Constituents Codes

Matthew Ross

What is the best use of Constituent Codes in RE. We use RE for our Advancement Office at a private school and use two areas for mailing lists; Attribute codes and consistency codes. But which one is better to use?? and how should we be using the constituent code field on bio2?

JoAnn Strommen

Matthew Ross:
What is the best use of Constituent Codes in RE. We use RE for our Advancement Office at a private school and use two areas for mailing lists; Attribute codes and consistency codes. But which one is better to use?? and how should we be using the constituent code field on bio2?

Matthew,

While you may filter on certain constit codes for a mailing, to me it is not the place to store details related to mailings.  It really should never become a catch-all field for info.  That's more what attributes are designed for. 

For us the constit code defines the relationship the constituent has with our org.  So we have codes like Board member, staff, foundation, donor, Y Branch ABC donor...   Maybe more simply, the constit code answers the question of why this record is in RE - they are an alumni, a parent, a student, a foundation, etc.  But keep this list at a reasonable #.  While I may filter on staff members for a mailing, that's the only detail regarding the mailing, I'd be pulling from constituent codes. 

In constit attributes, you can use codes/descriptions to be more specific and use that if needed for your mailings.  Ex. we have constit code of staff, in attributes we have an attribute specifying what department they work in.  So if I were to want to do a mailing to staff working in childcare and wellness, I would use both constit code and attributes in my query to create mailing list.  Does that make sense?

I would also recommend searching the forum for other posts on constituent codes,  There have been numerous discussions about constit codes that you might spark some ideas for you.  The book "Fundraising with The Raiser's Edge" by Bill Connors has info on using this field - some RE users use it as he describes, and some of us don't - prefering to opt for what works in our situation.

Melissa Graves 2

Matthew Ross:
What is the best use of Constituent Codes in RE. We use RE for our Advancement Office at a private school and use two areas for mailing lists; Attribute codes and consistency codes. But which one is better to use?? and how should we be using the constituent code field on bio2?

If you want a simple pie chart (less then 8-10 slices) of "who" donates to your organization, what you name these slices would be your constituent codes. The list should be short and simple, but the data tremendously helpful.

Bill Connors' book, "Fundraising with The Raiser's Edge: a non-tecnhical guide", is tremendously helpful in deciding what to do (and not to do) with these codes amongst others.