I'm a new admin to Foundant and am a little surprised that there isn't a second organization name field that is searchable within the system. Some funders will want to use the Organization Name field as the legal name and add a DBA field that is also searchable, while other funders would do the opposite and use the Organization Name field as the DBA and add a Legal Name field. The key is to make both fields searchable so that we can choose what option works best for communications and reporting through the system.

Please add this to the roadmap or let us know what the challenges are and why it isn't doable at this time.

C'mon,guys, This is the only place where Blackbaud has you beat. I used that field all the time back when,because animal groups are acronyms-heavy it seems, like ASPCA most famously for example....

I joined Fondant in fall 2020, so completely missed this old thread, but absolutely need this feature! I added "doing business as" as a field in my database, but it doesn't like to the organization name so I can't search on it. Cindy's comment from 2015 is exactly what I need. We use an organization's legal name from their EIN in the database, but oftentimes they have been using a DBA for many years and we need to address letters or search using the DBA.

"I would just add that the new field needs to be tied into the organization search function -- so when you conduct a search, if the term you enter is in either the organization name field or the AKA field, it will show up in the search results."

I just want to chime in and say YES please!

Hi Joan, Mary, and Cindy,

There are a number of suggestions about expanding the information we track at the organization level, including this one. We haven't tackled any of these yet, but they haven't fallen off the radar. I understand how adding an AKA field for the organization would be helpful, but rather than adding a field at a time - which each time can impact exports, reporting, merge documents, etc. - we'd like to find a better overall solution so we can address the need for as many users as possible, as well as provide more flexibility on an ongoing basis. In addition, while I think improving the organization profile is important, we've been continuing to try to improve more core parts of the workflow. It's never easy prioritizing potential improvements to the system, but I hope you've seen ongoing improvement.

So the concept of capturing more organization information and improving functionality around the organization and its profile will remain on the product road map, but it isn't something we'll be tackling in the near term.

Definitely appreciate the feedback on the importance of this idea, and if there are more details you'd to add, please let us know.

Thanks,
-chris

I was coming to post the same request (addition of an DBA/AKA field). I would just add that the new field needs to be tied into the organization search function -- so when you conduct a search, if the term you enter is in either the organization name field or the AKA field, it will show up in the search results.

There was an official response to an earlier thread indicating that the enhancement was under consideration (https://community.foundant.com/foundant/topics/aka_for_organizations), but that was over three years ago. Could someone please provide an update?

Thanks!

I'm wondering if there's been any work done on this issue. We had an unusual situation the other day that took us ages to figure out, but that would have been resolved in minutes had we been able to search on an AKA or dba name.

Doing Business As or AKA

Another purpose for this function would be to allow tracking all smaller entities within a larger entity. The best example I have is when we make grants to a local University or College. The grants are made to a particular Department or College within the University for specific program or community projects with the Department being listed as the grantee. We can easily look back and see what has historically been done in that Department. This process occurs at the University in many of their Departments. However, when we want to pull the entire record for the University, we have to go to reports and grab all records for all Departments. If we could have an AKA or DBA field and place University of Nebraska in that field, then when reporting, we could enter the AKA field with University of Nebraska in it and get all information for all departments in a quicker and easier fashion. It would save a lot of time.

Joan Stolle

Woods Charitable Fund, Inc.

Lincoln, NE

posted April 12, 2013 by Joan Stolle, Woods Charitable Fund

Hi Joan and Mary,

Thanks for the idea. I can definitely see where this would be useful. that said, it's not something we're considering doing in the short-term. I know by the dates of your posting that this isn't a "new" idea, but we're working through a number of features and major changes over the next few months. I will make sure this makes it onto our product roadmap, though.

Thanks

posted July 20, 2012 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

I think Joan's is a great idea. I just wanted to add that it would be great if we were able to search on that information, as well, and have it be one of the export fields. We have applicants who are well known to trustees by their AKA names and end up making the change on our votesheets and re-sorting to get them in the right place.

Thanks

posted July 14, 2011 by Mary Nicosia, GMA Foundations

Joan! Smile

Great idea. I'd like to offer a more general alternative that might handle your request as well as many others. We have had other requests from clients for special organization fields. What you you think about having the ability to add "Organization Report Fields?" This would address your request as well as many others we get around adding organization information beyond the default fields we provide. We have had other requests around folks wanting the ability to classify and report on their organizations. Would this work for you?

Does anyone else like this idea? Thank you!

posted July 14, 2011 by Raymond Burket, Foundant Technologies

We have a large number of University grants to many departments within our University here in Nebraska. For "organization" we have them list their college or department so that at any time we can access that department and see their exact grant history when that organization opens. However, there are many times when we need to know all grants for the University over the years (since 1941 when our foundation began).

We would like to see an AKA field for each organization so that we can enter the University of Nebraska's name in the AKA. Then when we want to know all the grants to the University, all we have to do is search on the AKA field and retrieve all University of Nebraska grants. This would also work for City or County entities. The AKA could be City of Lincoln and the Department name would be used as the organization name. Another way to use AKA's would be to enter the organization's acronym or dba name. In the later, if someone can't think of the legal name for an organization, they may remember the short name. As a rule, we always use the organization's legal name in the "organization" field. Any other name the organization goes by could be placed in AKA.

Idea posted July 12, 2011 by Joan Stolle, Woods Charitable Fund