Searching for Contacts (Version 2+)

Contacts: Searching for Contact

1. There are three ways to search for contacts in Fundly CRM: Direct Search, Quick Search, and Advanced Search. All three are covered in this tutorial.
2. All three search options are access by clicking in the Search ("choose contact") box in the upper left corner of the screen.

   

3. When you first click in the search box, a menu will open showing the 25 most recently access contact records (both individual contacts and organizational contacts [distinguished by the default icon - individual contact records show a person and organizational contacts show a building]) as well as options to access Quick Search and Advanced Search.

   

   

   

   

4. How to Use Direct Search:
   • Direct Search will allow you to search for a contact name by typing the name in the search field and, if found in your database, allow you to view the contact's contact details within the search window or select to view or edit the contact record. To Direct Search, start typing the contact's name (either an individual or organizational contact). Keep adding letters to the name until the match shows in the display list (you must type at least three letters to get any results).

     

   • Once you find the matching name in the list, you can either click on the name (to be taken to View Contact) or click on the blue arrow to the right of the name. Clicking on the blue arrow will bring up the contact's contact details: contact type, "primary" phone number, "primary" email, and mailing address (see our tutorials on Add/Edit/Share/Delete Phone Number(s), Email Address(es), and/or Address(es) to learn more about how the system picks which contact information to show in the direct search details panel and in the search results screen) (each contact may have additional phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses, but only the "primary" (based on the selection hierarchy detailed in the tutorials mentioned about) of each category will display). You will also see options to access View Contact and Edit Contact here.

     

     

     

     

     

5. How to Use Quick Search:
   • Quick Search will allow you to enter a partial or complete contact name OR a Contact ID for Individual Contacts OR for Organizational Contacts. This can be used for searching when you are not finding an existing contact using Direct Search or when you want to pull up multiple contact records so you can use the Take Action menu at the bottom of the search results screen to manually merge duplicate records together or to update multiple records at once.
   • To Quick Search, click the Quick Search button inside the Search field.

     

   • This will open the Quick Search Window.

     

   • To run the Quick Search search, choose whether you wish to search for individuals or organizations (if you wish to search for both together, you will need to run an Advanced Search), click the radio button in the appropriate section to determine which type of search you wish to conduct, and then type your criteria into the box (in the example below, we are searching for any/all organizations that have the word United in the name).

     

     

     

     OR

     

     

     

   • Then click Search. You will be taken to the search results page (see Step #7 below for details of how to proceed after clicking Search when using Quick Search).

     

6. How To Use Advanced Search:
   • Advanced Search lets you search for contacts using more fields (most any field(s) in your system), lets enter more complicated search criteria (than Quick Search), and lets you search for both individuals and organizations in the same search. In addition, you can save Advanced Searches to run again and you can drop the results of an Advanced Search into reports (in the reporting module) to customize the output/export. The Advanced Search user interface is also the same filter/search interface used in creating newsletters, letters, Smart Tags, event invites, and in the e-Appeals module, so it is a critical tool to learn how to use effectively.
   • To get started, click on the Advanced Search link inside the Search Box.

     

   • This will bring up the advanced search screen where you can run a previously saved search, or create a new search.

     

   • To run a previously saved advanced search, EITHER find the search in the list on the right (only the first 15 saved searches (in alphabetical order) show by default) and click View Results OR click in the Saved Search field in the upper right and start typing the name of the search you wish to find, select the search from the list of matching results, and then click the View Results button to the right of the saved search.

     

     OR

     

     

   • Clicking View Results will run the search and take you to the search results screen. See the details of how to use the search results screen in Step #7 below.
   • If you wish to create a new advanced search, put in your search criteria is the Contact Information and/or the Other Criteria section. It is not necessary to fill in information in both sections; you can fill in one or more field(s) in one section or both sections. For example, if we wanted to find all individuals in our database, we could simply check the box next to Individuals in the Contact Information section and run the search without filling in anything else. If, on the other hand, we wanted to find all individuals who made a donation to our 2017 Annual Appeal fundraising campaign, we would check the box next to Individuals in the Contact Information section AND fill in a criteria (Campaign is 2017 Annual Appeal) in the Other Criteria section.

     

   • To use the Other Criteria section:
     • Start by selecting the Category of the field you wish to search on (the choice here will populate the list of fields available for selection in the Criteria field). For example, if we wanted to search for contacts who donated to our 2018 Annual Appeal fundraising campaign, we would select the Gift Information category so that fields related to Gifts (donations) (such as donation date, amount, donation program, voided status, etc.) would show in the Criteria field. If we wanted to search for contacts who attended a certain event, we would select the Event Attendee Information category so that the fields related to Event Attendance (such as event name and date of attendance and attendance status) would show in the Criteria drop down.

       

       

     • After selecting the Category, select the Criteria (field you wish to match on) from the drop down. The options shown in the Criteria field are driven by the Category you chose in the previous step. If the field you want doesn't show in the Criteria field, you may have selected the wrong category (or the field may not be available for searching on. You can contact Fundly Support to ask if the field can be added to advanced search).

       

       

       

     • Next select the Operator (how you want to filter the results based on filter value) from the drop down list. The list of available operators will change depending on the type of Criteria field you selected. For example, date, numerical, and currency fields will give you the option to select a range ("between"), greater than, and less than options. Text fields will provide the option to match on equal to ("is"), not equal to ("is not"), is one of (allows entries of multiple values), is null/has no data (is empty), and is not empty (has data). Etc.

       

       

     • If "is" (equal to) is not available, you can use "is one of" and get the same result.
     • Whenever possible, it is better to phrase search criteria as a positive ("is") statement than a negative one ("is not"). That is, if you have the option to say "is greater than 6" or "is not less than 7," it is preferable to use the former/the "is greater than" statement, because it's a positive. Computer logic tends to evaluate positive statements more accurately/better than negative ones. That is not to say they can never handle a negative statement; it's just the positive one is the preferred phrasing whenever there is a choice of two equal statements that would net the same results.
     • Finally, select your filter value. Click in the field to bring up a list of possible options (data in the field). You can start typing the option you are looking for to narrow the list. For instance, in the screen shot below, when we click in the field we see a list of all of our configured fundraising Campaigns. We can start typing the name of the campaign we're looking for to narrow the list or we can scroll through the list to find the one we want.

       

       

       

     • If you wish to apply your criteria to households, click the Applied to Household button. This means that the search results will pull up all contacts in a household if any one member of the household meets the criteria (for example, if John Smith donated to our "June Camp 2017" donation and he is in a household with Jenny Smith, the Applied to Household selection will result in both John Smith and Jenny Smith appearing in the search results).

       

       • Additionally, checking the "Applied to Household" box will exclude organizations from your search as organizations are not on the household summary table/are not in households. Individuals ARE considered to be in a household (a household of 1 person).
       • The "applied to household" box will search/match on the "household summary" field if it exists and on the individual contact record if no such field exists on the household summary table. For example, the "last gift date" field IS a field that exists on "household view"/the household summary table. So if you select "Last Gift Date is greater than 1/1/2020" and click the Applied to Household box, only HOUSEHOLDS whose HOUSEHOLD VIEW last gift date is after 1/1/2020 will be pulled into the results. However, if you select "Wealth Information [Donor Search] Quality Score is greater than 18" and the applied to household box, since Wealth Information is not assigned to a household, but instead, to individual contacts, you will get a list of individuals with a wealth quality score greater than 18 and any of their household members as well (in the search results).
     • If you searching a currency or number field, you will see an additional option for Grouping. This will allow you to search based on a total amount (Sum), average amount, count (of records), maximum value (largest value),or minimum value (smallest value). For example, with the criteria pictured, the "sum" grouping will return a list of people who donated more than $500 total (without grouping, the search will return individuals who donated more than $500 with one donation/gift); the average option will return a list of contacts who have donated an average of $500 (lifetime, unless we also add a date range to specify a time period); the maximum option will return a list of people who have never donated more than $500 (in one donation); the minimum option will return a list of people who have never donated less than $500 (in one donation).

       

       

       

     • By selecting Grouping and Applied to Household, the search criteria will be applied to household totals. For example, the criteria pictured will return all members of households who have donated more than $500 total.

       

     • Please Note:You cannot EXCLUDE by household. That is, you cannot exclude all members of a household if any member meets the  criteria (e.g. if you are trying to find people who did not donate in the the last six months, you cannot exclude all members of the household if one of them did donate. See this tutorial on how to structure that kind of search).
     • If you wish to add multiple criteria to your search, click on the Add Criteria button below the configured rules. This will add another rule/field for another filter to be added. Here, in this example below, we are searching for those who donated more than $500 total to our "June Camp 2017" fundraising campaign.

       

       

        

     • If you use multiple criteria, it is important to specify the matching you wish to use with the group of criteria you have selected. Match ALL ("and") means that all rules must be true in order for a contact to be brought up in the search. Match ANY ("or") means that only one rule must be true in order for a contact to be brought up in the search. In the example below, if we select All, then we are searching for those who donated to the campaign and those who donated more than $500 total (meaning, those who donated more than $500 to the campaign). If we select Any, we are searching for those who donated to the campaign OR donated more than $500 (donated $500 regardless of campaign designation).

       

     • You can click the trash can to the right of any rule to delete any unwanted rules/criteria(except the first rule; the default/first rule cannot be deleted and must be included in the search criteria/is a required field).

       

       

     • If you desire to add multiple rule groups, click the Add Nested Group button.

       

       

     • Multiple rule groups will allow you to write very complicated criteria that each involve two or more rules that need to work together, such as "Show me everyone who has either attended our Annual Gala 2017 event or who donated more than $500 last year." (Event Name = "Annual Gala 2017" and "Attended = True" would be two rules in the first rule group (because these two rules must work/be applied together), and the donation date range and sum total amount would be two rules in the second rule group/that must work together). Notice that we have set the All/Any criteria in the top tier/the green bar to Any ("or"). We are saying we want EITHER people who fall into Rule Group #1 (event attendees to our 2017 Annual Gala) OR people who fall into Rule Group #2 (contacts who donated $500 or more last year).

       

     • You will notice, however, that in setting this criteria, the default rule still shows at the top of the search criteria. This field MUST be filled out; it cannot be deleted and must be included in any search. In this case, there are no additional rules we'd wish to apply to our filter, so we must include a rule that we want the system to ignore/that will not pull any results (if we include a criteria that will pull in contacts, then it will make our results incorrect).

       

     • The Any selected in the green bar in the top tier/in the green bar applies to all of the criteria below it. So the search is really for those who either: a) meet the default/first rule, b) meet rule group #1, OR c) meet rule group #3. If we add a criteria to the default rule that pulls in contacts, those contacts might not meet the criteria of Rule Group #1 or #2 and would be erroneous. That is why we must set a rule that the system will ignore/that will not pull in any contacts. A rule such as "contact name is empty" works well, because you cannot have any records in your system that do not have something in the contact name field (since it's a required field to create a contact record). (please note, it's only required to set an ignorable rule in this particular scenario where all of your criteria fit into rule groups and your top tier All/Any matching rule is set to Any. Because the default rule isn't needed but can't be deleted, you will need to add an ignorable criteria.
       

       

       

     • When you wish to use "Any" as the top tier matching rule but also have a rule you want applied to all of the rule groups, you will need to add that rule to each/every rule group individually. For instance, in the above example, if I only want contacts who are not deceased who attended the 2017 Annual Gala or who donated $500 or more last year but are not deceased, I would have to add a criteria for not deceased to each rule group (because my top tier match criteria is "Any" if I add "contact is not deceased" as a rule as the top/after the default rule, the system will search for those who are either: a) not deceased, b) attended the 2017 Annual Gala, OR c) donated $500 or more last year. "A" will return ALL contacts in the database who are not deceased and we do not want that. We only want those who attended the event or donated over $500 to not be deceased, so we must add the rule to the rule group.

       

     • You can add as many rules, rule groups, and criteria/rules to each rule group as you like.
     • Lastly, if you wish to save a search for later use, in the Create Saved Search field in the upper left, provide a name for the search.

       

     • If you desire this search to be restricted to your user account only, hiding it from all others, mark it as Make Private.

       

     • When you are ready to run your search click on the Search button in the lower right hand side and all contacts that match your search will be displayed. If you have opted to create a saved search by entering a title/name for your search in the Create Saved Search box, then you search criteria will also be saved at this time/when you click the Search button.

       

7. Whether you are using Quick Search or Advanced Search, the system will bring up all contacts that match your criteria in the search results screen.

   

8. You can sort the search results by First Name or Last name by clicking the drop down in the upper right. If you checked the "applied to household" box in your advanced search, you will also have the option to sort the results by Household ID.

   

   

9. For each contact listed here, you'll see:
   • The contact name
   • An icon to the right of the name that indicates if the contact is an individual or an organization
   • The contact's "primary" phone number, "primary" email, and mailing address. See our tutorials on Add/Edit/Share/Delete Email Address(es) and Phone Number(s) for a discussion of how the system determines which email address/phone number is the primary.
   • The Contact Source (how the contact record was created in your system)
   • Each contact's Contact Type(s), if any
   • The most recent task/interaction recorded for the contact (if any). Hovering over the task/interaction will bring up the details of the task/interaction.
   • The next donation ask amount - this is calculated on the contact's past giving history and your default ask array (the ask array that has the "default ask" check box checked).
10. From here, you can:
    • export the search results by clicking the Export CSV button in the upper right (make sure you have any pop up blockers turned off/have allowed exceptions for crm.fundly.com in order to be open the CSV file) (the excel file produced by the export is a FIXED TEMPLATE - you cannot make any changes/customize the output),
    • click on the contact's name to View the contact record,
    • click the drop down to the right of contact record to Edit or Delete the record,  OR
    • you can use the Take Action Menu in the lower right to update multiple records at once.

      

      

      

11. Hovering over the Search Results Based On field in the upper left will display your search criteria.

    

    

12. You can edit your search criteria, by selecting the Update Search button to return to the search criteria/advanced search screen.

    

13. You can edit or delete a saved search, by going to the Configurations area (see our tutorial on deleting saved searches).