Training Documentation

How and When to Use Relationships

NPSP allows you to create a relationship record between two contacts. Any kind of person-to-person relationship can be used in Salesforce.

Examples: Friend, Coworker, Employer/Employee, etc. You can have a broad relationship description, such as Family, or a more specific one, such as Parent/Child. You can have a non-gendered relationship (Grandparent/Grandchild) or a gendered one (Grandmother/Grandson).

We set up this instance of NPSP with reciprocal relationships that are automatically created. So, when a relationship is added to one contact (Ex: Sally Martin’s Grandson is Philip Johnson), the reciprocal relationship is automatically added to the other contact (Ex: Philip Johnson’s Grandmother is Sally Martin).

Here’s how to create a relationship and how to view the reciprocal relationship:

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It is important to document relationships so that you are aware of them when communicating with donors and other stakeholders. It also allows for institutional knowledge to be retained in the event of staff turnover.

For example, a staff member might call Sally to thank her for a donation. If Sally mentions that her grandson recently had a great experience volunteering with a member of the Coalition for Home Repair, the relationship documented in Salesforce will remind the staff member of his name so that they can ask a question like, “Which organization did Philip volunteer with?” This personal touch can build trust and rapport, which may result in more donations and other positive outcomes for the nonprofit.

What to Expect When Adding a Teacher

The Coalition for Home Repair documents relationships related to cohorts. When you are on a Student record, you can add a Teacher (this is a type of relationship) via the lookup field. If the Teacher’s name isn’t already in Salesforce, you can add it from the Student record.

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A reciprocal relationship will automatically be created when you do this. So, when you navigate to the Teacher’s record, you’ll see all of their Students listed on the Relationship related list:

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Auto Create Duplicate Relationships is enabled which will allow the relationship to be duplicated when a Student has the same Teacher for more than one cohort.

How to Create a Household Account

To create Household Accounts in NPSP, simply create a Contact. The Household Account is automatically created. There are two ways to create a Contact using primary affiliation.

Option 1 : Global Action. Click on the plus sign in the top right corner and

select "New Contact”:

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