Contact Type and Contact Attributes document

Kim Gagnon

Hello,


Does anyone have a document they could share when Mapping/using Organization Contact Types AND Contact Attributes?


Does anyone use Address Attributes?


We want to try and move away from an Organization having the same person on the Relationship Tab multiple times due to different Contact Types.  One Person might be listed 5 times on a Org Record to meet the needs of our Staff reaching out to them from an Exectuvie, Development, and Program standpoint.


Thanks for sharing!  My email is kgagnon@breathenh.org


-Kim


 

Gina Gerhard

There have been some fairly recent threads on this topic in the community.

• Here's one specifically you may want to check out: https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/157/15112?post_id=47756#p47756​

To summarize:
You can use these contact attributes for exactly this purpose - to provide a more granular way of identifying contacts for more specific purposes.  You then access these in address processing which allows you to filter by contact attribute.

• You just need to decide what your particular categories are and then create these attributes.  
• I don't think there's really any 'best practice' or 'mapping' here -- it's going to be based entirely on your organization's needs.

Here's some info extracted from prior posts - it's one example of how to use contact attributes that you can read through and follow -- and then apply to how you need to use them in your organization.


We use contact attributes to identify who needs to receive a gift acknowledgement for gifts made from an organization.  

• As an example, let's use Jane Smith who should be receiving the acknowledgement for a gift made by ABC Organization.
  • Jane is NOT the primary contact; we mark her as a contact and choose 'Secondary Contact' from the contact type dropdown.
  • We have a contact attribute called "Acknowledgement Contact" and enter that on Jane's record.
• In Mail:
  • We have a Donor Acknowledgment Letter that we run to produce our standard acknowledgements.
  • In this letter format, on Tab 7 Org Address, we choose Mail to Contacts.
  • In the Contact Information button, we do not include specific types BUT in the Contact Attributes button, we specify to Include the attribute of "Acknowledgement Contact". This will force the selection of the contact that has that attribute.
  • In 2 Fields to Include, make sure you are exporting the Addressee/Salutation Addressee field and set the options for that field to choose Primary Addressee (this is the format we use that will print Ms. Jane Smith on the letter; choose whatever your definition is of that addressee in your system).
  • When you merge your acknowledgement letter, it will produce this block: Ms. Jane Smith, ABC Organization, address....
  • This way, you are forcing the system to choose whoever is marked as the Acknowledgement Contact as an attribute, so it's NOT dependent on their contact type. And it will choose that individual contact's addressee format that is for that individual ONLY, not their joint version.
  • Whenever a gift comes in, the gift processor needs to scan to see who currently has that attribute, and potentially adjust it based on whoever is on the new gift. The attribute can be removed from the previous person and put on whoever the new person is who should receive the letter.

​Hope that makes sense and is helpful -