This is the single most important concept in Virtuous. Get this right, and everything else makes sense. Get it wrong, and you'll create data problems that affect everyone.
Virtuous uses a two-level structure that mirrors how relationships actually work. Understanding it isn't just about following rules—it's about understanding why donor data is organized this way.
The Short Version
Contact = The entity that receives mail and makes gifts. It's the tax filing unit. There are three types: Households (families), Organizations (businesses), and Foundations (grant-makers).
Individual = An actual person within that contact. Every contact must have at least one. Households typically have one or two (spouses). Organizations have employees.
Contact-Level Data
Gifts, pledges, mailing address, tags, notes, tasks
Individual-Level Data
Email, phone, birthday, event attendance, volunteer hours
In Virtuous, the contact and individual are edited separately—each has its own edit button, and you can add new individuals to an existing contact. → See: Screenshot — Editing Contacts vs. Individuals
Why It's Designed This Way
Think about how married couples handle finances. When John and Jane Smith give $1,000, they might file that as a joint tax deduction—regardless of whose name was on the check. The IRS sees them as one unit.
Virtuous works the same way. Gifts attach to the contact (the Smith Household), not to John or Jane individually. This means:
• Combined giving history is tracked accurately
• Tax receipts go to the right address
• Both spouses can be contacted appropriately
But John and Jane are still different people with different email addresses and different communication preferences. That's why individuals exist within the contact—to track person-specific details.
The Golden Rule
One person = One individual record. Never create duplicate individuals. If someone appears in multiple contexts (home and work), use Relationships to connect them.
This is where people make mistakes. Imagine John Smith is both a household donor AND a board member at ABC Foundation. The instinct is to create "John Smith" in both places.
Don't.
If you do, you've split his information across two records. Half his emails go to one, half to another. His complete giving history is fragmented. Nobody can see the full picture.
The Right Way: Placeholders + Relationships
• Create the Smith Household with John and Jane as individuals (full profiles)
• Create ABC Foundation as an organization
• Add "John Smith (ABC)" as a placeholder individual on ABC Foundation
• Link the placeholder to the real John via a Relationship
Now John's full profile lives in one place (his household), but he's connected to ABC Foundation. Anyone looking at either record can see the relationship.
Relationships in Virtuous are created and read right to left. If you see: [Contact A] ← "is the parent of" ← [Contact B], it reads as "Contact B is the parent of Contact A." Keep this in mind when creating or interpreting relationship links.
"Everyone lives at home." Place a person's full profile in their household contact. Use placeholder records with Relationships for organizational affiliations. → See: The Big Picture
Primary vs. Secondary Individuals
Within a household, one person is designated Primary and another (usually the spouse) is Secondary. This affects:
• Contact Name (addressee): "The John and Jane Smith Household"
• Informal Name (salutation): "Dear John and Jane"
• Default communication routing
The order matters for mail merge and formal communications. Virtuous auto-generates these from individual names, so keep individual names in proper case (not ALL CAPS).
For Household contacts, always edit the individual record—not the contact record—when updating a person's name. Changing the name on the individual automatically updates all the name variations on the contact (Contact Name, Informal Name, Formal Name, etc.). Editing the contact record directly will not update the person's underlying record and can cause mismatches. → See: Screenshot — Where to Update Names
What About Organizations?
Organizations and Foundations work slightly differently. They still need at least one individual (usually a contact person), but:
• The Contact Name is set manually (e.g., "ABC Foundation")
• The Informal Name is set manually (e.g., "Dear Director")
• Employees are often placeholders linked to their household records
The principle remains: don't duplicate people. If Sarah is the Executive Director of ABC Foundation and also a personal donor, her full profile lives in her household. ABC Foundation gets a placeholder.
How Names Appear on Mail
When generating mailings, thank-you letters, or other communications, Virtuous looks at the TMC Salutation field on the contact record first. If a value exists there (e.g., "Mr. and Mrs. Barker"), that is what will appear on the correspondence.
If the TMC Salutation field is blank, Virtuous falls back to the Contact Name (the standard addressee field). This means it's important to keep the TMC Salutation populated for any contact where you want a specific greeting or formal address.
Contacts tagged with Special Receipting are manually processed with each mailing. These require individual attention because there are nuances—for example, a foundation and the associated individual may both need to receive thank-you notes, or the salutation may need to differ from the standard format. → See: Tags Reference — Special Receipting
Key Takeaways
- Contacts are entities (households, organizations, foundations)
- Individuals are people within those contacts
- Gifts attach to contacts (the tax unit), not individuals
- One person = one individual record—use Relationships, not duplicates
- Full profiles live in households; organizations get placeholders