Entering Legislators/Politicians into Raiser's Edge

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Stacey Brake
Stacey Brake ✭
Seventh Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper Photogenic
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
How are some of you entering politicians into Raiser's Edge?  We have several local politicians and their staff members in our database but nothing has been entered consistently; some politicians are entered as organizations and some as individuals.  I'm finding there are challenges whether I use the address block to enter some of the information or if I try to utilize the "Business" button.  Below is a sample of the type of information that needs to be entered:


Mr. John Smith

Field Agent

Councilmember George Washington

Cedarville City Council - Fifth District

1234 Blue Lake Drive

Cedarville, KY  12345


Any feedback would be most appreciated!


 
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Comments

  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    We enter these people as individuals. We have a constituent code of Elected Official and Constituent attribute with table that details their position/affiliation: city, state, school, etc. In the comment field, we record their position/district/area like "City council - Ward 2"


    This has worked for us. It's not a high use factor for us either but does allow us to pull/query/mail as needed.
  • Dariel Dixon 2
    Dariel Dixon 2 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Seventh Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    I've always struggled with this.  I hate entering politicans into the database if they are only there as a result of their titles.  It just became a chore keeping up with the results of elections, making sure that we were mailing to the right person.


    But I understand it becomes somewhat of a necessary evil.  I really wanted to eschew the names of the person, and just have the record be for the title.  I didn't care if it was Sean Smith or Suzie Johnson.  They were only there for however long the terms were for.  
  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    LOL - agree keeping it updated can be a pain. I have recurring tasks set up for June and November after election dates to update the records. But then there's always one or two run-offs that mess it up. 
  • Stacey Brake
    Stacey Brake ✭
    Seventh Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Thank you for your responses.  We keep a separate list of local legislators for mailings and such because, as others have stated, it is too difficult to keep up with who is currently in office.  We do keep a few key supporters in our database so I'm trying to figure out the best way to enter them.  On top of that, I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out how to enter a legislator's staff member.  Many of them come to our events and make a donation and I have not been able to figure out a consistent way to enter them.  I can't use the Business button because the legislator is not an organization and I can't put too much information in the address block or it will be erased during an NCOA run.  That leaves me with scattered information across multiple tabs...it's very frustrating.  And, I have lots of these records to clean up after our migration from another platform earlier this summer.  If there are any other ideas out there, I would love to hear them!
  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    We would enter the legislator's staff person with their own record in RE as they are now a donor if they gave the $. If the legislator has a record we would do a relationship link between the two if we wanted to maintain that info. 
  • Dariel Dixon 2
    Dariel Dixon 2 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Seventh Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic

    Stacey Brake:

    Thank you for your responses.  We keep a separate list of local legislators for mailings and such because, as others have stated, it is too difficult to keep up with who is currently in office.  We do keep a few key supporters in our database so I'm trying to figure out the best way to enter them.  On top of that, I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out how to enter a legislator's staff member.  Many of them come to our events and make a donation and I have not been able to figure out a consistent way to enter them.  I can't use the Business button because the legislator is not an organization and I can't put too much information in the address block or it will be erased during an NCOA run.  That leaves me with scattered information across multiple tabs...it's very frustrating.  And, I have lots of these records to clean up after our migration from another platform earlier this summer.  If there are any other ideas out there, I would love to hear them!

    Why can't you use the business button?  I think that would be the way I'd set this up for certain.  The person would work for the office of the legislator as the organization name.  I think that would solve your address block situation, if you checked the print position box.  If you set up the office as an organization, you would just have to add the current official as a contact, and that would make things a little easier.  I think you could keep a record of the historical data that the office has received as well.  I don't think you would be sending information to their personal address.


    That way it would be like this


    Mr. John Smith

    Chief of Staff

    Office of Local Representative

    35 Park Lane

    Suite 385

    Your Town, YS 32425


    Also, I agree with JoAnn.  As soon as you get a gift from a person, then they get their own record.

  • Sheila Wortham
    Sheila Wortham ✭
    Eighth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper Photogenic
    We create a business/organizational record and enter the politician as the relationship.  To keep up with changes we edit the list every quarter.    

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