Attributes – custom fields for contacts

Every organisation needs different information about its contacts: membership status, instrument played in the choir, meal preferences for the summer party. With attributes, you can add exactly the fields your organisation needs to its contacts – without any programming.

What are attributes?

An attribute is an additional piece of information that can be added to each contact. Attributes are defined centrally once (in the Contacts → Attributes section) and are then available in every contact profile.

Practical examples:

• ‘Receives newsletter’ (Yes/No)
• ‘Member since’ (date)
• ‘Attending summer camp 2026’ (Yes/No)
• ‘Area of responsibility’ (text)

Using attributes in segments

The biggest benefit of attributes is that they are filterable. In segments, you can filter by any attribute to create dynamic distribution lists – for example, “everyone who receives the newsletter and lives in Konstanz”.

Attributes in conjunction with forms

When people sign up via a form, their details can be saved directly as attributes on the contact record. This means that the summer camp registration doesn’t end up in a separate table, but is immediately visible and filterable on the contact record.

Tips for setting up

• Less is more: Only create attributes that you actually maintain. Orphaned fields cause more confusion than they are worth.
• Descriptive names: ‘Receives parish newsletter’ is better than ‘GB_v2’.
• Name year-specific attributes (e.g. attendance records) with the year so that they can be distinguished later on.