Export Individual v. Org

erin russell

I have a question regarding exporting contact information. Perhaps the database i inherited was not set up the right way, but i am often pulling lists out of export that includes Individuals as well as Org records to create mailing lists.


Various officers in my organization require that all Addressee and Salutations be used out of what RE populates for that section. That is fine.


But when I pull orgs the real headache begins. I feel as though i have to hunt and peck through so many areas of my export to find the proper contact to mail to, often including manually opening records to verify the proper contact (even when they are check marked as the primary contact).


Is there any way to get all of this information to pull out in the same export line, or will they always be located in various places. Thankfully its a relatively small list of 700 constituents but i am doing this every six weeks or so. It just seems wrong and like there is a better way to do this.


Any advice?


Thanks!

JoAnn Strommen

Erin,

You should be able to export the contacts in order of preference, say primary, finance, annual campaign...  You can also export more than one contact per org record (will all list in one line).  In Export > Relationships > Contacts > Contact Name you can select the number of contacts you want to export and you can choose Specified Contact Types > then select the types from the left pane and move to right pane.  In box below, select order by contact type and it should prioritize which contact is listed first on the export record line, if that type exists on the record.  They shift to left if type isn't there.  I usually choose the Contact > Addressee format instead of the name and do same process, just less fields in export. 


Hope that helps some.  You shouldn't have to manually check 700 records each time.  Use the preview icon in export to see that you're getting what you want.

Jennifer McHale

Erin,

For what it's worth, I sometimes find it easier to set up two queries: one for individuals, and one for the organizations. You can then bring some different criteria into the organizational query.

As JoAnn mentioned, you should be able to sort in Export, but I sometimes like to do some of the initial work in query myself.

Gina Gerhard

Just to add on Joann's great comments, part of the issue here can be that you have to be very clear and consistent on how you code your contacts on your organization records.  

• If you're pulling contacts using the Contact Type, then you have to make sure you understand how you've internally defined these types and do it consistently across all your records.  
• If your coding isn't consistent and correct, then when you go to pull these contacts over you'll see what you might think is 'incorrect' results.  But I would guess it's in your coding on these contacts -- not with the process itself.
• This does require that you understand using address processing to correctly pull your contact types over --  where the fields for your contact addressee/salutation, position, etc. are in your listing of data fields -- and what your options are for pulling your contact data.   It does require some digging, because your contacts data is 'down in there' -- but it can be done and needs to be done correctly.

You should be able to pull both individual and organizational data with contacts in the same export -- and pulling your data in this way can be a really great exercise in surfacing issues that lie within the data itself.  

erin russell

You guys gave me a lot to think about, thank you. This particular one i am talking about was an export i inherited, but i am digging into it now and seeing areas where many things can be improved.


You all were such a big help, thank you.

Gracie Schild

I agree with JoAnn - that's what saved me from insanity.  However, I also did a major cleanup to make sure that each organization had ONE "Primary" Contact, and that one was the only one checked for sending mail.  I ran queries on our active Orgs and unchecked everyone but the Primary and made sure the Primary had an addressee and salutation.  Now it pulls cleanly every time. I also have my work/study slaves...uh, students check every year or so to make sure that the presidents of all the other tribal colleges are correct, and also that all the most recent tribal leadership for New Mexico tribes/pueblos are updated, and the same when we elect a new mayor, or have a new state legislator, etc. Whatever your main organizational contstituents look like, they should be as tidy on the mailing as the individuals.


 

Gina Gerhard

Gracie - What a great process and it's a thing of beauty when your data is clean and everything works at it should ... Congratulations for the effort!

Michael Sherman 2

If your export only contains name, position, organization, address, city, state, zip, salutation and constituent ID you can use Quick Letters in Mail. The records will then line up with the contacts, position, and organization in the proper columns.


I've also done two queries with individuals and organizations. The problem with this is duplicates if the organization's contact has their own constituent record.

erin russell

oh i wish it were so simple! everyone wants data sadly, not letters and they want about 65 fields of data with it. but i think i've cleaned up my export in a slightly better way so again thank you all!


and good tip on the clean up - i may have our intern start on helping with that soon!

Gina Gerhard

You might want to check out this rather beefy thread that had information on how to deal with the situation when an individual was on the list as well as being a contact at an organization - RE has some functionality available only in Mail that is somewhat hidden -


https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/158/15807?post_id=49910&utm_medium=email&utm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=community@blackbaud.com#p49910



 

Madeleine Holdsworth

Gracie Schild:

I agree with JoAnn - that's what saved me from insanity.  However, I also did a major cleanup to make sure that each organization had ONE "Primary" Contact, and that one was the only one checked for sending mail.  I ran queries on our active Orgs and unchecked everyone but the Primary and made sure the Primary had an addressee and salutation.  Now it pulls cleanly every time. I also have my work/study slaves...uh, students check every year or so to make sure that the presidents of all the other tribal colleges are correct, and also that all the most recent tribal leadership for New Mexico tribes/pueblos are updated, and the same when we elect a new mayor, or have a new state legislator, etc. Whatever your main organizational contstituents look like, they should be as tidy on the mailing as the individuals.


 

Any suggestions on how to handle if we have more than one "primary" contact?  For our foundation and corporate records, we often need to have more than one and have to send mailing to more than one contact.  Thanks!

Nicole S

Gina Gerhard:

You might want to check out this rather beefy thread that had information on how to deal with the situation when an individual was on the list as well as being a contact at an organization - RE has some functionality available only in Mail that is somewhat hidden -


https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/158/15807?post_id=49910&utm_medium=email&utm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=community@blackbaud.com#p49910



 

I firmly belive that knowing how to do this to be a fundamental interview question when hiring someone to work in your database