Creating an attribute such as VIP

Courtney Klein 2

Hi Everyone,

I would love to get feedback. I work at an organization where people can be categorized in many different ways. I was considering creating an attribute such as vip, with a drop down menu with options such as Gala "A" List, politician and so on. I would use this to be sure certain groups of people are grouped into exports or not if they happen to fall outside of certain criteria. And also, gives a quick snapshot of their level of importance to my organization.



Thoughts?



Thank you,

Courtney

JoAnn Strommen

Sounds like a lot of work to keep it accurate and updated - that would be my concern especially with multiple users having access to attribute.  If I had to do it, I would definitely use a dropdown table as you suggested.  Depending on how you plan to use this info, have you considered solicit code? Might work but not really the best use of the field.



So, can a person just have one VIP rating?  What if I qualify for two or more categories? 



It's a good question to ask here - hope you get lots of feedback.

Aldera Chisholm

We use constituent code for this: we have Politician, VIP, etc so we can see very quickly their relationship to the org.  We also have a VIP events attribute, with a table that we can drop down and slect the events that we wish to ensure they are flagged for. It makes it very easy when pulling event lists. As with anything, it's training people to be consistent in their data entry. I like using the event attribute because I can add a date so we can clean it up as needed.

Christine Robertson

I would recommend thinking through the following things:

1) How often will these change?  

2) How often will you update them?

3) Are there any other places where this data is already stored (ie - the Gala list is actually a package of an appeal, the politician is an organizational relationship, etc.)?  Do you really need another field or do you need to find a way to pull this information based upon how it is already entered into RE?

4) As previously asked, how will you handle this if a person fits two of your VIP categories?



If you have an ongoing data maintenence plan and you really do need another field, I think that the attribute may be the way to go.  It can allow you to easily include or exclude people, sort them into categories, etc.  I personally wouldn't recommend solicit codes because doing so would really complicate using these codes in connection to a mailing.

Vicki Rigby

When I started as DBA, there was an "A list" and a separate "VIP" solicit code which were previously used.  Since Raiser's was in place for multiple years prior my involvement, there were thousands of records with those solicit codes, but no easy way to determine why the codes were applied.  It made audit/updating almost impossible.



So I have done just what you are thinking.  We use "Key Constituent" as the category name and a table menu for further description.  Multiple use of the category is allowed and our users know to add the date and brief comments as to why it was added.  Audits/updates are very easy since I can query on each table entry and show the date & comments.

Courtney Klein 2

I am rethinking options for this.



Our Cheif Advancement Officer hates lots of constituent codes so I am avoiding having a ton especially when there will be a small group of people that fall into that constituent code. Likewise, I despise that in basic queries, if one of the outputs is constituent code then people will be pulled multiple times depending on how many their record has.



When dealing with maintenance, Vicki you are right - it would be easy to manage and cleanup. The Gala vip list goes to events, etc. Does anyone have an opinion about using this as a placement for former board as well? So their constituent code would become individual but using vip and drop down menu former board.



I think people could have multiple vips and if pulling lists, I would have to specify which ones to include.



Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming!

Vicki Rigby

Since we have multiple entities and boards, I do have a seperate "Board Member" attribute category.  This way I can select Current, Former, or Emeritus for each of our boards (some sit on more than one), as well as identify other constituents who sits on other boards with our current CEO.  I also do this for board committee membership.



As far as pulling lists for people with multiple VIPs attributes: making the query criteria for the category description "<ask>", you can pick any combination of those on demand every time you run that query.

Rita Bayer

We use a similar attribute for President's contacts with drop down choices. It is helpful when mailing invitations to events and for the Christmas card list. Although a list is easily pulled and sorted, because of the size it has grown to, it is a bear to manage. The President's Office reviews it once a year, but the corrections/additions/deletions to it are enormous. We ask ourselves every year of the validity of maintaining what amounts to a contact list when we should be tracking prospects and gifts. Perhaps an Excel spread sheet kept in the President's Office may be something to consider. We use constituent codes of our Board of Trustees and former Trustees--dates to and from are easily entered.

Elizabeth Johnson

Rita Bayer:

We use constituent codes of our Board of Trustees and former Trustees--dates to and from are easily entered.

We also use constituent codes for our board of trustees, past trustees, and trustee emeriti. It doesn't happen often but I do get requests to pull board members from a certain era - having the dates to and from is the best way to extract this information. Very important when someone is being celebrated or mourned.



When I started in my position we had people that were flagged as "Forget me not."  It started as a constituent code, was changed to an attribute. Neither the Constituent cod nor the attribute helped as they were not maintained as no one had ownership. We have a new system where important people are assigned a staff manager - which is stored in attributes and restricted by a table. This new system is working much better as it is being included in weekly gift reporting, weekly review of managed prospects, special consideration is given during appeals and invitations to events.

Nicole S

Let me throw this into the mix -- what about using the BB Giving Score or another prospect rating?  You can also add notes and link it to other categories.

JoAnn Strommen

Nicole San Miguel:

Let me throw this into the mix -- what about using the BB Giving Score or another prospect rating?  You can also add notes and link it to other categories.

Courtney didn't say if they have prospect module.  As to Giving Score while you can add notes on a  score record, I didn't think categories were editable.  Pretty sure they are set by BB.  I'd be hesitant to try to use them for something else in case down the road it's decided that you want to use giving score ratings as intended (won't get into here whether the ratings are accurate).