We are currently using RE 7.5. We are in the process of looking at our Constituent codes and revising the codes.
I was hoping that some of you might be able to send me a list of your constituent code tables and also, what type of constituent attributes you use?

Thank you in advance for any help in this area. Jane Cahl
LCCC Foundation
1005 North Abbe Road
Elyria, OH
email: [Email Removed]

We use the umbrella constituency codes of: Individual, Foundation, Corporiation, Organization and Government. Then we have more specific CC's (mostly for indivduals) like: board member, alumni, staff, former staff, former board member, etc. This way whenever a record is pulled up, the user can see right away what the constituents relationship is to our organization. As for constituent attributes- we have way too many.

I am constantly being asked to pull up reports that list all of our "construction/contractors" or "commercial banks" I've been putting these under the organization's constituent code tab. Does anyone have a better suggestion.

Two ideas - use generic cons code of "corp" and detail them under attributes OR, cons code of "corp" and on the bio 2 tab, Industry field, detail them there. Becky Pierson Salvador Dali Museum

I can't remember the exact field name, but I think there is an Industry or Profession field where you could identify those 2 types of profession/industries. This avoids having to make a Constituent Code for them. However, the downside to not using Constitutent Code is that you may not be able to use the canned RE reports to filter by the profession field, while it's more likely that the canned reports will allow filtering by Constituent Code.

We have constituent codes of individual, board member, corporation, foundation, organization. I believe in keeping them to a minimum. We use attributes mainly to track committee memberships and soliciation restrictions. Under solicitation restrictions, we have a vareity of choices such as do not solicit by direct mail, do not solicit by telephone, removed from mailing list by request, solicit at year-end only, etc. This allows you to exclude (or include) people from mailings as appropriate.l

Thanks for the suggestions! I have another question to everyone. We have organization/individuals that are categorized as "Major Donors", "Consistent Donors", and "Prospective Donors". Does anyone have any idea where the best place to put them? (Constituent codes, constituent attributes, etc???) Also,what is the difference between "organization" and "corporation"? Do you create a separate CC for schools, colleges/university or does that fall under "organization"? [i]--- Edited at 3/17/2004 11:48:20 AM by [Email Removed][/i]

It is important to keep your constit codes to a minimum, but remember you can have as many as you need for one record. We have about 20, several like CORP, SerClub, Church, School, Planned Giving, codes to reflect our boards and cmtes, as well as media/poli and consist donors. You can always query Major donors and consist donors by gift history rather than constit code. And prospects by solicitors or attributes. Organization is really too general a term - how often would you be mailing churches, professional assoc and schools all in the same mailing? Keep in mind that constit codes should be a simple way to capture or exclude all like records that you may not be able to query based on any other field. Especially useful in mailings and lists. Constit codes are more searchable than notes or attributes in certain circumstances.

For us, "organization" means another non-profit, such as a church, union, school, etc. We don't have too many of these and don't need to break them down further.

I gather from reading your forum response and reviewing your con codes, that you must be a non-profit. My question is "Do you use "Donor" on any/all of your constituents? When I began working with RE7 last year, I was instructed to go thru the entire database and add Donor to all records regardless of other codes. I'm thinking I need to remove it from all records. Any thoughts ... anyone???? Mischa Brantley, Union Gospel Mission, Fort Worth, TX

Instructed by whom? We have that same system but are soon (this week) getting rid of it at the advice of a consultant. Maintaining who is a donor and who is not is much more efficiently done as a query from the gift record then from a constituent code. Melissa S. Graves Manager, Development Database & Direct Mail Planned Parenthood of Connecticut [Email Removed] 203-752-2804

I am in the process of removing "Donor" as a constituent code from records that have other codes. So, when I'm done, the only records that will have "donor" as a constuent code are individuals who have donated to us but have no other direct affiliation, such as volunteer, Board Member, etc. Someone over the years added "Donor" to all records that had made a donation, but all it did was screw up my queries, including constituents I wanted to exclude by constituency code, because they also had the donor code which wasn't excluded. I can easily find out who is a donor by querying on gifts. I don't need a constiuent code for that. Karen Warr Development Associate LifeWorks NW 14600 NW Cornell Road Portland, OR 97229 (503) 645-3581, x385 [Email Removed]

Same deal here Karen... When I inherited this system, it had donor or prospect on all records (and in some cases both). It was a real pain to get rid of them, but it has made queries and exports much more reliable and easier to deal with. I have gone to the same system of if they have any other relationship (board, alumni, employee, volunteer, etc), they do not get the donor const code, but if that is their only relationship, go for it! Doug Doug Creek University of Alaska Database Administrator [Email Removed]

Sorry for the double email, I ment to amend a tip on there... For anyone trying to or thinking about getting rid of them, create a query where "constituent code = donor,prospect" and where "total constituencies > 1" and you'll find all your people that have it. You can use global delete to remove it (with the query), but if you do every time you open a new record that had donor or prospect as their primary constituent code, you'll be prompted to save the record, whether you made changes or not. I did use global delete and just sent out a detailed email telling why it was asking to save when they hadn't changed anything, and it seemed to work out alright. Again, sorry for the double message... Doug Doug Creek University of Alaska Database Administrator [Email Removed]

This sounds like leftovers from FundMaster (which I'm sure most of you young whipper snappers have never heard of.) All constituents were coded as Prospects when entered in the database. When their first gift was made that code would magically change to Donor. Another really cool piece of magic was the Giving Level field. This would change when the donor reachd the new level based on the criteria you set up. Anyone looking for a frog to kiss? Michael J. Sherman Donor Services Manager The Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay 1307 N. MacDill Avenue Tampa, FL 33607 813.769-7533 [Email Removed]