Relationships

To enhance fundraising efforts and interactions, we recommend you track a constituent's relationships with other individuals and organizations such as family, friends, employers, and so on. The more relationships you track, the more connections between your constituents become evident, similar to a profile on LinkedIn.

To learn how to add a relationship, see how to add a new relationship to a constituent record.

Husbands, wives, and domestic partners are key relationships to track for individual constituents. Spousal relationships help ensure proper addressees and salutations and prevent duplicate communications to the same household. If the spouse is also a constituent, you can track the gifts received from either constituent as soft credit giving for the other.

When two constituents share a spousal relationship, you can designate one of them as the head of household to help determine who to address certain mailings to. From either constituent's record, add or edit the head of household under Relationships.

Note: If one spouse isn't a constituent, you can't mark either of them as head of household.

To ease communication with companies and businesses, track where people work and who you interact with at organizations. On an individual constituent's record, you can view their employment information — such as their relationship and position with an organization — to better understand what they do and provide appropriate context during interactions.

We recommend you also track the individuals who speak on an organization's behalf as contacts and save the context — or type — of their interactions, such as matching gift programs or volunteer opportunities.

Note: You can manage employment information from the relationship record, accessed from the Relationships tab of the constituent record in the database view. When you add relationships between individuals and organizations in the database view, you can choose whether the individual acts as a contact and whether the organization matches gifts from the individual.

To ease communication with the people who accompany constituents to events, track guest information. From Events, Overview, you can add and view guest information from a constituent's participant record under Party information. Depending on how much information you track, you can add guests as constituents, named guests, or unknown guests. For more information, see Hosts and Guests.

To paint a full picture of a constituent, track other relationships, such as with children, extended family, and friends. With this information, you can foster meaningful interactions with constituents or find prospects who share an interest in your mission.

On a constituent's record, you can view their related individuals and organizations — except for event guests — under Relationships. For each relationship, you can view how they relate to the constituent — such as Wife or Employer — and, if applicable, when the relationship occurred. You can also expand a relationship for additional details.

Note: To view a constituent's relationship with a guest, select their participant record from Events. In a future release, you’ll also be able to view a constituent's relationships with their guests under Relationships.

If an individual represents a related organization as a contact, you can view the context of your interactions with them, such as matching gift programs or volunteer opportunities.

Tip: To mark someone as a contact, choose a contact type for their relationship with the organization.

Tip: You can set up and manage the available contact types in Tables. For more information, see Tables.

For each relationship, you can view how the constituent relates to the individual or organization, such as Husband or Employee.

Tip: In the database view, you can set up and manage the available relationships in Tables. For more information, see Tables.

For a relationship between an individual and organization, such as employment, you can view the person's job title — or position — at the organization.

To reach out to a related individual or organization, you can view their primary phone number and email address.

Tip: See other contact information for a relationship with an organization? In the database view, you can save contact information for a relationship that doesn’t appear on either related record in the web view, such as when a person’s office location differs from their company headquarters. You can manage these details on the General 1 tab of the relationship’s record, accessible from the Relationships tab of the constituent's record.

  • To get directions or familiarize yourself with a location, such as to prepare for a visit, select the address to view it in Google Maps.

  • To quickly email a related individual or organization, select the email address to start a message in your default email client.

  • Depending on your browser or device, select the phone number to call the related individual or organization, such as on your phone or through Skype or another voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) application.

On the record of the related individual or organization, you can manage their primary email address or phone number under Contact information. For details, see Contact Information.

Tip: For additional information about a related individual or organization, select their name on the constituent’s record, such as under Relationships or by Spouse.

You can edit the details of a relationship — such as how the constituent and the individual or organization are related — under Relationships on the constituent record. To edit a relationship, select its menu , select Edit relationship, adjust its information as necessary, and then select Save.

Tip: To help you find the relationship you're looking for, select Sort by and choose how you want to sort the relationship list.

Tip: Don’t see this option? Contact your system admin for rights to make this type of change.

To remove a relationship — such as if you inadvertently add it to the wrong constituent — you can delete it from the constituent record. To delete a relationship, select Delete relationship from its menu under Relationships and then select Delete.

Tip: Don’t see this option? Contact your system admin for rights to make this type of change.

Tip: To keep a relationship for historical reference, such as if a couple divorces, we recommend you add an end date rather than delete it.

Note: Under Assigned fundraisers on a constituent's record, you can view who helps cultivate their relationship with your organization. For information, see Fundraiser Assignments.

Tip: In the database view, you can manage a constituent's relationships with people, employers, schools, and others from the Relationships tab of their record. You can set up and manage the available types of relationships in Tables. For more information, see Tables.