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Create, Edit, and View Contact Relationships
Relationships in Nonprofit Success Pack connect one Contact to another. When you create these connections, you can also define the type of relationship (Friend, Family, Mother, Daughter, and so on), and the relationship status (Current, Former).
Watch the Nonprofit Salesforce How-To Series video: Manage Relationships.
- Overview
Relationships in Nonprofit Success Pack connect one Contact to another. (This is different from Affiliations, which connect Contacts with Organizations.) When you create these connections, you can also define the type of relationship (Friend, Family, Mother, Daughter, and so on), and the relationship status (Current, Former). - Create a New Relationship Record
Create a Relationship to track how two contacts are related, such as the relationship between a parent and child. The Relationship record determines the Opportunity Contact Role when you create an Opportunity. - Edit an Existing Relationship
Update a Relationship, such as changing its status from Current to Former. When you modify a Relationship, NPSP automatically updates the Reciprocal Relationship so that both records are accurate. - View Relationships with the Relationships Viewer
The Relationships Viewer provides a visual representation of how your Contacts are connected. By default the Relationships Viewer shows connections for a single Contact, but you can show second- and third-level relationships as well.
Overview
Relationships in Nonprofit Success Pack connect one Contact to another. (This is different from Affiliations, which connect Contacts with Organizations.) When you create these connections, you can also define the type of relationship (Friend, Family, Mother, Daughter, and so on), and the relationship status (Current, Former).
When you create a Relationship in the Nonprofit Success Pack, it automatically creates a “reciprocal relationship,” which reflects this same relationship in the other direction. For example, if you create a relationship from Roberto's Contact record, and specify Valentina as his wife, Valentina's Contact record will also reflect that she has a husband, Roberto. Reciprocal Relationships ensure that relationship types are accurate, no matter where you're viewing them from.
Relationship behavior in Nonprofit Success Pack is controlled by your Relationships Settings. To learn more about these settings and the adjustments you can make, see Manage Relationships Settings.
Create a New Relationship Record
Create a Relationship to track how two contacts are related, such as the relationship between a parent and child. The Relationship record determines the Opportunity Contact Role when you create an Opportunity.
- Navigate to the Contact you want to create the Relationship for.
- Click the Related tab, then scroll to the Relationships related list.
- Click New.
- Enter the new Relationship information.
Contact—NPSP auto-populates this field with the name of the Contact the Relationship record is connected to.
Related Contact— Specifies the Contact who's related to the person in the Contact field.
Type—Specifies how the Related Contact is connected to the Contact. In this example, Kailyn Jones is Jasmine Jones' parent.
Status—Specifies whether this is a current or former relationship.
Related Opportunity Contact Role—The Opportunity Contact Role assigned to the Related Contact when you create an Opportunity for the Contact in this Relationship. To learn more about how this feature works, see Automated Soft Credits.
Description—A place to add additional information about the relationship.
Important The Relationship Type describes the Related Contact's relationship to the Main Contact, not the Main Contact's relationship to the Related Contact. - Click Save.
Once the Relationship record is saved, NPSP automatically creates a reciprocal Relationship attached to the Related Contact's record, and populates the Relationship Explanation field.
Edit an Existing Relationship
Update a Relationship, such as changing its status from Current to Former. When you modify a Relationship, NPSP automatically updates the Reciprocal Relationship so that both records are accurate.
To modify an existing Relationship:
- Navigate to the Contact record whose Relationship you want to edit.
- Click the Related tab, and scroll to the Relationships related list.
- In the row for the Relationship you want to update, click
, then select Edit. 
- When you're finished editing, click Save.
View Relationships with the Relationships Viewer
The Relationships Viewer provides a visual representation of how your Contacts are connected. By default the Relationships Viewer shows connections for a single Contact, but you can show second- and third-level relationships as well.
To launch the Relationships Viewer:
- Navigate to the Contact whose relationships you want to see.
-
On the Lightning Actions menu, click (
), then select Relationships Viewer.
The Relationships Viewer displays the Contact you started from (the "base Contact", shown in purple), along with that Contact's connections.
To see additional relationships, click any of the related Contacts. In this example, clicking Valencia Robledo displays her two additional connections:
Your Salesforce admin can enable Tabular View for Relationships Viewer. Tabular View shows relationship information in a nested table and is better for users of assistive technology like screen readers. Additionally, some users simply prefer the tabular view to the graphical one.
Click each Contact name to expand the list of relationships for that Contact.
