
How you know it worked
After you click Accept invitation, you land on your repository's normal page — a list of files and folders, with no invitation prompt left. That's it: you're now a collaborator and you (and your AI assistant) can make changes. You never have to accept again.
If something still isn't right
- “This invitation has expired” or the link does nothing
- Invitations expire after 7 days. Text Clarke at (520) 222-8104 and ask him to re-send the invitation to your GitHub username — it arrives again within minutes.
- I clicked Decline by accident
- No problem and nothing is broken — the invitation just needs to be sent again. Text Clarke and he'll re-send it.
- The repository page says “404” / “not found”
- That almost always means you're signed out or signed in as the wrong account (the repo is private until you accept). Re-check the top-right profile picture, then reload the page.
- I never gave FFC my username
- That's step 3 — no invitation can be sent until you do. Text Clarke your GitHub username(the name under your top-right profile picture) and your charity's name, and the invite will follow.
You're in — what's next
Now set up the AI assistant that actually makes your edits, then make your first change.
Stuck on any step? Text Clarke Moyer at (520) 222-8104. This step is genuinely the hardest part of the whole process — once you're past it, editing your site is easy.