How many Constituent Codes do you have?

Lorena Cela · August 2017

I am the Database Manager for a cancer charity and we have recently had a clean-up exercise on RE7 to reduce our number of Constituent Codes, as things were getting a little out-of-control! We started off with 76 records and we are now down to 30, through consolidating/removing/renaming and creating new attributes. There are mixed opinions in my office regarding whether or not 30 cons codes is still too high.

I would be most grateful if you could kindly share how many cons codes your organisation uses, and how you choose between creating new cons codes versus attributes.

We use the "I am a <insert appropriate cons code here>" technique for each constiuent, and use cons codes as a top level 'umbrella' term, with attributes as drill downs.

Do you feel that 'less is more', and that the amount of cons codes on your database should be kept at the lowest possible minimum?

Or is this something your organisation doesn't feel is an issue or detrimental to their reporting and grouping needs?

I would love to receive your valuable input on this one.

Claudia Marmorowski · August 2017

Lorena Cela:

I am the Database Manager for a cancer charity and we have recently had a clean-up exercise on RE7 to reduce our number of Constituent Codes, as things were getting a little out-of-control! We started off with 76 records and we are now down to 30, through consolidating/removing/renaming and creating new attributes. There are mixed opinions in my office regarding whether or not 30 cons codes is still too high.

I would be most grateful if you could kindly share how many cons codes your organisation uses, and how you choose between creating new cons codes versus attributes.

We use the "I am a <insert appropriate cons code here>" technique for each constiuent, and use cons codes as a top level 'umbrella' term, with attributes as drill downs.

Do you feel that 'less is more', and that the amount of cons codes on your database should be kept at the lowest possible minimum?

Or is this something your organisation doesn't feel is important to worry about?

I would love to receive your valuable input on this one.

We have 8 (Individual, Business, Board Member, Estate, Foundation, Other, Employee, Medical Staff)- we are a healthcare facility. Everything else whether its volunteer status etc. we have attributes for. Good luck!

Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE · August 2017

I would focus less on how many constituent codes you have and more on your reporting and tracking needs. We use constituent codes to basically track their entity type such as individual, corporation, foundation, estate, etc. This matches up with a lot of reports where we want to see revenue, number of donors, etc. by constituent code (i.e. the pie chart in annual reports that show the same info).

JoAnn Strommen · August 2017

Totally agree with Josh. We do have just over 30 but 12 are specific to branch YMCAs. These 10+ codes are needed for easier reporting specifics for one of those branches.

I say you've done well to reduce your list. I do think keeping the # of cons codes manageable and meaningful is important if you want data/reports to have significance now and in the future. It is good to look at the list every few years and see if there is editing that can be done.

Gina Gerhard · August 2017

And just because you need to report out on something doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be at the constituent code level. There are other ways of coding that should be considered and factored into the decision. I think what I'm understanding in this discussion, however, is to assess how much easier it would be if it were a constituent code vs. relationship vs. attribute, etc. Is the convenience of having it a constituent code outweigh the pros/cons of other coding methods?

JoAnn Strommen:

Totally agree with Josh. We do have just over 30 but 12 are specific to branch YMCAs. These 10+ codes are needed for easier reporting specifics for one of those branches.

I say you've done well to reduce your list. I do think keeping the # of cons codes manageable and meaningful is important if you want data/reports to have significance now and in the future. It is good to look at the list every few years and see if there is editing that can be done.

Lawrence Rush · August 2017

The number isn't so important. You could have a 100 constituent codes if they gave you meaningful information for reporting and tracking purposes. I'd start with what you really need/want to see on reports and go from there. As time progresses you can always edit your codes and coding system to make them fit your needs.

Kimberley Cote · August 2017

I'm going through the same process right now. When I started with my organization, they likely had about 100 constituent codes. We've just gone through an audience mapping exercise, which really helped with determining what high level constituent codes could be used vs. attributes. I'm still not sure we've landed on the perfect solution, so I'm interested to hear what others suggest!

Here's the results of our audience mapping brainstorm if that's any help or if anyone has comments/input. Green are just headings, Orange are constituent codes, Blue are Attributes, Purple are outside of RE, and Red are identified through the prospect module.

10f037c95d46f2ffb2b40ba9bed67822-huge-au

Cathy Spencer · August 2017

Kimberley Cote:

I'm going through the same process right now. When I started with my organization, they likely had about 100 constituent codes. We've just gone through an audience mapping exercise, which really helped with determining what high level constituent codes could be used vs. attributes. I'm still not sure we've landed on the perfect solution, so I'm interested to hear what others suggest!

Here's the results of our audience mapping brainstorm if that's any help or if anyone has comments/input. Green are just headings, Orange are constituent codes, Blue are Attributes, Purple are outside of RE, and Red are identified through the prospect module.

I like it! This looks like a good method to think through constituent codes and attributes. Thanks for sharing!

Lorena Cela · August 2017

Kimberley Cote:

I'm going through the same process right now. When I started with my organization, they likely had about 100 constituent codes. We've just gone through an audience mapping exercise, which really helped with determining what high level constituent codes could be used vs. attributes. I'm still not sure we've landed on the perfect solution, so I'm interested to hear what others suggest!

Here's the results of our audience mapping brainstorm if that's any help or if anyone has comments/input. Green are just headings, Orange are constituent codes, Blue are Attributes, Purple are outside of RE, and Red are identified through the prospect module.

Wow, thank you so much for kindly sharing this, this is so impressive and very helpful! I am really grateful for everyone's input and help on this, it is really useful!

roger berg · August 2017

Lorena Cela:

I am the Database Manager for a cancer charity and we have recently had a clean-up exercise on RE7 to reduce our number of Constituent Codes, as things were getting a little out-of-control! We started off with 76 records and we are now down to 30, through consolidating/removing/renaming and creating new attributes. There are mixed opinions in my office regarding whether or not 30 cons codes is still too high.

I would be most grateful if you could kindly share how many cons codes your organisation uses, and how you choose between creating new cons codes versus attributes.

We use the "I am a <insert appropriate cons code here>" technique for each constiuent, and use cons codes as a top level 'umbrella' term, with attributes as drill downs.

Do you feel that 'less is more', and that the amount of cons codes on your database should be kept at the lowest possible minimum?

Or is this something your organisation doesn't feel is an issue or detrimental to their reporting and grouping needs?

I would love to receive your valuable input on this one.

We have a small number of PRIMARY constituent codes (seven of them) and they are in all caps to distinguish them from secondary codes: ALUMNUS, FRIEND, CORPORATION OR BUSINESS, FOUNDATION OR TRUST, ORGANIZATION CLUB OR CIVIC GROUP, ESTATES OR BEQUESTS, and GOVERNMENT. There are also 54 secondary codes that further refine the constituent's relationship with us. I run a monthly audit query to make sure that the first constituent code listed is one of the primary ones because sometimes other users forget the rule

My reasoning is that I don't want to compare apples and oranges; at the topmost level they are both FRUIT and I want the smallest number of primary codes that tell me what type of record I'm looking at. If I'm reporting on how much "fruit" we have in the database I don't want to have to remember to include every type and don't need to if they're all in the FRUIT category. The secondary codes just help refine - i.e. ALUMNUS as primary code, Alumnus - Associate, or Alumnus - Bachelor as an example of a secondary code.

Jen Claudy · August 2017

Just want to add a comment that if you are reporting giving by Constituent Code, you might look at using the Gift Constituency. At my last org, I was always being asked how we were doing in giving from a particular segment of donors (for example, board members) compared to last year and the year before. Well, with terms ending and new board members coming on, that was really difficult to do with Constituent Codes (needing to look at dates and such), but since Board Member was always the Primary Constituent Code when someone was an active board member, that Code became the Gift Constituency Code by default and when the term ended, the Constituent Codes were reordered and later Gifts got a different code. This made fulfilling these report requests much easier. (You can also manually change the Gift Constituent Code to any other Constituent Code on the Constituent Record at the time...if you need to force one in, add to the Constituent Record > Save > select on the Gift Record > delete from the Constituent Record. And, Gift Constituency is a first-class field, so you can add it to the columns visible on the Gifts Tab.)

Gary Cook · August 2017

Lorena Cela:

I am the Database Manager for a cancer charity and we have recently had a clean-up exercise on RE7 to reduce our number of Constituent Codes, as things were getting a little out-of-control! We started off with 76 records and we are now down to 30, through consolidating/removing/renaming and creating new attributes. There are mixed opinions in my office regarding whether or not 30 cons codes is still too high.

I would be most grateful if you could kindly share how many cons codes your organisation uses, and how you choose between creating new cons codes versus attributes.

We use the "I am a <insert appropriate cons code here>" technique for each constiuent, and use cons codes as a top level 'umbrella' term, with attributes as drill downs.

Do you feel that 'less is more', and that the amount of cons codes on your database should be kept at the lowest possible minimum?

Or is this something your organisation doesn't feel is an issue or detrimental to their reporting and grouping needs?

I would love to receive your valuable input on this one.

We also just cut our constituent code table in half to 30. The biggest argument for keeping/adding constituent codes in NXT is the ability to include them in an OR filter in Lists. If BB offered the option of an OR between constituent codes and attributes in List filters, we could probably cut the number of constituent codes further.

Lorena Cela · August 2017

Thank you so very much to everybody who contributed and responded to my post. I'm overwhelmed with how much support and insight I received - thank you so much, this has been extremely useful to me and my team, and I am glad I reached out!

Kimberly GalandakOConnor · August 2017

Would you be willing to divulge how many constituents you have in your system? Thanks!

Gary Cook · August 2017

If you give me a choice of broad ranges, I
could probably do that. Sharing the actual number would
require running it through an approval process.

Rev. Gary Cook

502-602-1462

Joan Bell · August 2017

Oops, I thought you
meant constituents. Sorry.

Joan Bell · August 2017

We have 7.

Joan (Jo)
Bell

GSA
Foundation

Database
Coordinator

Work:
303.357.1067

jbell@geosociety.org

Kimberly GalandakOConnor · August 2017

How about

a) under 2k

b) 2k - 5k

c) 6k - 10k

d) over 10k

I don't really know why I am focused on the number of constits. I don't think the number really matters, just how the data is being organized but I think I will be reassured if another org. has a similar number to our records and has done a clean-up. Thanks!

Gary Cook · August 2017

Let's try e) over 100k.

Gary

Sent from my iPhone

Kimberly GalandakOConnor · August 2017

Thanks!!

Laura Abada · August 2017

Hi Lorena,

We streamlined our codes a few years ago with the help of an outside consultant. We went down to just 5 constituent codes, from over 20. This has worked well for us. Our codes are: Individual (private citizens), Corporate ( for-profit entity), Organization (non-profit venture), Foundation (entity that distributes to qualified non-profits) and Government ( entity that serves the public interest). We use Attributes to refine these further so that Government has the attributes of: City, County, State, Federal. Organization has attributes of: Non-profit, Faith-based, Community Service, Third Party Portal. etcc..

You get the picture. This is far easier to use than the unwieldy 20 plus that we had before.

Lorena Cela:

I am the Database Manager for a cancer charity and we have recently had a clean-up exercise on RE7 to reduce our number of Constituent Codes, as things were getting a little out-of-control! We started off with 76 records and we are now down to 30, through consolidating/removing/renaming and creating new attributes. There are mixed opinions in my office regarding whether or not 30 cons codes is still too high.

I would be most grateful if you could kindly share how many cons codes your organisation uses, and how you choose between creating new cons codes versus attributes.

We use the "I am a <insert appropriate cons code here>" technique for each constiuent, and use cons codes as a top level 'umbrella' term, with attributes as drill downs.

Do you feel that 'less is more', and that the amount of cons codes on your database should be kept at the lowest possible minimum?

Or is this something your organisation doesn't feel is an issue or detrimental to their reporting and grouping needs?

I would love to receive your valuable input on this one.

How many Constituent Codes do you have?

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