Advanced filters
Advanced filters help leaders better target their communications to supporters. Leaders can create and edit advanced filters using a combination of logic-based queries across a range of fields, then use those saved filters to determine the recipients of SMS and email blasts.
For example, you may want to only send an SMS blast to a particular subset within your group (ie people who live in a particular area AND/OR have a certain occupation AND/OR have joined the group after a set date).
Who can create, update and delete advanced filters?
Admin users can create, edit, clone and delete advanced filters for any group.
Captains can create,edit and delete advanced filters for their group(s).
Vice-captains can create and edit advanced filters for their group(s) but not delete them.
All users can employ ready-made advanced filters when drafting bulk communications.
Where do I find advanced filters?
Advanced filters can be found by clicking on the “Filters” button in the main dashboard display for each group (pictured below).
It is important to note that advanced filters are created on a per-group basis, so you will only see the filters that apply to the group you are currently reviewing. However, admins have the option to apply any of these filters to all groups across your SupporterBase.
To do that, admins can simply:
- Head to the “Filters page” for the group;
- Click “Edit” at the right hand side of the screen next to relevant filter;
- Click the green button that says “Copy this filter to all groups”. This will make the filter available to leaders across all groups in your SupporterBase.
How do I create advanced filters?
Once you arrive on the “Filters page” (ie here)
- Click “Create new advanced filter”.
- You can then set a name and description for the filter to help you and other leaders find it later and understand its purpose.
- Next just use the drop-down menus to set the criteria you want to use in order to filter supporters.
- Click “Create filter”
How do I edit existing advanced filters?
Once you arrive on the “Filters page”:
- You should see a list of existing filters, including their name and the logical queries underpinning them.
- Click the “Edit” button at the right.
- Make any changes you need.
- Click “Update filter”.
Please note that advanced filters cannot be edited when there are scheduled blasts that rely on them, because that could lead to accidental changes in the recipient list for scheduled communications.
How can I use advanced filters?
All leaders can use ready-made advanced filters when targeting email and SMS blasts.
During the blast creation process (ie “Create New Email Blast”), leaders will be asked whether they would like to target the blast based on specific levels of engagement, tags filters and specific advanced filters. (note that if you select levels of engagement, tags filters and advanced filters, your blast will only go to recipients who meet ALL of those criteria, rather than recipients who meet any one of those criteria).
If ready-made advanced filters exist for the group, these will appear in the drop-down selection for leaders after they check the box that says: “Send this email/SMS blast to a specific advanced filter”.
The email/SMS blast will then be sent to all supporters who match the criteria set out in the chosen advanced filter.
Looking forward…
We are keen to keep extending and improving the way filtering occurs in SupporterBase, potentially including merging the existing system of levels of engagement, tags and advanced filters to offer a simpler, more powerful targeting system, as well as extending the range of filters that are available.
If you have any needs that are not met by the existing advanced filter setup, we would love to hear from you. Please just vote on any existing relevant feature requests or submit a new feature request here with the details of what would make the advanced filtering tool more useful to you.
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