Glossary of Common Terms

Glossary of Common Terms

Please note that this not a comprehensive glossary of terms for your database. Rather, it should introduce you to the most common features that you will likely need as you get started.

Database and User Accounts

• Committees: Committees refer to an organization’s database. Most organizations have one committee. On some platforms, clients can purchase multiple committees – this is often used to manage multiple chapters or levels of an organization.

• User: that’s you! Users are people who log into the system.

• User Profile: User Profiles are assigned to user accounts, granting them access to particular types of data and tools. Each User Profile consists of security functions that determine the types of things a user with that User Profile can do. User Profiles make it easier to create and manage user accounts because each one typically represents a level of access (or sometimes a role at the organization) and can be applied to multiple user accounts.

• Contact Record: This is a record for a voter, supporter, volunteer, donor, prospect, etc. In previous systems, you may have referred to these as “profiles.” There are two types of contact records: Individual and Organization.

  • Note: Individual and Organization contact records are similar in many ways, but there are a few crucial differences: a) Individual contact records have name fields for First Name, Last Name, etc. while Organization contact records have name fields for Common Name and Official Name; b) Online form submissions will not create Organization contact records; c) Individual contact records can have Moves Management Action Plans and Planned Gifts added, while Organizations can have Grants added – these are tools included in the Development Standard and Pro packages on EveryAction.

• VAN ID: This is the unique ID assigned to each contact record. You cannot change or apply different ones; they are assigned automatically when a record is created.

  • Note: VAN IDs are helpful when reporting issues to or asking questions of the Support team. For example, if you create a list of contact records and are confused by the results, providing example VAN IDs of the records that are causing confusion enables us to confirm that we are looking at the same record that you are. You could have two records in the database that otherwise look identical – same name, same email, and phone number – and the only difference would be the VAN ID. By providing that ID, we can help answer questions and resolve issues faster by avoiding any confusion. p. 25 | EveryAction Support EA-help@everyaction.com 202.370.8050

• Activist Codes: Activist Codes are applied to contact records, and they typically represent one of three things: a) the relationship that the contact record has with the organization – such as volunteer, major donor, board member, or press contact; b) issue interests, such as living wage, deforestation, opioid crisis, or jobs; and c) email interests.

Contributions: Basics

• Designation: In EveryAction, this represents a financial entity. In many cases, clients only need one Designation. However, if you have a c3 and c4, or you have a national organization and state chapters, you may want more than one. You must have a Designation set up in order to add any contributions to the system.

• Gateway: This is what connects to your merchant account and allows you to process contributions. Donations via PayPal, Apple Pay, and Electronic Fund Transfer all require their own Gateways. To start the process of requesting another Gateway, contact your Account Executive.

• Contributions: Contributions refer to any donation in the system, whether hard or soft, monetary or non-monetary. They can be one-time contributions or sustainer gifts, which are known as Recurring Commitments.

• Campaigns: These are used alongside Source Codes and Channels and Contact Types to track your efforts so you can see how much each one has raised and how many new people each one has brought in. The Campaign represents the broadest umbrella effort, like Membership or End of year fundraising, while Source Codes are more specific.

• Source Codes: Source Codes are used to track your efforts or campaigns so you can see how much each one has raised and how many new people each one has brought in.

• Channel and Contact Type: When you create a Source Code, you can select a Channel and Contact Type so you can see exactly how much money each outreach method for the same effort is bringing in.

• Recurring Commitments: Recurring Commitments are your tool for managing automated sustainer gifts. You can use Recurring Commitments to update the Source Code, Campaign, Custom Contribution Field, payment information, or attribution for all charges/contributions that are tied to it. There’s a Recurring Commitment section on a contact record; this would typically have one row, which indicates the amount and frequency – then, each time the charge is made, it appears in the Contributions section.

• Soft Credits, Attributions, and Raised Contributions: Raised Contributions are a way of tracking who has raised money from other people. By adding a contribution to Person A and using the Attribution field to attribute it to Person B, you will see Person A’s contribution on Person B’s Raised Contributions, as well as Person A’s Contributions.

• Contribution Summary / Contribution Aggregates: Contribution summaries/aggregates include lifetime giving, most recent gift, average gift, and first gift. These will be calculated for you based on the contributions recorded in EveryAction, so you do not need to load them from your legacy system. You’ll find robust contribution reports that include contribution aggregates and allow you to analyze levels of donors and giving over time. Our search functionality also allows you to easily create lists of donors based on this information.

Importing and Exporting

• Bulk Upload: Bulk Upload is EveryAction’s tool that allows you to bulk import or apply data.

• Standard Text Exports: You can export lists of contact records using Create A List > Run Search > Export. You will be able to choose from numerous export formats, and Standard Text Export > Customize Export will allow you to customize the columns exactly as you want them. You can also save that format for future use.

• Report Manager: You can also export your reports by going to Report Manager > open a report > customize your report as needed > Report Actions > Export. Under the same menu, you can also save your report for future use and schedule it to be sent on a regular basis via email.

Searching and Reporting

• Create A List: This is EveryAction’s powerful querying tool that is most often used for creating email segments. It always returns a list of people. For example, if narrow down your results based on contributions between $1-$100, it will return every contact record with at least one contribution between $1-$100.

• My Folders: Once you save your searches and lists, this is where you can find them again. You can also share folders that you created by opening a folder and using Edit Folder.

• My List: This is the most recent search you’ve run in Create A List. It will be overridden each time you run a search so you should save it if you want to keep it before creating a new one.

• Report Manager: Report Manager is where all of your reports are located. You can run a report template and customize it to your own needs by adjusting filters and adding, removing, reordering, sorting by, and grouping by columns. You can also save your reports and share them with others, and schedule them to be emailed.

Email and Forms

• Targeted Email: Targeted Email is our blast email tool. All sends, opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes appear in the database in real time. Conversions and amount raised (when applicable) appear in the database in real time when linked to Online Actions forms – even if they are embedded in your website.

  • Note: Targeted Emails are required to have the Unsubscribe Link merge field before they can be sent.

• SmartLinks: SmartLinks are a slightly more advanced feature for making tailored asks of your donors based on past contributions. You’ll see a SmartLinks button in the email editor when composing your message.

• Online Actions: Online Actions refers to the suite of tools available in the Online Actions dashboard, including Online forms, Online pages, Templates, Themes, and Reusables.

• Online forms: Online forms are the forms that users can create, publish, and embed in their site for their supporters to submit. The types of forms include: Signup, Petition, Volunteer, Contribution, Event Signup, Ticketed Event, Advocacy, Peer-to-Peer forms, and the Self-Service Portal. The ones available to you and your organization will depend on which packages you’ve purchased and the User Profile that you have. For example, your organization will only be able to create Advocacy forms if you have purchased the Advocacy package.

• Themes in Online Actions: In Online Actions, Themes are used to control the overall look and feel of the forms or pages, and make the form or page look more like the website. They can be used to alter the default UI of the form, like fonts or styling, hiding section titles, and more. You can design your own Themes or hire an external developer. The creator of the Theme will need to troubleshoot any issues.

• Reusables: Reusables are designed for users to reuse bits of content in forms and emails. They are most often used as email templates, but you can also use them for “smaller” pieces of content like social media icons, a logo around a particular campaign or effort (e.g. Giving Tuesday), or commonly-used dynamic asks for donations. We provide some default Reusables in Targeted Email. You can design your own or hire an external developer. The creator of the Reusable will need to troubleshoot any issues.

• Event Signup Templates: Templates are in Online Actions and are designed to facilitate the process of publishing Event Signup forms as you create your calendar events.