The User's Edge : attributes

The Raiser's Edge 7 for Beginners: Attributes

Douglas Clinton — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Where the more casual style of The Raiser's Edge 7 for Beginners user guide becomes clear is when it is compared to The Raiser’s Edge Help file.

The Raiser's Edge Help file defines attributes as follows:

To add flexibility to your record keeping, use attributes to define and store special information about a wide variety of record types. You can identify a category for the attribute and then store an entry specific to that category.

There's nothing wrong with this definition, it's just a little dry. Here's what The Raiser's Edge 7 for Beginners has to say:

What comes to mind when you hear the word attribute?

You probably think of the color of someone’s eyes or hair, whether he is tall or short, or if he is athletic. Typically, we associate attributes with a person’s physical appearance, like an inherited gene. When keeping track of your constituents in The Raiser’s Edge, you want to record similar things about people associated with your organization, but you may want to be a little more specific. For example, you may want to associate a person with a specific sport or club. Perhaps one of your volunteers is in college and plays on the soccer team. You may find this a valuable point to know about this particular volunteer.

Attributes, aptly enough, live on the Attributes tab on constituent records. The idea is to create broad categories such as Interests or Dietary Preference, and then define them with a specific description for each constituent. You can also add comments to further explain the attributes. Adding an attribute is just a matter of going to the Attributes tab, and selecting the appropriate fields. For example:

Read more about attributes in The Raiser's Edge 7 for Beginners and in Knowledgebase solution BB515, which features a video demonstration.

Mail Musings: Address Processing

Katy McGinnis — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:19:00 GMT

Most people can be reached more than one address - that's why you can add multiple addresses to constituent records. To keep from oversaturation, address processing ensures that each constituent only gets each mailing once, and only to the address you specify

In most mailings (Quick Letters, Labels, Donor Acknowledgement Letters, etc.), there are two address tabs: Ind Address and Org Address. These tabs are used to determine which address will be used for each type of constituent record.

An individual may have a summer or winter house in addition to their preferred mailing address. Address Processing allows users to mail to a Seasonal address as of the date of the mailing to avoid sending mail to the beach bums during the winter. For individuals who have their own organization relationships, you can specify on the Ind Address tab to mail to the Business address for that constituent so that they're contacted at work - where they might be prompted to send a donation.

If there's no address found based on the settings, you can either remove the record from the mailing, print the constituent's name with no address, or to print a specific address, such as the Preferred Address.

When working with organization records, address processing enables users to mail to an actual person at an organization. This is useful for larger organizations where mailings with just the company name may be regarded as junk mail. If you have contacts for the organization and wish to mail to them, you can select specific contact types, such as all Primary Contacts.

When an organization has several contact types, a Contact record can be assigned an Attribute. For example, you could use a Contact Attribute Category of Special Mailing Info with a Description of Newsletter. This way, only those Contacts with the Newsletter attribute would be considered in your Newsletter mailing.

The same thing goes for the Address record. If you choose to only mail to a specific address a constituent or contact has, you can use Address Attributes step of the processing to designate the addresses to consider.

If you don't have contacts, you can just to mail to the organization. If some organizations have contacts and others don't, the mailing can be set up to mail to a specific address of that organization.

These options can save a lot of time and loads of money for your organization. Next time you have a mailing, ditch the query, set up the mailing, and never look back!

For a more in depth look on address processing, as well as other specific examples, refer to Knowledgebase solution BB518.

News You Can Use: Marking Attributes Inactive

Kevin Brunson — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:33:00 GMT

Does your database have attributes that you no longer use? Maybe you converted to Raiser's Edge from another system and now have all sorts of miscellaneous data in attributes; or you simply have historical data stored in attributes that are no longer used. Maybe there are so many values in the attributes table that when you add a new attribute to a constituent, it takes forever to find the attribute category you’re looking for. Have I got great news for you!

The Raiser's Edge 7.85, which is scheduled for release in July, gives you the ability to mark attributes as inactive. When you mark an attribute inactive, it no longer appears in the attributes drop down list as a selection when you add a new attribute to a record. To mark an attribute as inactive, go to Configuration and select Attributes. On the Attributes page, mark the checkbox in the new Active column for each attribute to appear as available in Records. If you do not mark this checkbox, the attribute is inactive. For more information, see the Configuration and Security Guide.

All attributes will still appear in other areas of The Raiser's Edge such as Query, Export, and Reports. Having inactive attributes display in these areas allows you to continue to use this information in queries, or other areas.

If you have an attribute in your database that you no longer use and want to completely remove it from your database, check out Knowledgebase solution BB133434. This solution will assist you in removing the attribute completely from your database.