Nickname Merge Field as Salutation

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Chris Pitzer
Chris Pitzer ✭
Ninth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hi.


I'm a novice when it comes to this, so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. (That said, I DID try and find a solution by searching, reading the manual, and googling...)


Our client wants to use the "nickname" field as the salutation for their emails.


If the record doesn't have any data in the "nickname" entry, is it possible to use "first name" instead?


I wasn't sure if that was possible or not. If anyone has any suggestions...
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  • Elaine Tucker
    Elaine Tucker ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic

    Chris Pitzer:

    Hi.


    I'm a novice when it comes to this, so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. (That said, I DID try and find a solution by searching, reading the manual, and googling...)


    Our client wants to use the "nickname" field as the salutation for their emails.


    If the record doesn't have any data in the "nickname" entry, is it possible to use "first name" instead?


    I wasn't sure if that was possible or not. If anyone has any suggestions...

    We have the data rule, that the nickname field is ALWAYS populated, that way if James wants to be Jim, but Robert wants to be Robert (not Bob), then their preference is shown in the Nickname field.  This makes is VERY easy to do letters/ emails etc and be sure that the name formats are as the donor wants without haveing to do if/then/else statements.


    As part of my daily routine I look for nickname blank and fill it in.  If we get lots of new donors in one day, I import the first name into the nickname.

     

  • Gina Gerhard
    Gina Gerhard ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 3 Photogenic
    Chris - We did something similar to what Elaine described but in a different way. 
    • We wanted a way to record their nickname but also account for if we wanted to use that nickname or not in the way we addressed them.
    • So we created an additional addressee/salutation called 'First Name' and we populate this as we see fit.
      • If we want to use the data in the nickname field we'll populate with that, otherwise we'll populate with their first name field.  
      • For example, we have a constituent whose first name is Peggy but her nickname is Pooky. We really don't want to use Pooky organizationally, so you can see Pooky in her nickname field but in the First Name salutation, we'll use Peggy instead. 
      • Similar to Elaine, we audit all constituent records to make sure they have a First Name salutation.  

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