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Pulling mailing list including certain fund relationship codes?

Kristie Snyder

Hi folks,

I am fairly new to RE, so forgive my clunky terminology, but my office is trying to pull a mailing list for our endowed scholarship reports that would pull in everyone listed as having a certain relationship to any of our funds, along with constituent contact/mailing info. So essentially a fund report, but including certain constituent info.

We have dozens of relationship codes, but I am only seeking to pull names associated with about six of them. Our Advancement Services offices has spent much time on this, including communicating with BlackBaud, and has been told that they must pull ALL of the relationship codes, and then use various tools to filter the resulting export. This is so unwieldy as to make it almost unusable.

I know most of us in higher ed are sending very similar reports, so hoping someone out there has some input for me (or perhaps a different process--maybe we're going about this all wrong!). A similar Q was floated here over 10 years ago, with no obvious resolution: Make relationship preferred address | Ideas for Raiser's Edge (aha.io). (We're also hearing there used to be a plug-in that would allow this to be done, but it doesn't seem to exist anymore.)

Thanks, all!

Kristie Snyder, Assistant Director of Donor Relations, Ithaca College

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Comments

Alex Wong

@Kristie Snyder
The biggest issue with using RE and reporting out of it is the high flexibility of its use.

RE allows you to code however your org dictates the coding (i.e. constituency code, constituent attribute, relationship, etc). It is very difficult for Blackbaud to accounts for all the possible way that a client would use RE and how data are stored.

That said, it is important for you to have more clarifying information on what you are trying to do and what data point (where it is stored) support your requirement. Are you using Fund relationship? or are you looking for anyone who donated to (have certain gift record) with certain fund.

Miki Martin

@Kristie Snyder first off, welcome to Community!

Do you have those relationships listed under the Fund on the Relationship tab in DB view? Or are those relationships listed as part of the Relationship tab on the constituent? I think how you're referencing the funds makes an impact on how you can pull the information.

My last org was an all-girls high school and we had quite a few endowed scholarships. We had mailings to all our scholarship benefactors but they had a special constituent code, which made pulling mailings a lot easier. If you're trying to stay low on the number of those to select you can always do an attribute.

If those relationships are done through the Relationship tab you can query on relationship type. I had a few queries that did that at my last org, as well. You just have to be certain if you're pulling the relationship or the reciprocal relationship. That would also allow you to pull in addresses, though.

If you only have those relationships as part of the Fund record in DB view then I am not sure how you might pull contact information. Someone else may be doing that. While I was starting to play with how to better utilize that feature I never got far before leaving. Sorry I can't help more.

Rachel Kauer

@Kristie Snyder

Hi Kristie, if you have the relationships documented on the fund record itself, I can recommend you can do a query for the following:

Constituent Query
1. Criteria:
  1. Relationships>Fund>Relationship = NOT BLANK
  2. AND
  3. Relationships>Fund>Fund Relationship ID = (insert fund code) *****
2. Output:
  1. Relationships>Fund>Fund Relationship
  2. Constituent Information> First Name
  3. Constituent Information> Last Name
  4. Constituent Information> Address line 1….etc.

**** Should be the part that gives only the folks associated with 1 fund, instead of having to filter out multiple funds to only get the one you want.

Best of luck!