Creating and Using Saved Lists in ActivistCentral

Saved Lists let you turn useful searches and filters in your Contacts directory into reusable groups for future work and outreach.

The important thing to understand is that a Saved List is live. It doesn't save a fixed group of contacts. Instead, it saves the criteria you used to find them.

That means contacts can automatically join or leave a Saved List as their information changes.

What is a Saved List?

Think of a Saved List as a saved set of rules for finding contacts.

For example, you might create lists for:

• Members who currently have an email address
• Volunteers with a valid phone number
• Contacts with a particular Tag
• Contacts matching several Tags
• People who have unsubscribed from email
• Contacts who have opted out of SMS

If a contact's information changes so that they no longer match the criteria, they will no longer appear in the list. Likewise, contacts who begin matching the criteria will automatically appear.

You don't have to maintain the membership of the list yourself.

Create a Saved List

Saved Lists are created from the Contacts directory.

Go to:

Contacts → Directory

Then use the search and filters to find the contacts you want.

You can build a Saved List using:

• Search
• Tags
• Phone and messaging status
• Email status

For Tags, you can also choose whether contacts should match any of the selected Tags or all of them.

Once you've applied at least one search or filter, choose Save Filter as List.

Enter a name for your list and, if useful, a description.

If you've used the search box, you can also choose whether to include the current search term as part of the Saved List.

Select Save List when you're finished.

A simple example

Suppose your organization has a Tag called Volunteer.

You could filter Contacts using:

Tag: Volunteer

and:

Phone / status: Valid Phone

Then save those filters as:

Volunteers with Valid Phone

The list will continue to represent volunteers who currently have a valid phone number.

If another contact is later tagged as a Volunteer and has a valid phone number, that person will automatically become part of the list.

If an existing volunteer no longer has a valid phone number, that person will stop matching it.

Open a Saved List

Go to:

Lists → Saved Lists

You'll see the Saved Lists available to your organization.

Choose Open in Contacts to return to the Contacts directory with that list's saved search and filters applied.

Because Saved Lists are live, the contacts you see are the people who match those criteria now. The results may be different from when you originally created the list.

You can also use View count to see how many contacts currently match a Saved List.

Use Saved Lists for outreach

Saved Lists are especially useful when you regularly communicate with the same kinds of contacts.

When creating an Email, SMS, Robocall, or Live Calling campaign, you can choose a Saved List as your audience.

ActivistCentral evaluates the list when the audience is prepared, so your outreach is based on the contacts who currently match the Saved List rather than the contacts who happened to match it when the list was first created.

For example, instead of repeatedly finding everyone tagged Member who has an email address, you can create that Saved List once and reuse it for future outreach.

ActivistCentral will still apply the appropriate eligibility rules for the communication channel you choose.

Saved Lists and Tags

Tags work especially well with Saved Lists.

Because Saved Lists reference the Tag itself, you can rename a Tag without breaking lists that use it.

Be more careful when deleting a Tag.

If a Tag is being used by a Saved List, ActivistCentral warns you before deletion. Deleting the Tag can cause those Saved Lists to match fewer contacts — or no contacts at all.

If you still need the Saved List, review it before deleting a Tag it depends on.

What isn't included in a Saved List?

Saved Lists currently use the search and filtering options available for:

• Search
• Tags
• Phone and messaging status
• Email status

Custom Fields and the columns you've chosen to display in the Contacts directory are not Saved List criteria.

Selecting individual rows in the Contacts directory also does not create a static Saved List. Saved Lists are based on filters rather than manually selected contacts.

Changing a Saved List

Saved Lists currently cannot be renamed or have their criteria edited after they're created.

If you need a different version of a list, return to Contacts, apply the filters you want, and save a new list. You can then delete the old list if you no longer need it.

Deleting a Saved List deletes only the saved definition. It does not delete any contacts or Tags.

A few useful Saved List ideas

Saved Lists become especially helpful for groups you expect to use repeatedly.

Some examples:

• Members with Email — Member Tag + Has Email
• Volunteers with Valid Phone — Volunteer Tag + Valid Phone
• Email Unsubscribed — Email Unsubscribed status
• SMS Opt-Outs — SMS Opted Out status
• Current Phone Outreach Audience — your campaign Tag + Valid Phone

The best Saved Lists usually represent audiences your organization expects to find or contact again.

The key idea

A Saved List is not a frozen list of people.

It's a live set of search and filter criteria.

Create the criteria once, save them as a list, and ActivistCentral can keep finding the contacts who match as your contact data changes.