A way to not import a known partner as constituent

Lee Newcomb · May 2018

We are working to get caught up on adding our many volunteers to RE7.96. However, many have donated and are registered (import's "Update existing…" handles this

). Turns out there are also many who are partners of constituents ("Partner" Relationship/Reciprocal). "Update existing…" has not caught these 'duplicates' and work is in progress to stop mailings to both 'John & Jane Smith ' and 'Jane Smith'. (When doing a gift batch, it is nice for partners/contacts to be found while entering, so RE has some code for this in it.)
While I think I could handle this with SQL, I am way out of practice with it. Is there an import method like "Update existing…" to just add the volunteer attributes for a partner to an existing constituent? (For the moment, I'm exporting constituents with individual relationships & using MSExcel's VLOOKUP function.)
TYIA, Lee

Aaron Rothberg · May 2018

Hi Lee-

If I understand correctly, you are hoping that when you import your volunteers using Raiser's Edge Import, that Import would have built-in logic to catch possible duplicates with your non-constituent records. That's correct that Import will not catch these dups and even if it did, there's no way to tell Import, "If you find that I'm importing a constituent that already exists as a non-constiuent record, don't import the constituent, but do import the constituent attributes to the existing full constituent record." That would take some awesome artificial intelligence for Import to figure out.

I think your best bet is to export all of your non-constituent partners with the Constituent Id of the full constituent record and VLOOKUP that Constituent Id into your import file using PartnerFirstName_PartnerNameLast_PartnerStreetAddress or some other combination of data points as your unique identifier. Once you've identified all of the constituents in your import file that have a non-constitient record in Raiser's Edge, copy those folks to another tab of your spreadsheet and import the Constituent Attributes on the full constituent record.

Alan French · May 2018

I don't suppose you have ImportOmatic? Its duplicate search settings give you the option to match to non-constituent spouses and also to promote the spouse to a full constituent record if required.

Jen Claudy · May 2018

In case you do not have ImportOmatic...

If you are Hosted by BB, you should see Importacular under Plug-Ins. If you are not Hosted, you can download and install the Plug-In.

Importacular is a product from Zeidman Development. It is free! to use for importing Constituents and Gifts. There are additional options available for purchase.

At the very least, you can import the Constituent Records with Importacular and put an Attribute on all of them...I suggest a number that you add to your spreadsheet. Then Export the records with that Attribute, match it back up (using the Attribute number) with your source data, which gives you the Constituent IDs for all of these records. Then run a regular Import, which will now find a Constituent Record for every source record, either having already existed in RE or being added by Importacular. (Depending on how much of this you need to do, I would consider at least asking about the cost of being able to import additional data via Importacular.)

Cathleen Mai · June 2018

Agree, somehow you need to bring the Constituent Ids into your source file.

I bought an Excel add on called Ablebits that makes these "Vlookup" and other excel exercises a little easier. It's only a $100 one time fee and I believe there is a free demo version for a month. Here is the link: https://www.ablebits.com/

Lee Newcomb · June 2018

Aaron basically described what I am working to do (wish I'd learned of VLOOKUP earlier & going through a MSExcel hints sheet an item a work day to learn more

).

We are not looking to buy more tools, but will look at your suggestions.

Thank you very much for the help! Lee

Sauntel Richardson 2 · June 2018

Jen Claudy:

In case you do not have ImportOmatic...

If you are Hosted by BB, you should see Importacular under Plug-Ins. If you are not Hosted, you can download and install the Plug-In.

Importacular is a product from Zeidman Development. It is free! to use for importing Constituents and Gifts. There are additional options available for purchase.

At the very least, you can import the Constituent Records with Importacular and put an Attribute on all of them...I suggest a number that you add to your spreadsheet. Then Export the records with that Attribute, match it back up (using the Attribute number) with your source data, which gives you the Constituent IDs for all of these records. Then run a regular Import, which will now find a Constituent Record for every source record, either having already existed in RE or being added by Importacular. (Depending on how much of this you need to do, I would consider at least asking about the cost of being able to import additional data via Importacular.)

I had no clue that Importacular existed! Glad I read this post; I'm going to give it a try during my next import

Cathleen Mai · June 2018

I believe you have to purchase the relationship import part of Importacular.

Sauntel Richardson 2 · June 2018

Cathleen Mai:

Agree, somehow you need to bring the Constituent Ids into your source file.

I bought an Excel add on called Ablebits that makes these "Vlookup" and other excel exercises a little easier. It's only a $100 one time fee and I believe there is a free demo version for a month. Here is the link: https://www.ablebits.com/

We use ablebits for excel in our research shop and it is a game changer for us; you are right, it makes excel much easier to use to get the information you need.

A way to not import a known partner as constituent

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