How to query on a group of names recorded in a gift attribute using the data type "Constituent Name"

Pepper Hayes · November 2018

Hi All! I'm a first-time poster, so my apologies if I'm not doing this right.

I'm trying to track my Board Give/Gets using gift attributes with the data type "constituent name." I work for a National organization with different Boards for each region and I'd like to be able to query on these gift attributes to only pull gifts tagged with members of one of the regional boards, but I'm running into some trouble. I'd like to pull a gift query where "Board Get is one of..." OR "Board Give is one of..." (Or if you can figure out how to do this with a constituent query, that would work too! I'm not picky, I just need to extract this information somehow).

My problem is that when I write the query, I'm forced to enter each member of the region's board individually when I set up the "one of" criteria. (I tried to do the smart paste option, but it won't work in this situation because there is no scroll bar). Is there any other way to query on this information this without having to manually add these names in one by one? We're talking about a lot of names that need to be added, so I'd love to avoid this if possible.

Any tips or shortcuts would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

John Heizer · November 2018

Looking up each name is the only way that Attribute type will work in a Query. It has to connect to the specific record.

Pepper Hayes · November 2018

John Heizer:

Looking up each name is the only way that Attribute type will work in a Query. It has to connect to the specific record.

Thank you, John.

In your opinion, is this a good set up or would I have more luck with a different data type on that attribute or some other set up entirely?

Aaron Rothberg · November 2018

Not John, but if you make the attribute a table you can use the Is One Of operator and click all values over in a single click. I would add, however, that table will be a little difficult to manage the more names you add, mostly because you can only organize alphabetically by first name unless you intend to arrange them manually and maintain that order. Over time you may also end up with Allie Smith, Allison Smith, Alison Smith, Ali Smyth, Alison Smyth, etc. etc. making it difficult to find the right name.

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John Heizer · November 2018

In addition to what Aaron Rothberg‍ suggested, you could consider setting them up as Solicitors (which has its own set of challenges and limitations).

Pepper Hayes · November 2018

Thank you SO much, Aaron Rothberg‍ and John Heizer‍!

I think the table idea might work well for us - I'll test that out. I think adding them as solicitors would be the best solution, but most of our reports are set up so we can only have one solicitor per gift so we typically reserve the solicitor spot for a staff solicitor.

Shaun Grace · November 2018

Have you thought about adding a constituent attribute called Regional Board, and linking that to a table of all the different boards? Add the attribute to the members of all the boards, then you could query on Regional Board = XYZ.

This may not work if not every gift from them is in the category you want, unless perhaps they are differentiated by appeal.

Pepper Hayes · November 2018

Thanks, Shaun Grace‍! I'm not sure if that would for in this situation because I'm trying to pull gifts from non-board constituent records as well as from the board members directly, unless I'm misunderstanding your suggestion.

Shaun Grace · November 2018

Hi Pepper Hayes‍,

Maybe what I suggested would work as a Gift Attribute? Set up along the following lines in the table:

Board A - Get
Board A - Give
Board B - Get
Board B - Give
etc.

Adding this to the gift would allow you to do it on gifts from board member and non-members, and you wouldn't have to query on the all the constituent names, just on the specific gift attribute you are looking for.

Shaun

Pepper Hayes · November 2018

Thank you Shaun Grace‍! I appreciate your help with troubleshooting this one!

How to query on a group of names recorded in a gift attribute using the data type "Constituent Name"

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