Prerequisites for Constituent Data

Nothing is more important than knowing who your constituents are. Constituents provide resources, support and promote programs, and advance your institution through their gifts of time, ideas, and financial support.

Before you begin the process of setting up the system for processing people and organization data, consider the following questions:

• How do you plan to set up staff members and roles?

  Consider creating a spreadsheet that includes staff member names, job titles, and roles.

• How does your institution want to assign roles to staff, volunteer, and unit resources for prospect and initiative management?

• What relationships between people and organizations does your institution record?

• What relationships between organizations does your institution track?

• How do you want to use service indicators?

  The values that you set up are used for both people and organizations.

• What constituent involvement does your institution track?

  Consider creating a spreadsheet of involvement categories, types, and codes to refine your scheme before entering it in the system.

• What type of contacts does your institution use at organizations?