Constituent Corner: Create Maps of your Constituents Using Free Online Tools
This is a guest post by Nicholai Burton, author of The Patron Edge blog The Spotlight.
Have you ever wanted to create an interactive map of constituents based on a query in The Raiser's Edge? One way to handle this (the most powerful way) is to get Microsoft MapPoint and the RE/MapPoint integration. If you're looking for more basic features though, like a visualization of where your constituents are spread out within a specific ZIP code, you can use a free online tool called Map a List. Here's how to get started:
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Create an export with name, address 1, address 2, city, state and zip, and export to a CSV file.
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Upload the CSV file to your Google Docs page. If you don't have a Google account,
create one now.
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Create a new map.
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Select Google Spreadsheet as the source type.
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Select the desired spreadsheet and click Next.
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Map the address fields as needed, select a title field and another field for additional info if desired. Click Apply, Next.
- Let Map a List work its magic and click Next when it says that all addresses were found.
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Select Map All Addresses and click Next. You can play with the other options here as you become more familiar with the tool (giving different style pins by primary constituent code, for example).
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Enter your choices on the optional settings page if needed and click Save and View Map.
And you're done! Now you've got an interactive map to view constituents and get driving directions. If you want to take this a level further, there is also an option to download the file as a KML document so that you can throw it into Google Earth and do more fun things with it.
There are a lot of steps to follow the first time you use this solution, but the map can be set to automatically update when the spreadsheet is updated. After the initial map is created, just upload new copies of the spreadsheet and the rest takes care of itself. You can even set up Firefox to drag and drop spreadsheets into the browser (http://hackhowto.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-upload-google-docs-in-batch-mode.html) and have them auto-upload to your Google docs page, turning map maintenance into a two-click process.
You don't need to be super-techy to set this up, but please note that the Support team can only help you as far as getting the data exported to CSV. If you have any issues with the rest of the setup, try using our Forums to get help from other users.
Does your organization make use of maps or other data visualization tools? Share your experiences in the comments.