Novi's Groups feature is a great way to segment your database into groups that have certain commonalities – whether by member type, location, shared custom field values, etc.
Groups have multiple purposes:
To sync to MailChimp or Constant Contact for email marketing
To lock down content (e.g. blog/news categories, static webpages, etc.)
To lock down certain pricing (e.g. event tickets, products, etc.)
To create a Directory on your website
To share custom reports with non-admin users
To survey individuals for NPS (Net Promoter Score)
To send Census requests for profile or staff roster updates
Groups can also be used to complete certain batch actions:
Push all group members' emails into a new draft email with your external email provider
Bulk update profile data like field values, parent record assignments, member types, or membership dates
📌 Important Note: Custom Reports offer a wider variety of additional column options. When in need of a detailed report with specific data such as address fields split into separate columns, primary contact information, etc. Novi recommends using the Custom Report feature instead of the Groups functionality.
How to Create a Group
Add a New Group
Go to Members > Segments > Groups within the navigation menu on the left.
Click the Add Group button in the upper right-hand corner.
Copy an Existing Group
This is useful when you want to create a group with similar conditions without starting from scratch.
Go to Members > Segments > Groups in the left navigation.
On the main Groups screen, locate the group and at the end of its row, click the arrow in the Action column.
Select Copy Group.
Rename the new group and configure as needed.
Adding Records to a Group
When creating a new group, there are two ways to determine which records are included:
Limit to Specific Records
Manually choose who belongs in the group. You can search for and add records one at a time.
Create Rule-Based Conditions
Build a group based on criteria you define. Records are added to or removed from the group automatically as they begin or stop meeting those conditions. For example, you could create a group that includes all members whose Membership Status is Current.
Can limited records and conditions be used together?
It's possible to use Limit to Specific Records and Conditions together, though most Novi customers use one or the other. When both are enabled, the list of specific records acts as the pool of eligible records, and the conditions determine which of those records are actually included in the group.
For example, if you manually add 10 people to the specific records list but your condition is Membership Status = Current, only the 8 people who are current members will appear in the group.
If Limit to Specific Records is enabled but no records have been added, the group will always contain 0 records, even if conditions are configured. This is because there are no records available for the conditions to evaluate.
How to Build Group Conditions
Available conditions are nested within the following sections:
Member Fields – Specific pre-existing fields in Novi, such as address, member type, open balance, etc. that exist on a record.
Parent Member Fields – Similar to member fields, but this condition looks up to the parent record's fields instead. For example, if you want to create a group of all records linked as child records to Company Member parent records, you could use the condition Parent Member Type = Company Member.
Custom Fields – Segment based on values within custom fields created by the association.
Parent Custom Fields – Segment based on values within a custom field on a record's parent record.
Customer Activities – Segment by activity types that appear on a record's activity timeline.
Events - Lists all non-recurring events that can be pulled based on "Registered" or "Not Registered" conditions as well as "Attended" or "Not Attended" conditions.
Note: Groups will pull attendees, not purchasers, which can be different records. Guest registrations will not be included because they are not linked to a member record.
Product Purchases - A list of ecommerce products that can be pulled based on "Has Purchased" (not including canceled orders; both fulfilled or open status apply) or "Has Not Purchased" conditions.
Note: If the purchaser was not logged in (i.e. they were a guest), they will not be included in the Group.
Subscriptions - A list of subscription products based on the number of days ago of the subscription expiration dates.
Committee - Including committee names and roles
Census - Including current member census and profile updated
Seat Fields
Parent Member Seat Fields
Dues Rules - Including Required or Optional dues rules that have or have not been paid in the current term by current members.
To search for a condition:
Click into the Conditions section of a group.
From there, a dropdown will appear, presenting all of condition options.
Additionally, keywords can be searched in condition box to easily filter/find a specific condition.
Here is an example of a Product Purchase condition:
Member Field and Parent Member Field Conditions Available
Account Created Date - Days Ago, or Specific Date
Application Date - Days Ago, or Specific Date (if using application feature)
Auto-Pay
Billing Address City, State, Zip & Country
Credentials
Has a Headshot or Logo
Has a <Special Offer> (This will reflect the special offer name set in Association Settings)
Has a User Account
Has Member Benefits (This will include any record in your database that is currently receiving benefits, both dues-paying and inheriting records.)
Is A Person
Is an Instructor
Is User in Role (Admin, Limited, Regular)
Job Title
Last Login - Days Ago (The group will be updated as soon as the user logs in, as well as nightly. People who have never logged in will have a null value. Removing or changing the user account will reset the Last Login date to a null value. Note: A user can stay logged in for days, or even up to several weeks at a time, so we recommend entering a value of 30 days or more.)
Member Since Date - Days Ago, or Specific Date
Member Type
Membership Expiration - Days Ago (A positive number would identify members that expired in the past. A negative number of days would project members who are scheduled to expire in the future.)
Membership Expiration Date
Membership Status (Options: Non-Member, Prospect, Pending, Current, Grace Period, Expired, or Inheriting)
Novi API Feed Status (if applicable - API Feed)
Open Balance (Refers to all open invoices for a member record, plus their sub-companies and staff.)
Open Dues Balance (Refers to the balance on open dues invoices created within Novi, for the member record only. It does not include invoices created in QuickBooks.)
Original Join Date - Days Ago (This is a field for tracking when a member first joined. If there has been a lapse in membership, this date will be different from the Current Membership Since date.)
Original Join Date - Specific Date (This is a field for tracking when a member first joined. If there has been a lapse in membership, this date will be different from the Current Membership Since date.)
Overdue Balance (Refers to all past-due invoices for a member record, plus their sub-companies and staff.)
Overdue Dues Balance (Refers to the balance on past-due membership dues invoices created within Novi, for the member record only. It does not include invoices created in QuickBooks.)
Prefix and Suffix
Shipping Address City, State, Zip, Country & County/Parish
Fields related to seats (if using seat-based membership types):
Assigned Seats
Unassigned Seats
Total Seats
Group Beneficiaries
Don't forget to also determine which group beneficiaries should be in the group. For example, if pulling a group of companies, should their staff also be in the group?
Group List View Columns
Once the group has been created, remember that the columns in the group member list are driven by the gear icon in the top right corner. To add new columns to a group member list, click the gear and select additional columns to display.
Group Member List Filter
You'll also see a filter on the group's Members tab that includes 3 options:
Show Beneficiaries - This option will default to Primary Group Members only.
If your group includes beneficiaries and you would like to see their statuses as well, switch this filter to All (or Beneficiary Members).
Email Sync Status - This will allow you to filter the group members list by those who have sync statuses of Up To Date, N/A, Failed, or Processing. You can select more than one.
Do Not Send Marketing Emails - This allows you to filter the group member list by those who have "Do Not Send Marketing Emails" set to True, False, or Any.
Default Filters:
Group Category
There are several uses for groups in Novi, so keep groups list organized by utilizing Categories.
When creating a new group, select corresponding category(ies) in the Categories field.
The categories available are based on pre-determined categories created by admins in Novi and are located in the sidebar under the Members section.
Archived Groups
Why Archive a Group?
There is no limit to the number of groups that can be created in Novi. Any group built with conditions is dynamically calculating and updating, often daily. That's a lot of processing power that could be spent running reports, merging records, or other background updates that keep your system running smoothly.
Archiving groups means a faster, more powerful Novi – plus a cleaner groups list without having to delete anything.
How Does a Group Get Archived?
Novi groups move from Active to Archived in two ways:
Manually by an admin going to Actions > Archive while editing a group
Automatically by Novi after a long period of inactivity
Auto-Archive Conditions
Groups will not be auto-archived if they are actively used in any of the following:
Synced to Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Higher Logic, or Mobilize/Forj
API or SSO client access
Blog category visibility, committee assignments, directories, events or event ticket visibility/purchasing, NPS surveys, page visibility, product visibility, report sharing, secure file access, or tickets
If none of the above apply, a group will be auto-archived if its Last Used Date is greater than 90 days. Last Used reflects the last time an admin opened the group in the backend.
📌 Important Note: Certain groups may be flagged internally to skip auto-archiving entirely. If you believe a group was archived unexpectedly, contact support.
Reactivate an Archived Group
Go to Members > Segments > Groups
Update the filter to Group Status = Archived
Find the group and select Unarchive from the Action column
Or, open the group and select Unarchive from the Actions button.
