The Contact Manager is one searchable list of every person and organization you work with, with a record of every call, email, text, and meeting. It is the answer to the question that used to require three tabs and somebody's memory: when did we last talk to these people, and what did we say we would do?
What it is
Most organizations end up with the same problem. Partner agencies live in one place, donors live in a donor database, volunteers live in a volunteer roster, and the record of who spoke to whom lives in somebody's head or a notebook. When that person is on vacation, the organization forgets.
The Contact Manager fixes that without forcing you to move anything. It shows one list over three sources, and it adds the layer none of them had: a shared log of interactions and follow-ups that any team member can read.
Where to find it
- On your My Apps page at app.allinonenonprofit.com, under Fundraising and Development.
- Directly at www.allinonenonprofit.com/contact-manager/.
- From the Technology app, where the older Communications contacts form now carries a banner pointing here.
Where the people come from
Everyone in the list arrives from one of three places, and a colored badge on each row tells you which.
| Badge | Source | How somebody gets there |
|---|---|---|
| Contact, or the type you chose | Your organization contacts | Added here, added in the Technology app, or brought in by a CSV import. |
| Donor | Donor Management | Added or imported in Donor Management, or created by an online gift. |
| Volunteer | Volunteer Management | Added, imported, or self-applied in Volunteer Management. |
A person can carry more than one badge. If the same email address appears as both a donor and a volunteer, they are one row with both badges, not two rows. That single detail is usually the first thing people notice, because it answers a question the separate apps could never answer on their own: how many of our volunteers also give?
How two records become one person
Matching is by email address, lowercased. Two records that share an email are the same person. Records with no email stay separate, which is deliberate: guessing that two similar names are the same human is how contact lists quietly corrupt themselves. If you want two records joined, give them the same email address in their own app.
The one list
The All people screen is the front door. It opens with everybody, a count of how many came from each source, and a search box.
- Search matches name, the contact person, email, phone, city, type, and tags, so you can find a row by any of the details you actually remember.
- Filter chips narrow the list to Everyone, Contacts, Donors, Volunteers, or Due for follow-up.
- Each row shows the badges, the contact details, when you last touched this person, how many interactions are logged, and a red chip if a follow-up is due or overdue.
- Where a contact is an organization rather than a person, an Ask for line names the human to speak to.
Click any row to open that person's record.
A person's record
The record puts everything about one person on a single screen: their details, a place to log what just happened, their open tasks and appointments, their giving and volunteer history where they have one, and the full interaction timeline. Where a person came from another app, buttons take you straight to Donor Management or Volunteer Management to edit the underlying record.
Logging an interaction
This is the part that changes how an organization behaves, and it is deliberately fast. On any record, choose what happened, confirm the date, type a note, and save.
- What happened: called them, emailed them, texted them, met with them, or a plain note.
- Date defaults to today, so a call you log right after hanging up needs no edits.
- Follow up on is optional and is the single most valuable field on the screen. See the next section.
- Notes should say what was said, what they need, and what happens next. Write for the colleague who reads it in four months, not for yourself tonight.
Saved entries appear in the timeline on the same record, newest first, stamped with who logged them. Anyone on your team sees the same history, which is the whole point.
Follow-ups
Set a follow-up date on any logged interaction and that person lands on the Follow-ups screen until somebody marks it done. The screen lists everything you said you would come back to, oldest first, with overdue items flagged.
The Due for follow-up chip on the main list does the same job from the other direction, so you can work either from the list of people or the list of promises.
This is what separates a contact list from a contact manager. A list tells you who exists. A manager tells you who is waiting on you.
Tasks and appointments
A follow-up is tied to something that already happened. A task or an appointment is something you plan.
- Tasks are things that need doing, with an optional due date.
- Appointments are meetings, with a date and a time.
- Either can be attached to a person or stand on its own for work that is not about anybody in particular.
Add them from the Tasks and appointments screen, where you pick the person from the unified list, or add them straight from a person's record with the quick-add row. Everything open appears on the one screen, soonest first, with overdue items marked. Mark done or delete when they are finished.
Giving and volunteer hours
When the person you are looking at is also a donor or a volunteer, their record pulls in the history the other apps already hold.
- A Giving card shows how many gifts they have made, their lifetime total, and the most recent gifts with method, appeal, and notes.
- A Volunteer hours card shows total hours, how many entries, and the most recent ones.
These are read-only summaries. The complete history stays in the app that owns it, and each card links you there. The point is that you can see whether the person you are about to call has given four times and volunteered eighty hours, without opening anything else first.
Drafting the next message with AI
Every record in this app carries something most contact software never has: what was actually said. The Draft a message with AI card on a person's record turns that into the next message. Choose what the message is for (follow up on the last conversation, reconnect after a quiet stretch, thank them, make an ask, confirm a detail), choose whether you want an email, a call plan, or a text, and it drafts from their log, their open tasks, and their giving or volunteer hours if they have any.
The same drafter sits on the AI Automations screen in the sidebar, where you pick the person from a list instead. The output opens in an editable window with Copy, Word, Text, Print, and Email, so you can change anything before it leaves the building. Nothing sends by itself.
The rule it follows is the one that makes it safe to use: it writes only from what you logged. It will not invent a meeting, and it will not thank somebody for a gift or a shift the record does not show. Where a detail is missing that only you can supply, it leaves a [bracketed] placeholder, so search the draft for a square bracket before you send. If a person has nothing logged yet, it says so and writes a short first note rather than pretending to a history you do not have.
Which means the drafts are exactly as good as your notes. "Called Alicia" gives it nothing. "Alicia can take an extra pallet on Thursdays now that the second cooler runs, wants a week of notice" gives it everything. The full detail is in the AI Automations Guide.
Adding and editing contacts
Add a contact creates an organization contact. Donors and volunteers are added in their own apps and appear here on their own, so this form is for everybody else: partner agencies, funders, vendors, schools, faith communities, media, and individuals who are none of the above.
The fields
- Name is the person or the organization, and it is the only required field.
- Type is a dropdown covering partner agency, funder, foundation, business, sponsor, government, school, faith community, media, vendor, community partner, board contact, individual, and other. It drives the badge on the list and is searchable.
- Contact person is who to ask for when the contact is an organization. It shows on the list and the record.
- Email is optional. Many real partner organizations are reachable only by phone, and the app does not pretend otherwise.
- Phone, address, city, state, and ZIP are the ordinary details.
- Tags are comma-separated labels of your own invention, such as pantry, west county, or pickup. They are searchable, so tags are how you build any grouping the fixed Type list does not cover.
- Notes hold whatever else matters, such as the hours a pantry is open.
Editing a contact loads the full stored record first, so saving never blanks a field the form does not show. The same contacts appear in the Technology app's Communications screen, because it is one shared list; edit either place.
Importing contacts
Import contacts (CSV) brings a spreadsheet in. Save your file as CSV, make the first row column headers, and upload it.
- Headers are matched for you. Name, organization, agency, and company all map to the name. Contact person and ask for map to the contact person. ZIP, zip code, postal code, and postal all map to the same field. Anything unrecognized is listed so you can see what was skipped.
- You get a preview before anything is written: how many rows are new, how many will update an existing contact, and how many have no email.
- Rows are matched to existing contacts by email. Matched rows update, new rows are added, and rows with no email are always added as new.
- Every import can be undone in one click. Added rows are removed and updated rows are restored to what they were.
Imported contacts appear in the Contact Manager and the Technology app immediately, because they are the same records.
Your first session
If the list is empty, the app opens with four suggested first moves. If you would rather work from a plan, this is the shortest useful path.
- Get your people in. Import the spreadsheet you already have, or add three or four contacts by hand. Donors and volunteers you already track will appear on their own.
- Log one real interaction. Pick somebody you spoke to this week and write down what was said. One entry proves the loop to you faster than reading about it.
- Set one follow-up date. Then open the Follow-ups screen and watch it appear. That is the habit that makes the rest worth doing.
- Tag as you go. Do not stop to build a taxonomy. Add a tag when you notice you want one, and the groupings you actually need will emerge in a month.
Access and privacy
The Contact Manager is scoped to your organization. Every team member sees the same list and the same interaction history, which is deliberate: a log only one person can read is a notebook, not a shared record. Members with view-only access can read but cannot log, edit, or import.
The people it shows come from records your organization already holds, so the usual care applies. Log what your organization needs to remember to do its work, keep notes professional, and remember that anyone on your team can read them.
Looking for help beyond the platform?
See our Helpful Resources page for vetted external resources on legal and tax filing, funder research, governance training, insurance, technology discounts, and more.