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NPSP Logic for Creating Opportunity Contact Roles
Learn what NPSP automation for creating soft credits takes precedence when multiple automated processes are involved.
Since there are many ways to automatically create Opportunity Contact Roles and soft credits in NPSP, you may have situations where more than one automated soft credit rule applies. For example, John and Sally may be Household members, and may also have a Relationship record to track that they're siblings. If Sally makes a donation, depending on how you've configured soft credits in NPSP Settings and fields on the Relationship record, John may be eligible for both a Household member soft credit and a soft credit based on his Relationship record with Sally.
It would get confusing to have multiple contact roles for the same Contact on the same Opportunity. So NPSP cleverly creates just one.
But how does it determine which one to create? For example, if the same Contact is listed as both the Honoree and Notification Recipient, how does NPSP decide which role to go with and which to ignore?
The answer, dear friends, lies in this prioritized list:
Order of Precedence for Contact Roles
- Primary Contact
- Honoree Contact
- Notification Recipient
- Affiliated Contact (organizational gift) or Related Contact (individual gift)
- Household Member (individual gifts only)
What the above list means is that if Bob Blackman is listed as both the Honoree Contact and the Notification Recipient on an Opportunity, NPSP will create only an Honoree Contact Role for Bob, since Honoree is higher up the chain than Notification Recipient.
On a different Opportunity, if Bob is listed as the Notification Recipient and is also an Affiliated Contact, NPSP creates a Notification Recipient contact role for Bob.
Or, if there's an Opportunity where Bob is the related Contact on a Relationship record with the Primary Contact, and Bob is also the Primary Contact's Household Member, NPSP creates the Contact Role based on the Relationship.
Where does the Role value come from?
For most of the Opportunity Contact Roles, NPSP gets the role value from NPSP Settings. For affiliated contact and related contact Opportunity Contact Roles, NPSP gets the role value from fields on the Affiliation or Relationship record, as shown:
| Role Creation Based On | Where Role Value is Configured | NPSP Setting or Field Name | Individual or Organizational Opp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Contact | NPSP Settings | Contact Role for Organizational Opps | Organizational |
| Primary Contact | NPSP Settings | Contact Role for Individual Opps | Individual |
| Honoree Contact | NPSP Settings | Honoree Opportunity Contact Role | both |
| Notification Recipient | NPSP Settings | Notification Recipient Contact Role | both |
| Affiliated Contact | Affiliation record | Related Opportunity Contact Role | Organizational |
| Related Contact | Relationship record | Related Opportunity Contact Role | Individual |
| Household Member | NPSP Settings | Household Member Contact Role | Individual |
Putting It All Together
Let's look at some specific scenarios to see how all of this works.
Scenario Overview
NPSP Settings configuration:
- Contact Role for Organizational Opps = "Influencer"
- Contact Role for Individual Opps = "Donor"
- Honoree Opportunity Contact Role = "Honoree"
- Notification Recipient Contact Role = "Notification Contact"
- Household Member Contact Role = "Household Member"
Relationships and Affiliations:
- Rufus is Trayvon's brother. They live in the same Household. The Relationship record's Related Opportunity Contact Role field has a value of "Soft Credit."
- Trayvon has an Affiliation record with the Paws Animal Shelter Account. The Related Opportunity Contact Role field on the Affiliation record has a value of "Solicitor."
| Scenario | NPSP Creates This Opportunity Contact Role | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Rufus makes a donation to your organization. On the Opportunity, he is also listed as the Honoree Contact. | Contact = Rufus Role = Donor |
This is an Individual Opportunity (donation came from an individual, Rufus), and the Primary Contact role takes precedence over Honoree Contact. |
| Paws Animal Shelter makes a gift to your organization. Trayvon is listed as the Primary Contact on the Opportunity. He is also listed as the Notification Recipient. | Contact = Trayvon Role = Influencer |
This is an Organizational Opportunity (gift is from an organization). The Primary Contact role takes precedence over the Notification Recipient. |
| Paws Animal Shelter makes a gift to your organization. There is no Primary Contact listed on the Opportunity. | Contact = Trayvon Role = Solicitor |
This is an Organizational Opportunity (gift is from an organization). Since Trayvon has an Affiliation record with the organization, NPSP creates the OCR based on the Affiliation record. |
| Trayvon makes a gift to your organization. | Contact = Trayvon Role = Donor and Contact = Rufus Role = Soft Credit |
Trayvon gets the Primary Contact role since he made an individual gift, and Rufus is Trayvon's Household Member and brother, but Roles configured on the Relationship take precedence over Household Member roles. |
