Strategic Contacts — HubSpot Guide

Strategic Contacts — HubSpot Guide#

This document explains how to use HubSpot to track strategic contacts across members, collaborators, and funders.

This system is optimized for strategic communications, leadership outreach, and reliable list exports. It is not meant to capture every operational or technical relationship.

What Is a Strategic Contact?#

A strategic contact is someone who should reasonably receive executive communications, funding or partnership messages, or high-level coordination updates.

The test: Would leadership expect this person to receive strategic communications?
If not, they are not a strategic contact.

How to Export a List of Strategic Contacts#

  1. Go to Contacts → Segments

  2. Open one of the saved segments:

    • All Strategic Contacts

    • Strategic Contacts of All Members

    • Strategic Contacts at Premier Members

    • Strategic Contacts of Major Collaborators

    • Strategic Contacts of All Funders

  3. Use Export segment to download

How to Add or Update a Strategic Contact#

Step 1 — Is this person strategic?#

  • Yes → set Strategic Contact Status = Strategic Contact and continue to Step 2.

  • No → set Strategic Contact Status = Not Strategic and stop here. Nothing else is needed.

Step 2 — Assign Coverage Category#

Select all that apply:

  • Member — Premier

  • Member — General

  • Collaborator

  • Funder

Step 3 — Assign Coverage Detail#

Select the specific communities, grants, or funders where this person is strategic.

Examples:

Scenario

Category

Detail

Premier community director

Member — Premier

Member — Premier — VEDA

Funder program officer

Funder

Funder — Sloan

Grant co-PI

Collaborator

Collaborator — NSF Project Pythia

Step 4 — Validate before saving#

Confirm the contact passes the Core Rules (see below). Fix any issues before saving.

How to Add a New Coverage Detail Option#

When a new member community joins, a new major grant starts, or a new funder relationship is established, the option must be added centrally.

  1. Go to Settings → Properties → Contacts

  2. Open Strategic Coverage Detail

  3. Add a new checkbox value using this naming format:

    <Category> — <Name>

    Where <Category> is one of: Member — Premier, Member — General, Collaborator, or Funder.

    Examples:

    • Member — General — New Community

    • Collaborator — New Grant Name

    • Funder — New Foundation

  4. Save the property

  5. Update relevant contacts

Rules: Do not invent new naming patterns or add abbreviations unless they are canonical. The Category prefix must match what will be used in the Category property.

Core Rules#

When Strategic Contact Status = Strategic Contact:

  1. Coverage Category must not be empty.

  2. Coverage Detail must not be empty.

  3. Category and Detail must be consistent — e.g., if “Funder” is selected in Category, at least one “Funder — …” value must appear in Detail.

Contacts that violate these rules are invalid and must be fixed.

Reference: The Three Contact Properties#

1. Strategic Contact Status#

  • Type: Dropdown (single select)

  • Values: Strategic Contact · Not Strategic

  • Rule: If set to “Not Strategic,” the other two properties are ignored. If set to “Strategic Contact,” the other two must be populated.

2. Strategic Coverage Category#

  • Type: Multiple checkboxes

  • Values: Member — Premier · Member — General · Collaborator · Funder

  • Rule: Select all categories that apply. Must align with Detail.

3. Strategic Coverage Detail#

  • Type: Multiple checkboxes

  • Values: Specific entries like Member — Premier — VEDA, Funder — Sloan, Collaborator — NSF Project Pythia, etc.

  • Rule: Only select entries where the person is a strategic-level contact. Do not include technical-only or delivery-only relationships.