Creating Contacts and Organizations
Let's make sure! SEARCH FIRST!
- Is there an organization with this name already in the system?
- Is there a contact with this name already in the system?
Make a habit of always starting in the Global Search Box!
Type the Contact Name or Account Name into the search box
Here's the "I can't find it page"
If you know WHERE your contact might be living...you can just search in the Contact Object. Try different creative spellings, just to make sure. A couple of minutes here will save you LOTS of time dealing with duplicates!
Contacts are PEOPLE
- One contact = one person
- NOT a couple
- NOT an organization or account
Accounts are INSTITUTIONS
- Companies
- Non-Profits
- Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, Temples
- Foundations
- Government Agencies
- Schools
- ....and....Households or Families!
Jane Jones needs to put a person and the workplace for that person into the system.
Let's follow Jane's Process together...
First she searches for Tippy Canoe. Then she searches for Tippy's workplace, Wicked Crisps. She doesn't find either.
Click the Accounts Tab
Start in Accounts: Click New
Account Fields we need filled in
Red is required. Blue is Nice to Have. (Unless we're doing paper mailings to businesses or churches...then - get that address!
Does the Account Make Grants?
Be sure to check the Grantmaker box and let us know what they want to fund. (You might need to ask your contact at the org...)
Click Save or Save & New
Next to Add a Contact
Last Name is REQUIRED...but...
Be sure to add the fields that are marked. If we can't communicate with a contact, they are not useful to us! We can't help them, ask them for money, invite them to an event...nada!!!
Check the business card, the email signature, even google their org online to find the information. It's not much but this is the MINIMUM!
Blue is "Nice to have!"
At least one phone number and one email!
"Which phone would you like us to call you on? Cell phone? Work phone?"
"Do you have an email address you prefer?"
Change the Preferred field and then add in phone and email that matches.
One snail mail address IF POSSIBLE!
Home? Work?
Add the Workplace for Tippy
Search for the Account -- the place where Tippy works
We put the Account in FIRST (unless it is already in the system!) -- so we can add it directly when we create our contact.
Don't forget the Title
Also, notice that we now have a HELPFUL help text.
Wicked Crisps is where Tippy works, and her title is chief cook!
Contact Created
When you create a contact, you automatically get a Household. In the next lesson we'll learn how to add people to a household.
But every PERSON in the system gets a household, and you don't have to do a THING but enter the person.
Organization Affiliation AUTOMATICALLY created
Notice: the Account Name, the Title = Role, and the status = Current
Tippy shows up in the Affiliated Contacts on Wicked Crisps
But she doesn't show up as the Primary Contact at her work. Why is that?
Because Wicked Chips has lots of workers. We only want to put the ONE person there that we call whenever we want to talk to the people at Wicked Chips. She is maybe the CEO. She is maybe the CEO's assistant. She is maybe the Finance Manager. We will only put Tippy in that field if she is the one we want to talk to when we call!
Affiliations show Contacts and Organization CONNECTIONS
Affiliations come in two flavors, Organization Affiliations and Contact Affiliations. (They are really the same object, but they like to blend in with their surroundings...)
One Organization + One Person = One Affiliation
Tippy already has an Organization Affiliation on her Contact record, remember?
Over at Wicked Crisps, we can see Tippy's Affiliation
PLUS we can see another person who works at Wicked Crisps, Trish Perkins
When we want to call Wicked Crisps to discuss a major gift, we want to talk to Trish, the CEO
Let's show that Trish is the person we call at Wicked Crisps!
Check out the Primary Contact field!
See the help text? It explains exactly what this field is for
We search for Trish to add as Primary Contact
Click on Trish to add her as Primary Contact.
Save.
Here's the Power of Affiliations
Meet Trish Perkins. She's the CEO of Wicked Chips, an Active Member at her church, and a fund advisor at a foundation. She is also maybe a Rotary Club member, a big donor at the hospital, and plays Golf at the fanciest club in town.
We are interested in learning as much as we can about the organizations she's affiliated with. Because the more we know about her, the more we know what we can ask her to donate to our mission.
YOUR TURN!
Homework:
- Add an organization to the system.
- Add three contacts to the system.
- Show that all three contacts work at that organization
- Show which contact is our main person to call at the organization.
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