Everyday tools

Finding Records with List Views

A list view is a saved question you can reopen with one click — every active membership in your chapter, every gift this month, every officer whose term is ending. If you find yourself running the same search twice a week, it should be a list view instead.

1 · Open the tab, then the gear

Memberships, Engagements, Chapters — then List View Controls → New

2 · Filter it down

Status, record type, chapter, date range — whatever narrows it

3 · Pick your columns, then pin it

Select Fields to Display, then the pin to make it your default

List views worth building

These are the ones that come up again and again here. Each is a filter combination, not anything clever.

What you wantObject and filters
Current members in my chapterMembership · Is Current = true · Chapter = yours
Renewals coming upMembership · Status = Active · Expiration Date next 90 days
Who lapsed recentlyMembership · Status = Lapsed
Auto-renew list to leave aloneMembership · Auto Renew = true
Gifts this monthEngagement · Record Type = Donation · Date this month
Money promised but not inEngagement · Status = Committed
Pledges still being paidEngagement · Record Type = Pledge · Status = Committed
Officers whose term is endingChapter Officer · Currently Serving = true · End Date soon
Batches not yet postedGift Batch · Status = Open or In Review

Good to know

Filter memberships by Is Current, or drown

Every renewal leaves its old term behind, so the Membership object is overwhelmingly historical records. A list view without Is Current or a status filter is almost always showing you the past. This is the single most useful filter on the object.

If a membership list looks enormous and full of names you do not recognize, this is why.

Always filter Engagements by record type

Dues, gifts, pledges, sponsorships and in-kind all live on the same object. A list of "Engagements this month" is a mixture of subscription income and philanthropy, and the total at the bottom means nothing. Decide which record types you want and say so in the filter.

Sharing the view is not sharing the records

Setting a list view so all users can see it shares the view — the filters and the columns. It does not change who can see which records. Two people opening the same list can legitimately see different numbers of rows, and neither is broken.

Clone rather than build from scratch

Most new list views are a small change to one that exists. Open the closest match, use Clone, and adjust the filter. You keep the columns and the sort, which is most of the work.

Name it so somebody else understands it

Shared list views appear in everyone's dropdown. Chapter 12 — Active Members gets used; Test 3 clutters the list for the whole organization. If it is shared, the name is part of somebody else's workspace.