Constituent Codes with date ranges

Odette Kent

We currently do not use the date from and date to fields for Constituency codes. Can anyone give me insight into the value of using these fields?

JoAnn Strommen

Odette Kent:
We currently do not use the date from and date to fields for Constituency codes. Can anyone give me insight into the value of using these fields?

We use dates (exception is data brought in at conversion - came with out dates - haven't taken hours that would be needed to enter it all).

We do not use constituent codes of "Former Staff/Former Board/etc." so the to date gives us an end for when that constit code applies.  The from date obviously tells us when they became that category in our database.  Guess it's a matter of how you set up your database and utilize constituent codes.  I find them quite helpful. 

Odette Kent

JoAnn Strommen:

We use dates (exception is data brought in at conversion - came with out dates - haven't taken hours that would be needed to enter it all).

We do not use constituent codes of "Former Staff/Former Board/etc." so the to date gives us an end for when that constit code applies.  The from date obviously tells us when they became that category in our database.  Guess it's a matter of how you set up your database and utilize constituent codes.  I find them quite helpful. 

When you say you find them quite helpful are you referring to the Constituency code or the dates? Since we have not used dates ever. Entering them seems to be a daunting task ( unless we just use them going forward), not to mention how it will affect reports. I have more questions about this. Is there a phone number where I could contact you and discuss it further?

Candace Chesler

Odette Kent:
When you say you find them quite helpful are you referring to the Constituency code or the dates? Since we have not used dates ever. Entering them seems to be a daunting task ( unless we just use them going forward), not to mention how it will affect reports. I have more questions about this. Is there a phone number where I could contact you and discuss it further?

 Odette -

I am a fan of using Constituent Codes to give a "history" of the person's relationship with the organization.  For example, I currently work at a school.  It is possible for a parent to have a Constituent Code record on the Bio 2 Tab that looks like this:

DescriptionCode   Date FromDate ToAlumni Parent   AP6/8/2014   Current ParentCP9/2/2004    6/8/2014Applicant Parent   AP12/1/2003    9/2/2004

I recently had to create a giving snapshot for all of our constituencies in detail by year for seven years of giving.  By having start and end dates on the Bio 2 Tab - I was able to place people in the proper categories for the report. 

Previously I worked with a membership organization that used Constituent Codes similar to Giving Levels - because that was the primary way that they interacted with their members.  When you joined you became an Associate, when your giving reached a certain threshold you became a Member, at the next threshold you became a Benefactor, etc. 

I actually had to clean up the Constituent Codes for them, and managed that process through an import.  It takes some organization to set up the import files - and I would do it in small groups to get started - but I find that having those dates on the Constituent Codes is very helpful.

Odette Kent

Candace Chesler:

 Odette -

I am a fan of using Constituent Codes to give a "history" of the person's relationship with the organization.  For example, I currently work at a school.  It is possible for a parent to have a Constituent Code record on the Bio 2 Tab that looks like this:

DescriptionCode   Date FromDate ToAlumni Parent   AP6/8/2014   Current ParentCP9/2/2004    6/8/2014Applicant Parent   AP12/1/2003    9/2/2004

I recently had to create a giving snapshot for all of our constituencies in detail by year for seven years of giving.  By having start and end dates on the Bio 2 Tab - I was able to place people in the proper categories for the report. 

Previously I worked with a membership organization that used Constituent Codes similar to Giving Levels - because that was the primary way that they interacted with their members.  When you joined you became an Associate, when your giving reached a certain threshold you became a Member, at the next threshold you became a Benefactor, etc. 

I actually had to clean up the Constituent Codes for them, and managed that process through an import.  It takes some organization to set up the import files - and I would do it in small groups to get started - but I find that having those dates on the Constituent Codes is very helpful.

Your grid looks like what ours would look like if we start this practice. It appears to be fairly straight forward. However, how does this work in various reports such as Participation rates and Gift detail reports? If you use the Constituent code parameter "all" does it pull by Primary Code or the code/s that exist within the date range specified? Also, how does this affect mailings?

Melissa Graves 3

Odette Kent:
Your grid looks like what ours would look like if we start this practice. It appears to be fairly straight forward. However, how does this work in various reports such as Participation rates and Gift detail reports? If you use the Constituent code parameter "all" does it pull by Primary Code or the code/s that exist within the date range specified? Also, how does this affect mailings?

Constituent codes work differently on different reports and you need to know/learn the difference between reporting on gift constituency codes and constituent constituent codes. Many of the summary reports (i.e. gift detail and summary report) if you summarize by constituency code without dates you will not get ideal reporting. The example Candace gave is a good one. If you want to know how much was raised in 2009 by current parents. In your summary report - any giving the donor made between 2004 and 2014 will count as coming from a current parent. Without dates - it would all count as alumni parent giving. Try it with one record - put that one record into the gift detail and summary report and see how it goes. I will say the only thing to avoid in this is doing multiple date ranges. If I remember correctly, it keeps a person in the first category it finds. So if you put into your report 2003 - 2004 and 2004-2005, this person's giving as a parent "might" show as applicant parent giving. Test it and try it.

Candace Chesler

Melissa Graves:
Constituent codes work differently on different reports and you need to know/learn the difference between reporting on gift constituency codes and constituent constituent codes. Many of the summary reports (i.e. gift detail and summary report) if you summarize by constituency code without dates you will not get ideal reporting. The example Candace gave is a good one. If you want to know how much was raised in 2009 by current parents. In your summary report - any giving the donor made between 2004 and 2014 will count as coming from a current parent. Without dates - it would all count as alumni parent giving. Try it with one record - put that one record into the gift detail and summary report and see how it goes. I will say the only thing to avoid in this is doing multiple date ranges. If I remember correctly, it keeps a person in the first category it finds. So if you put into your report 2003 - 2004 and 2004-2005, this person's giving as a parent "might" show as applicant parent giving. Test it and try it.

Odette -

As Melissa says -  the codes work differently on different reports.  When you filter a Gift Detail and Summary Report by Constituent Code, the report includes records based on the value in the Constituency field on the Miscellaneous tab of the Gift - NOT by the Constituent Code on Bio Tab 2.  This is another clean up area that I had to tackle - because I found many gifts that had no value in the Constituency field of the Gift record.

For me - this was a two-pronged process.  First, I cleaned up the records based on the relationship with the school - and imported Constituent Codes on to records so that I had the complete history as described in my previous post.

Then I looked at giving by constituency and found instances where the Constituency on the Gift record didn't match the Constituent Code on the Bio 2 Tab based on dates.  I exported those gifts and imported them back in.

And why did I do all this?  I had to produce a report that reflected the total potential # of donors as well as the actual donors in each constituency - for a seven year period.  I had to know when a parent moved from being an Applicant Parent to a Current Parent to an Alumni Parent and what donations (if any) they gave in those time frames. 

Hope this helps!

 

Candace Chesler

Odette Kent:
Your grid looks like what ours would look like if we start this practice. It appears to be fairly straight forward. However, how does this work in various reports such as Participation rates and Gift detail reports? If you use the Constituent code parameter "all" does it pull by Primary Code or the code/s that exist within the date range specified? Also, how does this affect mailings?

 Mailings!  Forgot to answer that question.  I tend to use Export to create my mailing files for Appeals or Event invitations.  The Primary Constituent Code is the determining factor on whether a person is included in the mailing.  I have added this criteria to my queries  "Constituency Date To is blank" - which prevents me from including people who are no longer Current Parents in the data pull - because they have an end date.

JoAnn Strommen

Odette Kent:
When you say you find them quite helpful are you referring to the Constituency code or the dates? Since we have not used dates ever. Entering them seems to be a daunting task ( unless we just use them going forward), not to mention how it will affect reports. I have more questions about this. Is there a phone number where I could contact you and discuss it further?

The dates is what I was refering to as that was what your question pertained to. 

The other posts provided you with good info. 

I'd start using them from this point and then work on importing them in as needed on existing codes.

I know you asked a question about it affecting mailings.  In  my experience the only time it would affect mailings was if you had a criteria for constituency code with a date criteria.  As several suggested put dates in on a few of your records and see how it affects results.

Melissa Graves 3

Candace Chesler:

Odette -

As Melissa says -  the codes work differently on different reports.  When you filter a Gift Detail and Summary Report by Constituent Code, the report includes records based on the value in the Constituency field on the Miscellaneous tab of the Gift - NOT by the Constituent Code on Bio Tab 2.  This is another clean up area that I had to tackle - because I found many gifts that had no value in the Constituency field of the Gift record.

For me - this was a two-pronged process.  First, I cleaned up the records based on the relationship with the school - and imported Constituent Codes on to records so that I had the complete history as described in my previous post.

Then I looked at giving by constituency and found instances where the Constituency on the Gift record didn't match the Constituent Code on the Bio 2 Tab based on dates.  I exported those gifts and imported them back in.

And why did I do all this?  I had to produce a report that reflected the total potential # of donors as well as the actual donors in each constituency - for a seven year period.  I had to know when a parent moved from being an Applicant Parent to a Current Parent to an Alumni Parent and what donations (if any) they gave in those time frames. 

Hope this helps!

 

The gift detail and summary report defaults to using the gift constituency code - but other reports give you the choice if gift vs. constituent and then others (Comparisons and Summaries) is based on the constituent and you can set up in format whether it uses primary or repeats the gift in all categories.