‘Fields’ (in other words individual categories of data which you import from your .csv files into NationBuilder) are the cornerstone of your database. It’s essential they are well labelled and contain the right format of data to ensure that your database is in good shape. However, these fields differ slightly between US and EU and using them appropriately is essential for effective organising of your community. Below are key points about the differences in available fields between US and EU:
1. Different labels for autodistricting voter district fields
Autodistricting has now been enabled both for the UK as well as France. However, the voter district fields have different labels due to the fact that political districts simply have different names in Europe than they do in the US. These voter district fields for UK and France autodistricting are shown below - and in addition to this, you can find more information on this in one of our blog posts on autodistricting
2. Custom fields available to substitute any fields which are unique to your country’s context
Custom fields are an excellent way of accommodating fields which do not fit into the original set of fields available for import. An example of this might be custom fields for donations, or different types of political membership. Creating custom fields for your data import can be complex, but this guide will show you how to create these custom fields. You can also do this through 123 contact form.
3. Some fields are not allowed to be stored in some countries due to data protection
While the responsibility for this lies with each individual customer rather than NationBuilder, it’s important to keep an eye out for including fields which are not legal in a given country. For example, in France, it is illegal (as opposed to the USA or UK) to store in a database certain information about people, such as their ethnicity or religious beliefs. Therefore, in the French version of the control panel, the fields of ‘Ethnicity’, ‘Religion’, and ‘Place of worship’ are not available. It is therefore imperative to select the French language of your nation when operating in France, due to the fact that storing the above information on people would otherwise be illegal. See screenshots below for the difference you expect to see in the control panel under ‘Person’s Profile>Edit’ once you’ve changed the site into French:
