Adding and Editing Contacts in ActivistCentral

Adding a contact in ActivistCentral only takes a few seconds. You can start with basic information and add more details as you learn more about the person.

This guide covers working with contacts one at a time. If you have a spreadsheet of people to add, use Import CSV instead.

Add a new contact

From Contacts, select + New Contact.

Enter the information you have:

• First name — required
• Last name — optional
• Email — optional
• Phone — optional

Select Add contact when you're finished.

ActivistCentral adds the person to your contact directory and gives you a View contact link so you can open their profile.

You don't need to fill out an entire contact record when you first add someone. Start with what you know and add more information later.

A note about phone numbers

ActivistCentral uses phone numbers to help prevent duplicate active contacts.

If the phone number you enter already belongs to an active contact, ActivistCentral will let you know instead of creating another contact with the same number.

If the number belongs to a contact that was previously deleted, ActivistCentral restores that existing contact rather than creating a second record. The name, email, and phone are updated with the information you just entered, while the other information already associated with that contact is preserved.

Email addresses work differently. More than one contact can share the same email address.

Add more information to a contact

The + New Contact form is intentionally simple. To complete a person's record, open the contact and select Edit Contact.

You can also select Edit from the menu next to a person in the Contacts directory.

From Edit contact, you can update information such as:

• Name, email, and phone
• Address
• Source
• Tags
• Custom Fields
• Voice Do Not Call status
• Voice Invalid Number status

When you're finished, select Save.

Add Tags and Custom Fields

Tags and Custom Fields help you store information that matters to your organization.

In Edit contact, you can add or remove Tags that your organization has already created.

You can also enter values for your organization's existing Custom Fields. Depending on the field, that might be text, a number, a date, a Yes/No choice, or one or more predefined options.

If you need a new Tag or Custom Field, create it from the appropriate Tags or Custom Fields area first, then return to the contact to use it.

Some information is managed separately

Not everything about a person is changed through Edit contact.

For example, connections to other people or organizations are managed from the contact's Connections area. Membership information is managed through Memberships, and new notes, calls, emails, or other interactions are recorded using Log Interaction.

This keeps the contact editor focused on information about the person while the contact profile brings together the broader history of your organization's relationship with them.

Delete a contact

If you no longer want a person to appear in your Contacts directory, open the menu next to their name and select Delete.

ActivistCentral will ask you to confirm before removing the contact.

The contact will no longer appear in your directory, searches, exports, or Saved List audiences. Communication history may still be retained.

There isn't a separate recycle bin. If you later add a contact using the same phone number as a previously deleted contact, ActivistCentral can restore that existing record and its associated information.

Adding many contacts?

+ New Contact is best when you're adding or updating people individually.

If you have many contacts to add, use Import CSV to bring them into ActivistCentral from a spreadsheet. You can map your spreadsheet columns to standard contact information and your organization's Custom Fields during the import process.