Deleting Constituent Codes

Emily Rubino

Hi all. Our Raiser's Edge database has been managed by several different employees over the past few years, none of which are with our organization any longer. There are many constituent codes in our system, and we unfortunately do not know what many of these codes stand for, as no documentation was kept previously. We have made many of the codes inactive, but were thinking we would like to clear some codes off of our donor records, as some donors have up to 10 different constituent codes on their records that we do not know the meaning of. Have any of you encountered this issue before? If so, do you recommend clearing these old codes off records? Thanks for your input!

Gina Gerhard

Emily - I would recommend assessing how you use the constituent codes now.  If there are codes you are not using and you cannot think of how you might use them, then you should probably get rid of them.  What value are they to you if you are not using them?  



 

Emily Rubino

Gina Gerhard:

Emily - I would recommend assessing how you use the constituent codes now.  If there are codes you are not using and you cannot think of how you might use them, then you should probably get rid of them.  What value are they to you if you are not using them?  



 

Thanks for your reply, Gina! I appreciate your input.

John Heizer

"Have any of you encountered this issue before?"

I can't imagine any of us who HAVEN'T encountered this issue before. 

Emily Rubino

John Heizer:

"Have any of you encountered this issue before?"

I can't imagine any of us who HAVEN'T encountered this issue before. 

 

Ha! 

Jen Claudy

If you don't know what they mean, chances are, you'll never need them.  If there is concern about losing data that you might find you need later, I would export the data and archive it, then remove it from the database.  Just write a Query for each one, with ConstID and maybe ImportID and Name, export the data directly from the Query to Excel, and use a Global Change to remove the code from RE.  Once you've completed the process, you can delete the table entries in Config, and combine all the Excel sheets into one single document.  Then you can attach that document to a dummy record in RE so it's archived, but still available and still in RE rather than floating out there somewhere where no one will ever find it.  I keep several dummy records, with a Constituent Code of "Dummy Record" and a ConstID of 4561231, 4561232, etc. for different purposes, many to do with gifts from Unknown Donors and Media Files of things I want in RE but don't have a logical place to keep them.  (I also have a set of dummy records for testing purposes, those are 4567891, etc.)

Emily Rubino

Jennifer Claudy:

If you don't know what they mean, chances are, you'll never need them.  If there is concern about losing data that you might find you need later, I would export the data and archive it, then remove it from the database.  Just write a Query for each one, with ConstID and maybe ImportID and Name, export the data directly from the Query to Excel, and use a Global Change to remove the code from RE.  Once you've completed the process, you can delete the table entries in Config, and combine all the Excel sheets into one single document.  Then you can attach that document to a dummy record in RE so it's archived, but still available and still in RE rather than floating out there somewhere where no one will ever find it.  I keep several dummy records, with a Constituent Code of "Dummy Record" and a ConstID of 4561231, 4561232, etc. for different purposes, many to do with gifts from Unknown Donors and Media Files of things I want in RE but don't have a logical place to keep them.  (I also have a set of dummy records for testing purposes, those are 4567891, etc.)

Hi Jennifer! Great idea! Thank you for the helpful tips!

Angel Lawrence

We are in a similar situation with so many new team members and no one knowing what was done before.

We went ahead and changed our codes: constituency primarily. So far so good but we were able to keep a backup just in case

Emily Rubino

Angel Quinn:



We are in a similar situation with so many new team members and no one knowing what was done before.

We went ahead and changed our codes: constituency primarily. So far so good but we were able to keep a backup just in case

Thanks, Angel! 

Gracie Schild

How true - we've all had this!  The Constituent Code seems to have been used in place of appeals in many instances.  I'd like to make sure that no one has more than 3 codes - I can't picture a scenario in which you need to be identified as more than that.  I also discovered (rather late in the day!) that you can query on the Primary Constituent Code - the one that is highlighted.  That set me on a campaign to get people's multiple codes into order.  I am a little shy of using global changes or add/deletes and our database is relatively small, so I set up queries to hunt down active records with garbage attached and set the poor work-studies to fix them by hand! Mind-numbingly boring, but at least they get a paycheck for it!



Gracie

Emily Rubino

Gracie Schild:

How true - we've all had this!  The Constituent Code seems to have been used in place of appeals in many instances.  I'd like to make sure that no one has more than 3 codes - I can't picture a scenario in which you need to be identified as more than that.  I also discovered (rather late in the day!) that you can query on the Primary Constituent Code - the one that is highlighted.  That set me on a campaign to get people's multiple codes into order.  I am a little shy of using global changes or add/deletes and our database is relatively small, so I set up queries to hunt down active records with garbage attached and set the poor work-studies to fix them by hand! Mind-numbingly boring, but at least they get a paycheck for it!



Gracie

Hi Gracie. We actually had the same issue with our codes! The previous users were using them in place of appeals, as well. It can definitely be frustrating! I'm also a little weary of global changes. I've done two in our system, but it always makes me nervous, even with our system getting backed up!

Amy Matthews

Gracie Schild:

 I also discovered (rather late in the day!) that you can query on the Primary Constituent Code - the one that is highlighted.  That set me on a campaign to get people's multiple codes into order.  I am a little shy of using global changes or add/deletes and our database is relatively small, so I set up queries to hunt down active records with garbage attached and set the poor work-studies to fix them by hand! Mind-numbingly boring, but at least they get a paycheck for it!



Gracie

If you'd like to keep your constituent codes in a consistent order in the future - you can re-organize your constituency code table to be in hierarchical order.  That way,when data entry is being done you can look at the drop-down menu and just put codes in using the same order.

The hardest part? Getting everyone at your organization to agree on an order! I've found food bribes tend to smooth some of that over. 

Jessica Hilton

Amy Matthews:

Gracie Schild:

 I also discovered (rather late in the day!) that you can query on the Primary Constituent Code - the one that is highlighted.  That set me on a campaign to get people's multiple codes into order.  I am a little shy of using global changes or add/deletes and our database is relatively small, so I set up queries to hunt down active records with garbage attached and set the poor work-studies to fix them by hand! Mind-numbingly boring, but at least they get a paycheck for it!


Gracie

If you'd like to keep your constituent codes in a consistent order in the future - you can re-organize your constituency code table to be in hierarchical order.  That way,when data entry is being done you can look at the drop-down menu and just put codes in using the same order.

The hardest part? Getting everyone at your organization to agree on an order! I've found food bribes tend to smooth some of that over. 

 

Hi Amy,


This has been a really useful post to stumble across!


This might be a daft question - but if you re-order the hierarchy of your constituent codes in the Config - Tables, does this automatically re-order them on all your RE records? This may be a bit of wishful thinking on my part! Ours have become quite muddled so it would be great for the current donor codes we use to move up to being the primary constituent code!


Thanks in advance,

Jess 

Faith Murray

Unfortunately, I don't think re-organizing your Constituent code table will re-order the codes in donor records. However, there is a Knowledgebas article on how to use Global Add/Delete to make a Constituent code Primary in all records that need it. See https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/39936 

Amy Matthews

Hi Jessica,


Unfortunately, it is wishful thinking (I'll add my wishes to yours!) I would probably recommend using Import & Excel sorting as a clean up tool if you want to make sure all of your older codes are in a consistent order. If all you need is the primary code to be correct though, the Global Add/ Delete method Murray linked to will work.  

Jessica Hilton

Thank you very much both of you, that's really helpful! 


Cheers,

Jess

Christine Cooke 2

Amy Matthews:

Gracie Schild:

 I also discovered (rather late in the day!) that you can query on the Primary Constituent Code - the one that is highlighted.  That set me on a campaign to get people's multiple codes into order.  I am a little shy of using global changes or add/deletes and our database is relatively small, so I set up queries to hunt down active records with garbage attached and set the poor work-studies to fix them by hand! Mind-numbingly boring, but at least they get a paycheck for it!


Gracie

If you'd like to keep your constituent codes in a consistent order in the future - you can re-organize your constituency code table to be in hierarchical order.  That way,when data entry is being done you can look at the drop-down menu and just put codes in using the same order.

The hardest part? Getting everyone at your organization to agree on an order! I've found food bribes tend to smooth some of that over. 

 

and if you really want to be sure that everyone understands that the order in the drop down is the Hierarchy - number them.  1.Board 2. Alum etc.

Brinkley Cox

We plan to start this process very soon. Thanks for all the great information. I think doing a SOP for how we use CC will help us greatly.