Contact Relationship Records

Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE

Hi all.  What are your policies regarding entering a contact when you don't have a name?  For example, for a constituent record of a foundation, would you enter a contact with a name such as (last name=)"Trustees" or "Foundation Administrator" (first name = Foundation, last name = Administrator)?



Do you only enter a contact if you have a name?  If there isn't a contact what do you use on mailings for the salutation?



Thanks,

Josh

 

Jen Claudy

Our database (that I inherited) has a lot of Contact records with no firstname, no title, and a lastname of "Friend".  I think this looks odd, so whenever possible, we look up an appropriate contact name.  If we can't find a contact name, we'll leave the firstname field blank, and put the appropriate position/title ("Trustee," etc.) as the lastname (leaving the position and title fields blank).

Nicole S

I think that it's best to have a contact name, but we don't live in a world where that's always possible.  Because of the way RE will just repeat the org name in the addressee/salutation or leave it blank when you export contacts, we try to add a generic contact so we can address it to "Friend" or whatever more easily.

Christine Cooke 2

The best scenario is finding how the contact name, either from documentation or the magical internet.  If that doesn't work, then yes, you should put some description/title as a contact.  Every Org. record should really have a minimum of one contact, even if it is just the generic Friend.

Jen Claudy

Nicole San Miguel:

I think that it's best to have a contact name, but we don't live in a world where that's always possible.  Because of the way RE will just repeat the org name in the addressee/salutation or leave it blank when you export contacts, we try to add a generic contact so we can address it to "Friend" or whatever more easily.

I believe you can prevent RE from repeating the org name in one of two ways: uncheck the "print org name" box on the relationship or change the setting in Export or Mail under the Addressee/Salutation option from "org name only" to "leave blank".