Jump to Section:
The Relationship Between the Voter and People Database
Introduction
In addition to working with registered voters and voting age population data, the PDI system has a separate People Database designed to manage data for people associated with your organization who may or may not be in your voter database.
The People Database is completely independent of the voter database. You start with zero records and will need to add people by manual data entry, copying records from the voter database, or bulk imports. You may add individuals who live outside your account geography or are not registered to vote. You can even enter records for organizations and businesses. The flexibility of the People database makes it an invaluable data resource for your organization. The only requirement for entering a contact record is First Name, Last Name, and one of the following communication fields: Email, Phone Number, or Address.
Most of the people in your people database will fall into one or more of the following categories:
- Volunteers – These are people identified by your organization who are willing to perform some type of actual work on behalf of your organization. They start out as Prospects and graduate to Active once they work.
- Donors – These are people identified by your organization who are willing to contribute money to your organization. Like volunteers, they start out as Prospects and graduate to Active once a contribution is received.
- Members – If your organization has an external membership list, the members can be imported through the Membership Management Module.
The Relationship Between the Voter and People Database
The beauty of the People Database is that, while separate from the voter database, the two databases are deeply integrated. As you add people to the People Database, your PDI account will contain individuals that fall into one of three categories:
- Individuals in the Voter Database Only – These are the registered voters included in your PDI account.
- Individuals in the People Database Only – These people are added by manually entering an individual who is not found in the voter database. They can also be added in bulk via the Import New People page.
- Individuals in Both the People and Voter Database – These people have been copied from the voter database to the people database.