Using the Relationship Tool

Being able to connect different Contact records gives your Databank the ability to interact with your different Contacts in ways which are best suited to them while still showing that Contacts are connected to each other. Relationships can be searched using the Search tool in your Databank.

This tutorial covers the basics of setting up a relationship.
To get more out of the Relationship tool, read about using Member Groupings.

Examples of situations where you might want to create relationships are:

Employees and Contacts at an Organization
Rather than having an organization only be listed as part of an individual's Contact record, give the organization its own Contact record. Then create a relationship between the organization and the individual. That way, if the individual moves to another organization, you don't lose any of the engagement history you have developed; you just change the relationship between the organization and the individual.

Involved Spouses
A couple are both involved in your organization. Sam is a committed activist, regularly reaching out to elected representatives and volunteers in many ways. Sarah is on the board and is a high value donor. Both are highly involved in your organization, but interact with your organization in distinct ways. Having related records lets you target your communications to each Contact while still being able to connect their records for mailings and donation recognition.

Mentors and Mentees
By creating a relationship between a mentor and mentee, you can track the engagement between two Contacts. New mentors and mentees can be added as the relationship evolves over time.

When creating a new Contact record, you can choose to have the address be the same.

Relationships are determined in your own Databank (we do not have a Master List of relationship types).
New relationship types and roles (1) will be available in the menu (2) after the first one has been entered.

1. New relationships can be added by clicking the Plus icon (there is no limit to the number of relationships one Contact record can have)
2. Click the Edit button to change the relationship (from Employee to Former for example)
3. Clicking the Related Name brings you to that Contact record