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Not everyone who interacts with your organization is a member. Contacts tracks the people outside your membership — donors, newsletter subscribers, event attendees, and partners — so you don’t lose track of relationships.

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Contacts vs members

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When contacts are created

Contacts appear automatically when someone:
  • Donates without having an account
  • Subscribes to your newsletter from a public page
  • Registers for a public event without an account
  • Is imported from a CSV file or external system
You can also create contacts manually from Contacts → Create Contact.

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Contact information

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What you can store

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Tags and status

Organize contacts with tags and track their relationship stage: Tags are flexible — create whatever categories make sense for your organization.

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Managing contacts

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Newsletter subscriptions

Contacts can subscribe to your newsletter. Track their subscription status and honor unsubscribe requests:
  • Contacts unsubscribe via the link in any newsletter email
  • Admins can manually toggle subscription status
  • Unsubscribe requests are immediate
Honoring unsubscribe requests is legally required in most jurisdictions (GDPR, CAN-SPAM). Always process them promptly.

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Import and export

Import: Prepare a CSV with columns for name, email, phone, etc. Go to Contacts → Import, upload the file, map columns to fields, and confirm. Export: Filter contacts as needed, then click Export to download a CSV.

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Converting a contact to a member

When a contact wants to join:
1

Find the contact

Search by name or email in the Contacts list.
2

Click Create Account

Use the Create Account action on the contact record.
3

Complete member details

Fill in additional fields required for membership.
4

Send invitation

The new member receives an email to set up their account.
The contact record links to the new member account — you keep the history.

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Common scenarios

Check Contacts — donors without accounts are stored there, not in the member directory. If they should become a member, use the conversion flow above.
Contacts with newsletter subscriptions are included in your newsletter audience alongside members. No extra setup needed.
Create contacts tagged as “Lead” or “Prospect”. When they’re ready to join, convert them to members. Their contact history carries over.
Check their newsletter subscription status. If they didn’t explicitly subscribe, toggle it off. Only send to people who opted in.
No. Contacts don’t have accounts and can’t log in. They’re purely administrative records for your team to manage relationships.