I have lots of questions about Constituency Codes and how other people use them. I have rarely used them for reports, with the exception of Board reports, but have very recently discovered that others in my organization use them regularly for that purpose. I found myself having to redo a series of 10 reports for our CEO which had originally been created using Constituency Codes. After looking at the report results, I realized that the reports that have been generated this way have been incorrect for the last 2 years because of the date to and from (or lack thereof) on the ConsCodes and/or the order of the codes on Bio2 or Org2 in the record.

While reviewing this issue, I discovered a related issue on Gift Constituency Codes. Our process requires us to enter gift batches using the date that our Accounting Department used to enter the gift into QuickBooks. As a result, when we enter a new constituent in the Batch, using today's date for the ConsCode Date from, but enter the gift with yesterday's date, no Gift Constituency Code is automatically entered. I understand now why this happens, but I don't know if I should globally add Gift Constituency Codes. We don't use these codes in any obvious way, but I want to be sure that other standing Crystal Reports are not relying on these codes in ways I don't understand.

I realize that I asking for a variety of kinds of information, but the issues all relate to Constituency Codes, so I hope that you can share with me your standard practices and why you are doing what you are doing. I'd also like to know the pitfalls I may run into by globally deleting all ConsCode dates or globally adding the primary ConsCode to gifts.

 Thanks for your thoughts and advice. If it's easier to talk directly, send me an email to nielsen.laurie@kempe.org and we can set up a time to talk on the phone.

Laurie Nielsen

There are a few schools of thought regarding constituency codes and the date ranges - if you do a search you should see some good examples collected over the years. The most important thing in my book is to make Constituency Code a required field on both the Constituent and Gifts.

I personally think Higher Education uses the date ranges with constituency codes more because the move from undergrad to grad to alumni and other groups may be more beneficial to them.

One thing to look at is whether you are running reports based on the Gift Constituency Code or the Constituet Constituency Code. If I need Historical Data based on what someone used to be but isn't now I look at the Gift Constituency Code.

If you're pulling a query using Constituent Constituency Code and the date range you are inquiring on isn't covered on someone's record due to a data entry mistake in the Date Ranges - you have an issue. When I took over my current job, this was the case - Constituency Code wasn't a required field and date ranges were entered haphazardly on some records. That is why we personally don't use date ranges with our Constituency Codes. (I spent a lot of time cleaning up records and deciding who to code what, etc - which gifts to code what...) We do however list them in a specific order so that the Primary Constituency Code is the highest one in our Hierarchy for Solicitation reasons.

Hi!  Our organization has discussed constituency codes and had decided to look at what we had (quite a few) and try to have a few main ones.  It is my understanding that if you use a constituent code of 'Board' for example, you could further identify the 'Board' that the constituent is a member of in Attributes...or - is it better to add a constituent code for each board that we have within the organization.  Since we are a hospital, if we use a constituent code of Physician, for example - we have physicians that sometimes donate but they are not on our medical staff. 

At one time, we used a constituent code of 'donor' ... but let's face it - if someone makes a contribution, they are a donor. 

I've been a user for some time now and my understanding is that the Constituent code tells the relationship to the organization and that an attribute further defines that relationship.  My job is primarily financial-related, therefore a lot of my queries and reports are based upon actual gifts.  My co-worker develops programs to help us in our fundraising efforts.  She will use current donors for appeals - but, of course, wants to also pull data from people in the database that have not necessarily given yet - or those that have not given in a long time ... therefore constituent codes and/or attributes would be an important addition to queries/reports that I run.

I'm am hoping that someone might share their constituent views (and codes) with me...especially someone that works in a hospital foundation.

I thank you in advance for any information that you may want to share with me.

Heidi

One way to think about it is what you may want to see on a report. The demographical and statistical reports can be broken down based on constituency code and we like to use that in our assessments. Do you currently have rosters of your employees that are easily categorized into groups that likely make the same sort of salary? That might eb a good way to categorize. Here is how we have it setup at our org.

Board Members (this is further broken down using education under relationships to track which Board - each affiliate hspital/the whole Healthcare Network)

FOB - Our Foundation Board

EOT = Our Senior Administration/Executive Operating Tem

Medical Staff

OPT - Operations Team Staff (High level admins)

Managers (Medium Level admin)

Employees (Bi-weekly paid normal employees)

Medical Staff-Affiliate code for staff paid by an affiliate as opposed to the overall Healthcare Network (We have 6 affiliated hospitals and 28 clinics)

Employee-Affiliate code for staff paid by an affiliate as opposed to the overall Healthcare Network

Vendors and other corporation breakdowns.

Laurel - thank you for your ideas.

 I'm sorry I did not get back to this sooner.  There was an issue with me getting into the forums area (something with my settings in our IS department).  I'm going to take a look at these and see how they might 'fit' with what we are doing/want to do.

Heidi

Hi Laurel,

Do you change or delete constituency codes? When a Board member becomes a Former Board Member do you add that new Const Code. I'm working at a school that has been just deleting or changing constituency codes from records.

Thanks

Julianne