It's common for end-users to work with lists of constituents outside of Blackbaud CRM™. You might be reviewing event invitation lists, analyzing a group of constituents or receiving data from a vendor. When working outside of Blackbaud CRM™ it can become cumbersome to replicate a list inside Blackbaud CRM™ using the Ad-Hoc Query tool.

If you have a unique identifier in your external list you can use the Import List feature within Blackbaud CRM™ to easily import the list as a selection to use in any Ad-Hoc Query.

Before you start, make sure you have a unique identifier like a Record ID or Lookup ID in our list. In Blackbaud CRM™ navigate to Analysis and under the selections header click on Import Selections. Next, click on Add. The following screen will appear:

Fill out the required fields, select a record type, and be sure to mark the checkbox “Show this selection in the Query Designer”. By marking this checkbox you will make your selection available in Ad-Hoc Query. Choose your import file and map the unique identifier column to the corresponding ID type. Once you have done this, click Save and Import.

Now that you have imported this selection, you are able to include this selection in any Ad-Hoc Query. You can create a new Ad-Hoc query by browsing to the Analysis functional area and clicking on Information Library. Click on Add ad-hoc query and select the appropriate query view for the type of information you are querying.

TIP: If you imported constituent records, make sure that use the Constituent node in query view and scroll down until you see a Selections folder. This is where you will find your imported selection.

Now you can query on that list of constituents that you were working with externally to Blackbaud CRM™.

Tip: If you need to remove members of a marketing effort, this is a great way to do it!