How Do Relationships Work in Virtuous?

One of the most flexible and detailed ways you can create a piece of linking data between Contacts and Individuals is via Relationships. Below are a handful of best practice examples of when and how to use Relationships. 

Default Relationship Types

There are a handful of Relationship Types readily available to use in Virtuous. Most Relationship Types are the same on each side, such as "Friend" to "Friend". There are a few Relationship Types that have an inverse Relationship that automatically correlated to it, such as "Child" to "Parent". 

Note: When creating a Relationship that has an inverse, this is read from the right to the left. A detailed example is provided further in this article. 

If your organization requires further Relationship Types to track your data, check out this Support Article outlining the process of creating a Custom Relationship Type. 

Creating a Relationship 

To create a new Relationship between two records, navigate to one of the two Contact records in question. Scroll down to the Relationship box on the left-hand side of the Contact record. Select the "Add a Relationship" button or the blue plus sign. This will open a pop-out window to create a new Relationship. 

In the "Related Contact" field enter the name or Contact ID of the record to be related. In the example below, Dustin and June Kelly were entered. 

Next, you will need to enter the details of the Relationship. You can relate the entire Kelly Household Contact record to the entire Petty Household Contact record.

Alternatively, you can relate either Individual from the Kelly Household to the entire Petty Household. In the example below, this reads as Mr Dustin Kelly is the Friend of the Petty Household. 

And finally, you can relate either Individual from each Contact to another Individual. In the example below, this reads as Mr Dustin Kelly is the Friend of Anita Petty. 

Finally, add whatever necessary Notes about the Relationship. Select "Save Relationship" to complete the process. 

This Relationship will now reflect in the Relationship box. The Contact name "Dustin and June Kelly" is a direct hyperlink to the Kelly Household Contact record. 

If you click the Contact name, you will see the Petty Household Contact record is now listed in the Relationship box. 

Creating Inverse Relationships 

As mentioned, some Relationships are the same on both sides, like "Friend" to "Friend". Other Relationships may have an inverse Relationship that pairs two terms together. Another example is the "Employer" to "Employee" Relationship type. 

Note: When creating a Relationship that has an inverse, this is read from the right to the left.

In the example below, the Virtuous Software Contact record is being related to the Sidney Mason Individual. This reads as "Virtuous Software is the Employer of Sidney Mason. 

After you save the Relationship, this will now display on the Mason Household Contact record. 

Value of Relationships and Considerations 

As you build more Relationships across your Virtuous database, you'll notice a few downstream impacts. 

Social Score 

Each Contact is assigned a Social Score, on a scale of 0-99 (99 being the best). This score is a relative score, meaning records are ranked against all of the records in your database. Contacts with a high Social Score have significant social capital that can benefit your organization, and could be cultivated in a similar fashion a major donor or major gift prospect. The number of Relationships a Contact record has with other records in your database is one of the main figures educating the Social Scores. 

Queries and Reporting 

Relationship data is available as searchable fields in Contact and Individual Queries. In the "Field" box, enter either "Relationship" or "Related" to shortcut straight to these specific fields. This means you can now use Relationship data to educate Query results AND data feeding into Reports. 

Prioritizing Relationships 

In Virtuous, a specific Contact or Individual can be "related" to another specific Contact or Individual a maximum of once. 

As an example, in the screenshot below the Individual Alexis is related to Anita as "Friend". 

If they also work at the same company and you want to create this as a Relationship, you'll receive a pop-up notice that they are already related. 

In cases like these, you'll have to decide which Relationship has greater value to your organization. If the "Coworker" Relationship is more valuable than the "Friend" Relationship, you will need to first delete the existing Relationship. Once that is removed, then you can create the "Coworker" Relationship connection.