Solicit Codes

Hello Blog Reader!

Welcome to October! Kids back to school and settled into their daily routines, Canadian Thanksgiving behind us, but when’s the next long weekend??

For those of our clients that live in more temperate zones than us -- Philadelphia, New Jersey, and our newest client in California – YES! California! – trust me when I say these dank, cold, wet October days in Canada are enough to make one yearn for warmer climes! The mornings are dark and cold, and May seems a long time away!
Its also the time of year when germs seem to be at their most virulent, and my daughter and I are taking turns sneezing on each other….

And it’s a busy time of year for all….we’ve got Halloween just around the corner, and then end of the year celebrations rushing towards at supersonic speed….But for now, let’s take a bit of a break, breathe a deep sigh, grab a coffee and spend the next 10 or 15 minutes discussing the most appropriate use of Solicit Codes in Raiser’s Edge.

Solicit Codes are populated on the BIO1 Tab of the Constituent record and are essential in maintaining a healthy relationship with all of your Constituents, most notably your key donors. Solicit Codes are used to identify and track rules of contact that exist between that specific Constituent and your organization. For example, if a Constituent has indicated to you that they do not wish to receive mail, you would populate their Constituent Record with a Solicit Code of “Do Not Mail”.

Like most fields in Raiser’s Edge, Solicit Codes are very powerful, in that the drop down menu is customizable, and thus, unique to your organization. While several Solicit Codes are common across most of the organizations that we work with – for example, “Do Not Mail”, “Do Not Phone” – your organization can customize Solicit Codes for your own unique needs. For example, say your organization is running a weekend-long phonathon, you will want to have a very specific Solicit Code populated that indicates, “Do Not Phone On Weekends”.

Thus, your organization can create very specific and tailored Solicit Codes to meet your Constituents’ needs.

Solicit Codes are very convenient in that they are extremely easy to query upon. What I mean by that is when the time comes to generate lists of Constituents out of Raiser’s Edge, for example, a specific group of Constituents that you have identified to send an Appeal to, it is very easy to identify, through query, those Constituents who have a Solicit Code of “Do Not Mail” or "Do Not Solicit" populated on their record.

The key points to remember about Solicit Codes are:
1) Ensure you are populating your Constituents' contact preferences through the use of Solicit Codes.
2) Ensure you keep the Solicit Codes up to date for each Constituent, as frequently their contact wishes will change over time.
3) Ensure to query on your Solicit Codes before you ever contact a group of Constituents to be certain that you are eliminating from that contact list any Constituent that has requested not be contacted.

Furthermore, make sure that the query is specific enough to not only exclude those with a specific Solicit Code, such as “Do Not Solicit”, but that it also excludes those that have a very specific Solicit Code populated that may be related to the means by which you are contacting this group, such as “Do Not Phone On Weekends”.

One thing to note about Solicit Codes….you will see there is a check-box on the BIO1 Tab that indicates “Do Not Email”. Many organizations choose to use BOTH this check box and a Solicit Code of “Do Not Email”. If your organization chooses to track this in both places, ensure you are being consistent across EVERY record that has the check-box checked off.

Solicit Codes are not the same as the Do Not Contact option available to you for specific phone numbers. Solicit Codes are intended to be slightly more general than that…ie, if the Constituent does not want any phone calls at all, you would use a Solicit Code of “Do Not Phone”. If, on the other hand, a Constituent has several different phone numbers populated on their record – eg, Home, Business, Parent -- and has requested not to be contacted via one specific phone you would use the Do Not Contact feature for that specific phone number only, not an overall Solicit Code.

As discussed, you can create and customize a limitless number of Solicit Codes to identify all possible rules of contact. It is important, however, that Solicit Codes are not duplicated and that you are not tracking the same information by more than one Solicit Code phrased slightly differently. For example, in your Solicit Code drop down menu, you would NOT want to have one Solicit Code that says “Do Not Phone” and another Solicit Code that says “No Phone Calls”. Ensure that any information you are tracking is only tracked in one location. This will ensure your query results are accurate when the time comes to retrieve the information from Raiser’s Edge.

It is also essential that the names given to Solicit Codes are as self-explanatory as possible so as to prevent confusion as to what is actually being tracked.

Two “take aways” to remember about Solicit Codes:
1) They are a short two or three word phrase that specifically describes contact rules between your organization and the given Constituent.
2) They are very easy to query upon, and thus are extremely beneficial to you in maintaining healthy relationships with your Constituents.

If you ever have any questions about Solicit Codes, or any other Raiser’s Edge question or technology issue, please email me at plucas@resolutionstech.com and perhaps your question will become my next Blog!

Thanks for reading my blog, and don’t forget to tour the website and check out Robin’s Blog too!