 larryw
|
 |
| Joined: 08 Sep 2006 |
| Total Posts: 6 |
| |
|
Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 30 Jan 2007 12:35 PM |
I'd like to keep track of people we meet in our community, but at this point they're not a volunteer or a donor. We hope to make them both someday but right now I'm not sure which area to put them in.
Any suggestions? |
|
|
 |
|
|
Re: Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 30 Jan 2007 10:34 PM |
Hi Larryw,
Great question. My advice would be to track these people through donor management. My reasoning behind this is 2 fold:
1. Donor Management is the ideal place to track your master mailing lists that would include everyone who should receive a newsletter, banquet invite, etc, etc.
2. A person can have a "donor" file without ever having an actual donation form entered into their file. Maybe this person has only expressed an interest in your center , but hasn't given financially yet. It's fine to go ahead and add a file for him/her so that they can receive all your center's correspondence (like newsletters, etc). You can also use the categories feature to keep track of specific types of "potential donors." This categories list is found at the bottom of the general tab in the donor file.
If you feel a person is most likely a "potential" volunteer, you could also add their file into staff management. To track all of your "potential" volunteers, I would suggest creating a category for this (found at the bottom of the general tab in each file), and assign the appropriate files into this "Potential Volunteer" category so you can track them over time.
Hope this helps. Just let us know if you have anymore questions about this.
Blessings to you!
Sarah Miller |
 |
|
|
|
|
Re: Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 01 Feb 2007 09:25 PM |
| It would be soooo helpful if there was a small area for a couple of sentences about each contact that could be added to the general page and printed on reports. Is that possible? I have large lists of people who want to help/volunteer etc but I would like to be able to print a report with their contact info and a little information so I can work with them all at once. Can you run that by the powers that be and ask if we can add that field for 'Notes'? |
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 01 Feb 2007 09:32 PM |
Hi jolisas,
You can add unlimited notes under the notes tab on each file. To view the notes with the contact information, just run the "File Summary Report" (located at the top of the each file) and be sure to include notes in the report (check the notes option under "sections"). This should give you everything you are asking for. Please let me know if that will work. Thanks! |
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 06 Feb 2007 04:21 PM |
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the quick reply...I don't think that will work for what I am trying to do. I want to categorize a group of people say as 'current volunteer' and then I want to run a report with all of their contact information, plus the notes. What you are describing I can only do one file at a time, (unless I am missing something). |
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 09 Feb 2007 09:33 AM |
Hi Jolisas117,
The way CenterPiece is designed, notes are entered into individual files, and multiple notes can be added to each file. So, by design, you can only enter notes into 1 file at a time.
In regards to your question on categorizing a grouping of files and getting reports on these categories, you can currently do this in all modules of CenterPiece. At the very bottom of the General tab (just above the Save button) you will see a "Category" box. Using this feature you can create your own custom categories and then assign files to specific categories. Once you have set-up your categories, you can then run several different reports to get lists, labels, or even send out letters to these particular people. The only thing not included in these reports that you requested in your post is "notes" (again, "notes" are individual to each separate file, and there could be a large quantity of notes in each file).
The report that will probably be most helpful to you is the "Staff Files" report (or for donors, "Donor Files Report" and clients, "Client Files Report"). When you open this report you will see a "Category" filter that will allow you to get a report on specific categories, with all contact info included .
I hope this will help you get what you're needing, but please let us know if you need any more help with this.
In Him,
Sarah Miller |
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 14 Feb 2007 11:16 AM |
| I am familiar with what you are describing. I guess what I was hoping for is an added field on the contact info page for each file. For example under the birthday field, another field called: "Report Notes" with about 30 character spaces that would print on a report exported to excel. Is there any possibility of adding that so I can run a report for donors that are all in the same category and get a few notes for each to print on the report? I am trying to get a report of volunteers, but I need a to record and print a few details for each....like 'can't do tuesdays'----but I have like 80 volunteers and don't want to have to print each file seperately or have all the notes included...sorry to be a pain...hopefully you can still help me achieve this... |
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 06 Mar 2007 10:34 AM |
| any word on this? |
|
|
|
|
|
Re: Ideas for tracking contacts?
Posted: 09 Mar 2007 05:25 PM |
So sorry to keep you waiting jolisas117. At this time we do not have any plans to add a notes field to the General tab of files. We are very hesitant to add questions or additional fields to our forms, because of the concern of them becoming too tedious or too much work during data entry. However, as we plan for future enhancements, we will definitely keep your feedback in mind and see if we can come up with a solution to meet your needs. In the meantime, hopefully our category feature will allow you to keep track of certain groups of volunteers, donors, or clients.
Thank you for your feedback! Have a great weekend!
Sarah Miller |
|
|
|
|