Constituent Code for Major Gift Prospect Tracking?

Kristen Noe
Kristen Noe
Seventh Anniversary February 2026 Monthly Challenge Kudos 1 Participant
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions
Does anyone use a constituent code to identify their major gift donors/prospects, and if so have you found it effective or come across any issues? I read a few great, insightful posts about constituent codes but none that I found seemed to address this in detail. We do have the Prospect module, but my reasons for proposing using a Con Code are as follows:
  1. Has From / To dates.
  2. It’s a field that can be exported when doing acknowledgement letters (our major gifts officer always wants to review these letters personally).
  3. Visible on the Bio 1 tab and top of RE NXT record.
  4. The top Con Code is automatically added to the Misc. tab of gifts – could be helpful with conflicting appeals,* like events (more of a possible future use since we don't currently use Gift Constituency for reporting or anything).
*I should note that we have an appeal called "Leadership" for our major gift prospect donors that was implemented by our MGO, so a common conflict example would be a major donor making a gift at or for an event, which would take precedent over it being a Leadership gift. Also, we do have NXT but most of our users (including our MGO) are resistant to using it over RE7.


I know there are other ways to achieve the above goals for the most part (i.e. having a special letter code), but adding this seems like the most efficient way. So I'm curious if anyone does or has done anything like this. Thanks!

Comments

  • Christine Cooke
    Christine Cooke
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant
    Question for you to think about based on what you were describing.  It sounds like you do not rely on or take into account any sort of hierarchy to your Constituent Codes?  If so, making a Constit Code of Major Donor and putting it first in Bio 2 would make it roll into being the Gift Constituent Code.  Primary Constituent Codes roll into Gift Constituent Codes, which in turn will affect reporting, especially if you do any sort of participatory reports by affiliation to your org.


    By design Constituent Codes should describe the individual or organization affiliation with your org.  If it's a matter as you mentioned of having the major donor ack letters in a pile for gift officers, why not pull those ack letters separately from the others?  You could use a Business Rule that announces to the view that they are a major donor in the form of a pop up window when the record is opened.  I do that but the pop up is for anyone that has given at the Leadership Level in the current FY.  You could utilize Actions for tagging a Major Gift donor and use the Start and End date there.  Just throwing out alternatives.
  • Dariel Dixon
    Dariel Dixon Community All-Star
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply PowerUp Challenge #3 Gift Management
    Christine Cooke bCREPro‍ makes a good point about hierarchy.  If you don't use this code, which code would they receive by default?  The business rules only apply in database view, which if you are a NXT client, your gift officers will never see.  


    Personally, I have a "No New Codes" rule.  I'm just not a fan of it, especially with using to/from dates and how that works in query.  You do make excellent points about it's visibility and reporting purposes, but I don't know if it's the best place for it.
  • Kristen Noe
    Kristen Noe
    Seventh Anniversary February 2026 Monthly Challenge Kudos 1 Participant
    Christine and Dariel, thank you both for the quick and thoughtful replies!


    To clarify, we currently have codes and a hierarchy which is considered best practice and similar to what I've seen others post: Board, Corporation, Foundation, DAF, etc. We use "Friend" which usually means Donor but is also kind of a fallback when nothing else applies for an individual, and is the code these Prospects would otherwise have. We also use Adopter since we're a shelter and is higher in the hierarchy than Friend.


    We do have NXT but still do the majority of our work in the database view since NXT is still lacking much of the same functionality. We currently do no reporting using Gift Constituency and it has pretty much always been an ignored field, so it isn't missed in NXT (for the few who use it primarily).


    Between your responses and our MGO and I thinking a little more, I believe we are going to nix the adding of this new code. She doesn't seem as concerned as I am about capturing the history, as there are specific appeals and a Prospect Rating that would suggest they were a prospect at one time if someone cares (and knows) enough to look. We may add a note or action as you suggested - TBD on that. For acknowledgements I just did a huge cleanup of the nearly 100 codes they'd had (at one point, a different one for each segment of an appeal each month), so I'll think on that some more - perhaps  a starting query.


    Thank you both again for your input!

Categories