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Understanding Constituents

Constituents are the heart of Compass-360 (C360). Almost every type of record will link back to a constituent, whether it be a payment, attendance record, or questionnaire submission. They are the center point of all data interactions.

Types, Subtypes & Personas

Everyone in your database will be an Individual with a General subtype, and can have none or many Personas.

Personas

Personas, at a low level, are Tags on a constituent record, treated as a primary field. For Participant Management, we have defined the following Personas to help identify constituents:

  • Participant
  • Parent (used loosely – can describe a parent, step-parent, grandparent, guardian, etc.)
  • Volunteer
  • Staff
  • Instructor

Matching Process

As constituents are added to your database from an external process, such as a parent registration form, a new constituent will be created. Often, this constituent already exists in your database. In which case, we’ll want to match them to that constituent.

Currently, matching happens behind the scenes for you, matching on various data points such as address or name. For parents that register online, a mobile phone number is required. When a parent attempts to sign up with a known phone number, they will be notified that an account already exists for this number, and they should login. You’ll learn more about this in the Parent Portal.

Duplicates

Constituents are a vital part of your data structure, keeping their data clean is essential to maintaining a healthy database. Most commonly, you’ll come across duplicate constituents, because their records can enter the database through outside input; i.e. a Parent signing up their Participant for a membership. Misspellings, imports and address changes can create multiple records if there is an error during the matching process.

While clean-up tools are available within C360, it relies on you and your team to act upon them. Additionally, setting best practices and SOP’s within your organization is crucial to keep a well maintained database.