introduction

akoyaGO is what’s known as a relational database. Within a relational database records can be related or linked to each other. This document is to explore the relationships between the constituent and contact records created by the Parent Constituent and Primary Contact fields. 

parent constituent

Parent Constituent is a field that is on both the Contact and Constituent forms. 

On the Contact record, Parent Constituent is used to signify which constituent the contact is most associated with. Most times this is where the contact is employed. 

On the Constituent Record, this allows for you to link one constituent record to another. For example, if you have constituent records for many departments within a university. You can create a main record for the university and make it the Parent Constituent on the records for each department. 

primary contact

Primary Contact is a field on the Constituent Record that is a lookup to the Contacts entity.  

This allows you to name one person as the primary contact for this Constituent. Most of the time, this person is the executive director or CEO. 

Assigning a contact as the Primary Contact of a constituent record does not automatically assign that constituent as the Parent Constituent of the contact. This is by design because you might have a person who works for an organization that is a grantee and a Girl Scout Leader to a Troop that is also a grantee. In akoyaGO, their Parent Constituent would be their place of work and they would be listed as the Primary Contact on the constituent record of the Girl Scout Troop.