Search by previous address

Heather Pauli
Heather Pauli
Ninth Anniversary Kudos 5 January 2026 Monthly Challenge Name Dropper
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

Why does RE not allow a search for a constituent using a previous address on their record? For example, if a constituent has a street address but also uses a PO Box, two records are inevitably created for the same constituent with these different addresses. The system should be able to identify alternate addresses on file instead of indicating it doesn't exist in the database.

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Comments

  • Joe Moretti
    Joe Moretti Community All-Star
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    @Heather Pauli One thing is that a record can only have one preferred address. The other thing is that one of the alternate addresses, especially if it is a former, can now belong to another individual. Normally in Database view, if you add a constituent with similar fields such as name, email, etc, it will pull up records that may be a duplicate.

  • Heather Pauli
    Heather Pauli
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 5 January 2026 Monthly Challenge Name Dropper

    @Joe Moretti True, if it is listed as a current address. Seasonal addresses are another culprit of this issue. I'd rather have multiples show than nothing in my results, and then a duplicate record is created.

  • Alex Wong
    Alex Wong Community All-Star
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    @Heather Pauli
    I am assuming you are talking about the Constituent search in database view's Record section

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    Unfortunately, as you are aware, it only search preferred address. I don't rely on this search. Instead, use a query and you can search all address's field (primary or secondary). This may not be the anwer you looking for, but if you want to see this changed, IdeaBank is the only way, however, unlikely it may be.

  • Austen Brown
    Austen Brown Community All-Star
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    @Heather Pauli - This is a bonus feature of the Web View search bar, it has access to all sorts of things within a constituent record and can easy find constituents based on past address.

    Alternatively, if you want to do this via Database View - the search time will be slower - you can do it through a Constituent Query > Address Line 1 contains [variable data]. You'll have to repeat the entry for variable data for each constituent you're looking for and I do not recommend searching for more than 1-2 at a time.

  • Dariel Dixon
    Dariel Dixon Community All-Star
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    @Heather Pauli I've thought about this a couple of times and I'm very confused. Are you searching for name and address together, and can't find a previous address? For instance, you do a search for Jean Doe at 123 Main Street and nothing comes up, so a new record is created? Then you realize that you had a record for Jean at 2 Easy Street, and now realize that there is a duplicate?

  • Heather Pauli
    Heather Pauli
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 5 January 2026 Monthly Challenge Name Dropper

    @Alex Wong Yes, I have already entered it in the IdeaBank, but not expecting an update anytime soon (if ever,) as this has been an RE issue for our group for at least 16 years and a change has been suggested to the powers-that-be multiple times (always told it's a known issue and is under consideration.) We primarily work in database view and have too many acquisitions to repeatedly go through queries to try and determine if there are duplicates on a regular basis.

  • Annette Rurka
    Annette Rurka
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant

    @Heather Pauli
    If the issue is that you are getting duplicates because of this, RE NXT Duplicates Management matches on address in common between records and you can merge the duplicates. Not ideal but at least you can clean up duplicates after they are created until a fix is in place.

  • Karen Diener
    Karen Diener
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply Name Dropper

    @Heather Pauli:

    @Alex Wong Yes, I have already entered it in the IdeaBank, but not expecting an update anytime soon (if ever,) as this has been an RE issue for our group for at least 16 years and a change has been suggested to the powers-that-be multiple times (always told it's a known issue and is under consideration.) We primarily work in database view and have too many acquisitions to repeatedly go through queries to try and determine if there are duplicates on a regular basis.

    It makes sense to me that you are doing this at scale and need to use database view.

    My guess is that your acquisitions have the most updated addresses. Are you using AddressFinder on your database? It is not perfect, but there is not a single address updating service that is. But it seems like that might help.

    Karen

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