Contacts Tab

Use the Contacts tab to add or edit the titles, first and last names, suffixes, nicknames, or job titles for any person’s record, or to add or edit the name of an organization.

The Contacts tab appears on four screens in Keystone: the Contacts screen, the Donors screen, the Covenant Partners screen, and the Volunteers screen. For the most part, the fields on the Contacts tab on these screens are the same. Where there are differences, they are noted at the bottom of this section.

Clearing the name fields in a contact record does not delete the contact record. Removing names on the Contacts tab can create numerous inconsistencies in the database. For information about deleting contacts, see the Deleting a Contact section.

Also be careful when editing names on this tab. If contact categories are assigned to any person or organization in a record - such as that partner being a Donor or a Volunteer - changing the name here means the new name will be connected with that previous person’s categories. Only change the name here if the person you are editing is the same person, perhaps with a new name. Run ScanDb if you make significant changes to a contact in order to verify your changes.

In addition to the contact names, you can also change a contact’s title on this tab. Select a title from the Title(s) drop-down list, or you may add new titles to the list by typing them directly into the field. If you type a new title into the field, you will get a Titles Not In Titles List message.

You can choose to use the new title you entered and add it to the list for use with other contacts, use the title just for this contact without adding it to the list, or you can cancel the new title and go back and use another title from the original list.

If there are two individuals listed, you may include titles for both, separating the title for the first person from the second by an ampersand (&), as in Dr. & Mrs. If only the second person has a title, use an ampersand and their title, as in & Dr. Titles may be used on mailing labels and some reports, and exported for use in mail merge. For more details on the use of titles and how Keystone combines titles and names, see the Report Options section.

The Nickname field lets you enter a contact's nickname if they go by something different from their First Name. See the discussion on the Salutation area below for more about how nicknames are used by Keystone.

The DOB (date of birth) field lets you store birth dates for each contact if you choose to.

There are also several options on the Contacts tab. Many of these check boxes allow you to set various contact preferences for the contact.

There are two additional fields in this area on the Contacts tab on the Donors screen. See the bottom of the following list for information about those fields.

The No Mailings check box allows you to include a contact in your database but to exclude that contact from mailings. A check in this box excludes the contact from any Labels and Export Data option on the Reports screen. For example, if you enter the name and address of a materials supplier but do not wish to send general mailings to them, check this box.

You may also use this box to indicate any contact who has specifically requested to be removed from general mailings, who are deceased, have moved away, or have become inactive. Checking the No Mailings box excludes these contacts from mailings while retaining past records of their involvement with your affiliate.

Note, however, that a contact will be included in donor acknowledgement receipts and volunteer reminders regardless of whether you check this box. Use the Donor screen to exclude a contact from an acknowledgement.
The No E-Mails check box allows you to exclude contacts from e-mail sheets. They will not appear on reports that list e-mail addresses.
The No Phone Calls check box allows you to exclude contacts from phone contact sheets. They will not appear on reports that contain phone lists.
The No Appeals check box allows you to exclude contacts from merge letters used for fundraising appeals.
The Primary Contactcheck box is visible if the contact record includes the name of an organization. When this box is checked for a particular record, this tells Keystone that this contact record is the one you want to point to when you set up affiliations between other contacts and this one.

If a contact is checked as Primary, that contact will have a P after it in the Person(s) drop-down list. Other contact records with the same organization name will have an O (Other) after their name in the list.

If this organization appears in other contact records - for example, a record with both a person and an organization - remember that only one record with this organization in it can be primary. This Primary Contact record should always be the one you want the organization’s affiliations point to. When you add an organization as a contact in Keystone, this box is checked automatically.

For more information on affiliations and the proper use of the Primary Contact check box, see the Affiliations/Members Tab section.
The Re-Mail checkbox is useful for dealing with returned letters from bulk mailings. Use this check box to mark a contact whose mail was returned and has been corrected. This will allow you to send them the mailing again. You can then create new mailing labels for only those contacts for which you checked the Re-mail checkbox.

For more information, see the Re-mailing Contacts section.
If you have Administrator privileges, a Purge checkbox will also appear. Check the Purge box to tentatively select the contact for purging. For more information, see the Purging Contacts section.
The Salutation area allows you to set how a contact is addressed in the Dear line of a letter, or in other places where a contact is addressed or referred to by their title or nickname. Keystone exports a salutation field for use with merge documents.

The salutation for a contact can be set to Informal or Formal. When the Salutation is marked as Informal and the Nickname field has names entered for the contact(s), these nicknames are used in the salutation in merge documents, for example, as Bill & Mandy. If the Nickname fields are empty, the names from the First Name fields are used, as in William & Amanda. When the Salutation is marked as Formal, the salutation uses the formal form of the name including title(s), as in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Jr.

When you set the Salutation to Informal and the Nickname field is blank, Keystone will use the first word in the First Name field for the salutation. For example, Robert J. would be shortened to just Robert and Mary Lou likewise would be shortened to Mary. If you have more than one name or something else after the contact's first name, and you want some or all of this included in the salutation, enter all of this salutation into the Nickname field. For example, Mary Lou.

The Contact Notes field is a memo field that allows you to enter any notes about the contact that you would find useful but that are not captured by fields on the Contacts tab or any other tab on the Contacts screen.

Additional fields on the Contacts tab on the Donors screen

The following two fields are only available on the Contacts tab on the Donors screen.

The Type drop-down list allows you to select what donors category the contact belongs to. Example: First Street Methodist Church would have a type such as Churches. You can edit the list of donor types in Affiliate Setup on the Contacts tab.
Check the Do Not Publish box to prevent the selected donor from appearing on Donor List reports.

Additional fields on the Contacts tab on the Covenant Partners screen

The Type drop-down list allows you to select what donors category the contact belongs to. Example: First Street Methodist Church would have a type such as Churches. You can edit the list of donor types in Affiliate Setup on the Contacts tab.

Additional fields on the Contacts tab on the Volunteers screen

The following two fields are only available on the Contacts tab on the Volunteer Information screen.

You can use the Occupation field to record the contact's line of work.