Contacts are the building blocks of Virtuous. Before you get ready to add Contacts to your database, be sure you understand the core differences between Contacts and Individuals in Virtuous. (Check out this article on Contacts vs. Individuals)
Creating Contacts
There are three ways to create Contacts in Virtuous. When gifts are entered through the Gift and Contact Import tool, if it is a brand new donor, the gift entry process will create the Contacts alongside the gift record. To learn more about how to import gifts to Virtuous, check out this support article.
The other two ways you can create a new Contact manually from the Contacts tab or use a CSV file to import many Contacts at once using the Gift and Contact Import Tool. We'll review both options in detail below.
Creating Contacts Manually
To enter Contacts manually, you'll head over to the main navigation bar. Next, select Contacts->Add New Contacts (This can also be accessed via the quick links at the top of any page- just click on the person with the plus sign)
This selection will pop out a screen for you to manually enter contacts. You'll need to select a Contact type (Learn more about Contact types) and then enter as much information as you can—this will be helpful during gift entry and during any automation or outreach.
Required Fields
- Contact Type
- First Name
- Last Name
Optional Fields
- Title
- Title 2
- Middle Name
- Suffix
- Nickname
- Pre-Marriage Name
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Birth Month
- Birth Day
- Birth Year
- Gender
- Address
Additional Name Fields
If you select the "Show Secondary Fields" option, this will pop out additional fields to track name and salutation variations.
- Informal Name
- Formal Name
- Alternate Name
Once the name variations have been entered, you can then select the "Preferred Addressee" and the "Preferred Salutation" to ensure proper formatting in communications.
After you've entered all the information, select "Save and Continue" if you have additional Contacts to create. Select "Save and Close" if you are finished.
Adding Contacts via CSV
If you already have your contacts in a spreadsheet, it's pretty simple to bring them over into Virtuous. The first thing you'll need to do is navigate to the Gift and Contact import screen. You can do this by heading to the navigation bar, selecting Contacts, then Import Contacts
From here, you'll be on the gift and contact import screen. On the left side of the screen, you will find the Contact Import Template. You'll want to make sure the headers of your existing spreadsheet match the headers of the template. The easiest way to achieve this is to find the headers in the template that match your information and just copy them over into your existing data. After you have your headers squared away, select Actions at the top right, then select Create an import.
The next screen that will come up is the import screen. You'll want to change the import type to Contact Import, then select the file that contains your contact information. When you're done, save the import.
Once your document has been processed you'll receive a notification that it's ready to be reviewed. Head back to your import screen and select your import by clicking the blue link for the import.
On this screen, you'll see if you have any contacts that have a match needed, update needed, or are ready for import. Make those matches or create new contacts if needed and once those are all in the ready to import bucket- select the import button on the upper right corner to import those contacts.
Need more help?
Here are some other articles that may be beneficial to you in your Virtuous Journey:
How do I create Custom Contact types?
How do I Create an Individual?
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