Forum Discussion
Contacts related to Organizations, Schools, and Employers in Microsoft for Non-Profit
One of the requests from a client is to relate Contacts to an Employer, School, and/or Organizations. We are debating between using stand-alone custom table(s) or just the OOTB Account table. We know Fundraising & Engagement already has this concept built in but only for Organizations. We want to make sure we are keeping in mind native functionality when deciding on whether or not to use OOTB or our own custom table.
For more context:
- We would be leveraging the msnfp_accounttype choice column on the Account table, and extending it from the existing choice values to also include School and Organization.
- As each Contact could have a different “Accounts” for each of School/Organization/Employer, we will be configuring custom lookups to hold each of these potential distinct relationships between a single Contact and one or more Accounts.
We're also curious to know if there is anything in place that we're missing or anything in the future pipeline for MC4NP / Fundraising & Engagement that could impact our decision.
alex_kasavin_msftMicrosoft
Hi Tom - if a client needs a Contact to have one-to-many relationships with Accounts, extending the choices in the Account table may not be the best option because you'll be constrained by the one-to-one relationship there.
While a custom table is certainly an option, I recommend looking at the Connection table for the custom relationships. It's designed to support multiple roles that a contact may have across organizations.- MeenahKhosraw
Hello Tom_Masiello,
Thanks for your question!
I'm in the process of looping in a product expert to answer your question. I'll follow up with you shortly.
Thank you,
