Call me…Maybe. Keeping Raiser’s Edge™ Records Up To Date When a Constituent Changes Their Mind

Using solicitation preferences on your web forms is a great way to ensure that you’re not overloading your constituents with communications from your organization. Allowing them to opt-in or opt-out of text messages, phone calls, and emails takes the guess work out of communication plans.

Keeping your opt-outs up to date is pretty straightforward. You can just add a Raiser’s Edge solicit code for Do Not Mail, Do Not Email, etc. But what if a constituent changes their mind? What if they do not want to receive emails now, and tells you so? How do you ensure that the Do Not Email solicit code is removed from her record?

Elevate your data quality with seamless imports! Discover how Omatic Cloud transforms data management for Raiser’s Edge NXT: Smarter Imports, Better Data: Omatic Cloud for Raiser’s Edge NXT.

Let’s say your data file looks like this:

If someone responds “No” to any of these communication options, you’d like to add the related solicit code to their record. Normally, we would also add translations for the “Yes” responses to be removed (made blank).

This technique works great for new records, but it doesn’t really help us to correct existing records that are now opting-in to communication methods after previous opt-outs. A blank value won’t erase the existing solicit code.

However, ImportOmatic profiles do have an option to remove solicit codes and constituency codes using a removal character:

We just need to make sure to mark this option and ensure that the incoming solicit code is formatted correctly to trigger the removal. To do this, we adjust our dictionary to replace “Yes” with the same solicit code as “No” receives, but with an additional dash at the beginning:

Now, all of our respondents will have updated solicit codes, regardless of what their previous opt-in/opt-out preferences may have been! Keep in mind, depending on how your web form is asking for solicitation preferences, you may reverse the Yes/No values for your own dictionaries. So there you have it – no more guessing or ruffling feathers. Now is the time to keep those lines of communication open for your constituents who really want to hear from you.

The Raiser’s Edge™ is a trademark of Blackbaud, Inc.