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Lookups

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Lookups: Show me contacts who...

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Basic lookup concepts

2 Most important things to know about Lookups

The Lookup dialog box

Relationship to the Current Group

Controlling the Sort Order of a Lookup

What is a Lookup?

Video: Using Lookups

Video: Lookup Donors

When using the database, there will frequently be a need to view one or more contacts who share a common attribute. Here are some examples of contacts who may make up just a portion of the database:

Contacts who are donors (that is, have given a gift of any amount)
Contacts who attend a certain church
Contacts who live in a certain city
Contacts who are also married

Lookups are useful in preparing reports, editing contacts, creating Saved Groups, mapping, etc.

Lookups always change the displayed list of contacts (that is, the "Current Group"). You can always lookup everyone again by pressing the Lookup Everyone button:

Basic Lookup concepts

Read More > Tutorial: Create a Basic Lookup

When you perform any lookup, the resulting list of contacts is the Current Group.
The Current Group is always the result of a lookup.
Lookups by nature are immediate. When a lookup is performed, it returns contacts that meet that criteria at that moment. A lookup on gifts received would be different one month than it would be the next month.
A Successive Lookup is one where you do a lookup (such as all contacts in a city), then do a lookup within that lookup (such as only the donors in that city). See the table below on Relationship to the Current Group to see the four ways you can control the returned list of contacts.
Default Lookup upon opening TntConnect. When the database is opened, a lookup is performed immediately. The default lookup is Lookup | Everyone, and the Current Group then is all contacts in database. (You can change your Default Lookup in Tools | Options | User Interface tab.

Everyone

All contacts in the database.

Relevant Contacts

Decision is not No. Includes anyone whose TNT Phase is anything but <Not Interested> or <Never Ask>), anyone who is a newsletter recipient, and the <Me> contact.

Newsletter List

All newsletter recipients and the <Me> contact.

Current Lookup

Whatever the Current Lookup is at the moment this menu item is chosen can be saved as the default lookup. You can create your own favorite lookup, then have TntConnect run that lookup every time you open TntConnect.

The 2 Most Important Things To Know

1.Doing lookups cannot harm your database. Use trial and error to learn about them.
2.Lookups answer "Who" questions
Who should I call for a decision right now?
Who should I call to make an appointment with?
Who should I call when I go to Vancouver next week?
With whom do I have an appointment scheduled?
Who gets my newsletter?

Lookups do not answer "How much" questions

How much monthly support do I have?
How much have support have I received this year?

As a new staff member, your list of Who? questions would be fairly straightforward. But for senior staff, the number of possible combinations could literally be in the millions. For example:

Who supported our ministry between 1999 and 2001 and not since and gave more than $3000 but never more than $500 in a single gift and is married?

Lookups Dialog Box

Some lookups run immediately when selected from the menu. But most lookups bring up the Lookup Contacts dialog box so that the lookup criteria can be defined.

Relationship to the Current Group

When performing a lookup, the software needs to know how the results will impact the Current Group.

Replace the current group

Queries the entire database and displays a new group. Or, "Ignore the current group, and out of all contacts in my database, only show me those who meet 'this' criteria.

Lookup within the current group

Queries the Current Group and displays only those contacts that meet the criteria from the Current Group. Or, "Using only this current group as a starting point, now show me contacts who meet 'this' criteria."

Add to the current group

Queries the entire database, but maintains the currently viewed group and combines the two lists. Or, "Keep this same current group, but add only the people who meet 'this' criteria."

Take away from the current group

Queries the Current Group and removes those contacts that meet the criteria chosen. Or, "Lookup this same group, except, take away contacts that meet 'this' criteria."

Sort Order

There are two ways to control the sort of a lookup. Since alphabetical is the most common, you can sort the current group alphabetically just by right-clicking in the list.

You can customize the sort from there as well, or at any time while creating a Lookup:




Comments on this Help Topic

rynetyme wrote re: Lookups
on 19 Feb 2014 9:18 PM

Is there a way to sort contacts by "Not likely to give, Likely to give, and Most Likely to Give"?

Bob Mac Leod wrote re: Lookups
on 21 Feb 2014 2:25 AM

Yes, if you look in the screen shot above, you will see one of the options when you right-click is "Customize Sort". When you select that, you can sort by any field (even successive fields, like By City *and then* Likely to Give, etc.

Grace wrote re: Lookups
on 7 Mar 2018 1:14 PM

In the few months that I have been using TNT Connect, I have never seen a time when I could use the options other than "Replace the current group". The other options in that section are always greyed-out.

Those options would be, "Lookup within the current group" and "Add to the current group" and "Take away from the current group".

Troy Wolbrink wrote re: Lookups
on 2 Apr 2018 5:38 PM

Hi Grace,  Open the 'Lookup" menu, and make a choice.  You'll see the other options become available.

Isa Tally wrote re: Lookups
on 12 Dec 2018 12:16 PM

Is there a way to type in multiple lookups at a time? Somewhat like excel? I need to apply 10+ added filters for 8 different groups. That means I have to click 7 things 80time or more.  Or could I at least change the automatic function from "replace group" to "add to group"?

Troy Wolbrink wrote re: Lookups
on 3 May 2019 6:19 PM

Hi Isa,  The default to "replace group" is by design because this is often what's most expected.  You'll have to change it to anything else anytime you want to further refine or add to your lookup.

Cj_Gallagher wrote re: Lookups
on 10 Jul 2020 7:58 PM

Is there a way to modify a parameter in a lookup, or do I have to recreate it with the parameter changed?

Troy Wolbrink wrote re: Lookups
on 16 Jul 2020 3:24 AM

You can double-click on the filter ... right above the contact list ... to make changes to it.