Add Affiliation Codes to a Profile

Add Affiliation Codes to a Profile

Affiliation codes indicate how a Profile record is affiliated with the organization and identify Profiles as part of a group for reporting or mailing. For example, these codes could identify a Profile as part of the Finance Committee or Board of Directors. You can tag a Profile with as many Affiliation codes as you wish.

When you run reports or create mailings (Profile reports and some Gift and Grant reports), you can use Affiliation codes to select a group of Profiles that you want to include or exclude.

Tip: FIMS automatically adds some Affiliation codes to a Profile based on events that happen within the system. Refer to Configuring Automatic Affiliation Codes for more information on using automatic Affiliation codes.

1. In the Profile Management module, make sure that the desired Profile record is open (or select it from the Profile Data Grid), and then click the Affiliations tab.
   
   Affiliations Tab
   

2. In the left-hand pane, select the code that you want to add to the Profile.

You can select multiple codes at one time by doing the following:

• To select a contiguous group of codes, select the first desired code, then press the Shift key on your keyboard and select the last code you want to select.

• To select a non-contiguous group of codes, select the first desired code, and then hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and select each code you want to use.

Note: If you cannot see the desired code, it is possible that it is a member of an Affiliation Group. To see all of the codes in the list, even those that are members of groups, select the Expand All checkbox at the bottom of the window.

3. Click the Add button to add the code(s) to the Profile record.

4. Click the Save button on the toolbar.

Adding Grouped Affiliation Codes to Profiles

Tip: NOTE: Refer to Maintaining Affiliation Codes for more information about grouped Affiliation codes.

• When you add an Affiliation code that is a group member, the top-level code (represented by a file folder icon) is added automatically.

• If you remove the member code, the top-level code will be removed with it.

• If you remove the top-level code, its members will be removed with it.

• When you add a top-level Affiliation code, its members are not added automatically. This is because each top-level code can also function as a stand-alone code. If you want to add the group’s members, you must select them and add them separately.

• If you remove a member, the top-level code remains.

• If you remove the top-level code, its members will be removed with it. 

Profile User-Defined Codes vs. Affiliation Codes

User-defined codes (Profile 2 tab) provide a free-form way to code Profiles. Affiliation codes (Affiliations tab) provide this same ability. You can create an unlimited number of Affiliation codes and apply them to a particular Profile.

Affiliation Codes

• Several utilities enhance the power of Affiliations (for example, Mass Adding Affiliation Codes).

• You can use Affiliation codes to filter your results for many reports and exports. User-defined field filtering for reports and exports is slightly more limited.

User-Defined Codes

• You can name each of the four user-defined fields, choosing four categories of information that are useful for your organization and labeling each field accordingly. The user-defined labels also appear as the field description on the Selections and Sorting tabs for many reports.

• As with Affiliations, you can create a master list of valid codes. The first two fields require a valid code (as do almost all user-definable code fields). You can include a distinctive initial character to mark codes that are appropriate for each of the four fields (for example, 1yes, 1no, 2GroupA, 2GroupB, 2GroupC, 3Qrtly, 3Yrly).

• The second two fields also accept codes from the user-defined code table, but do not require them. Instead, you can enter up to six characters of text. Therefore, these fields can be used for variable information (for example, a Profile’s birth date). Since consistency is not forced, these fields may be less reliable for sorting or selecting.

Tip: If the fields contain dates, make sure you use the same date format every time. If you want to sort and select the field, put the date in the YYMMDD format and always use all six-character positions.

• User-defined fields are easier to use than Affiliation codes for Results reports.

• User fields are exported in the Gift Acknowledgment and Gift History exports.

It is possible to convert user-defined codes to Affiliation codes, or periodically synchronize Affiliation codes with user-defined codes. This allows user-defined codes to become a convenient point of entry for your four most important Affiliation codes. You also can apply user-defined codes to all Profiles with one or more selected Affiliation codes.

Refer to the following sections for more information on working with Profile User-Defined codes and Affiliation codes in FIMS:

• Creating User Codes from Affiliations

• Configuring Automatic Affiliation Codes

• Moving User Codes to Affiliations

• Maintaining Profile User-Defined Codes

Adding Affiliation Codes from Reports

Several reports and exports in FIMS (for example, Export to Word Processing, Profile Listing, Gift History, Gift History Export, and Application History Export) allow you to add Affiliation codes to each unique Profile ID code included in the report or export, directly from the FIMS Viewer.

1. Run the desired report.

2. Click Contacts/Affs on the FIMS Viewer menu bar. The Create Contacts/Affiliations window opens.

3. Select the Create Affiliation Records for Profile ID checkbox. A drop-down box appears to the right of the checkbox.

4. Click the arrow in the drop-down box and select the Affiliation code you want to add to the Profiles on the report.

5. Click OK. A confirmation window opens to make sure you want to add the selected Affiliation code to all of the Profiles on the report. Click Yes.