I'd like some guidance on best principles for marking records. I'll outline our current scenario:

We've just run a telethon campaign, and I've set an attribute to denote they've been selected for that campaign, and will likely set an attribute or two to denote their response code and suchlike.

Now, in looking into some of the selected constituents, I've noticed one individual has:
Appeals:- Appeal:Spring 2006, Date:12/05/2006, Response:Gave, Total Given:£20.00
Attributes:- Selected for 2009 Telethon
Actions:- Category:Phone Call, Type:Telethon Campaign 2005, Status:- Withdrawn - Out of Time

There are more items besides, but this gives a good idea of how fragmented our recording has been before I arrived.

Each of the methods of recording make sense to me in one way or another, so what I'd like to know is how best to store the data for these campaigns so that:

• it's easy to see and summarise what they've been involved in
• it's easy to include/exclude them from future queries and exports based on that criteria

Are there any documents already outlining this? Or does someone have a simple guide in their head they can share?

Many Thanks,
Pete

 Hi Pete,

It sounds like you're using attributes when you should be using appeals.

The appeal is meant to identify the method of fundraising used to secure a gift, for example, mail shot, telephone campaign, newsletter, event etc  This will enable you to analyse what has been the most successful approach.  In an appeal you can track the number solicited, the appeal category, the date range, the expenses for the appeal. This will allow you to run the reports to identify the income generated vs the expenses.  

If you need to, you can break the appeal down further into a package.  A package will manage the different approaches that you use for the same appeal.  For example, all constituents will receive an annual mail shot, but exisiting donors will have a different letter to that of a prospect, so the package will manage both of these.

I would use the appeal to record that they have been solicited and use actions for unsolicited mailings. If however, it is a telephone campaign you may need to record the caller, notes etc so actions could be used for this.

I hope that has helped.  Please let me know if you have anymore questions. Thanks!

I agree with Charlotte.

I believe all you need to use are appeals.  You can add the appeal once you decide they are selected.  If you are calling over several days, weeks you can then later go in and add the date they were called and what the response was.  This way when they give a gift you can link the gift to that appeal and you have all the data you need for analysis of your telethon.

Attributes are to be used when there is absolutely no other place to capture the info you want - since you have appeal that is not the case in this situation.

Actions are most often used for more personalized moves you make with a consituent (meetings, individual phone calles, etc.) or any communication you have that is not related to a solicitation.

I have the same situation as you in my current database from lack of consistency and I am still working on cleaning it up.  I have old appeals recorded in actions, attributes and notes that all need to be moved over to appeals.  If you know you have an inconsistent database then steer away from always doing it the way it was done previously and put thought into best practices. (As you are today by asking this question!)

Good Luck.

Thanks for getting back to me so soon.

What you say makes sense, I'll take some time to digest it and  apply it to our own organisation, and perhaps get back to you with some more specific questions later if I have them.

Thanks again,
Pete