---
title: What are Participants, Households, and Organizations?
description: Surveys / data collections in Compyle can be completed and submitted either by participants (individuals who are part of a program, class, or group) or organizations (agencies, programs, etc.)
---

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3. [Participants, Households, and Organizations](https://support.clearimpact.com/en/compyle-documentation?hsLang=en#participants-households-and-organizations)

# What are Participants, Households, and Organizations?

## Participant, Household, and Organization Entities

Surveys / data collections in Compyle can be completed and submitted either by:

- Participants: individuals who are part of a program, class, or group
- Households: a linked set of participants, like a family, who share resources and may live together
- Organizations: agencies, programs, sites, departments, teams, or community partners 

Surveys are created and sent out the same way to participants, households, and organizations. The responses data is collected and analyzed the same way.

![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-01-2025-04-56-53-2473-PM.png?width=688&height=236&name=image-png-May-01-2025-04-56-53-2473-PM.png)

 

The main difference among the different entities  is the type of information being collected and how many people to whom it applies:

- a Participant record is comprised of a variety of individual personal and demographic data
-  a Household record holds family group demographics and living situation details
- an Organization record contains agency, partner, or program information. 

There are also some functionality differences among the entities. 

| ***Profile Form*** | **Participants** | **Organizations** | **Households** | **Anonymous** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ***All List Search*** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ***Linking*** | To Orgs & To Households | 1 Org to 1 Participant | 1 to Many Participants | - |
| ***Folder*** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| ***Groups*** | Yes | Yes | Yes | - |
| ***Import*** | Yes | Yes | \*Phase 2 | - |
| ***Pending*** | Yes | Yes | Yes | - |
| ***Public Forms*** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ***Survey Responder*** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ***Merge Duplicates*** | Yes | Yes | \*Phase 2 | - |
| ***Universal Search*** | Yes | Yes | \*Phase 2 | - |
|  |   |   |   |   |

A Compyle admin user can determine whether your [Compyle instance](https://support.clearimpact.com/en/instance-settings-1?hsLang=en) will include participants, organizations, households, or all three entity profile types.

An organization can be assigned one representative member, who is created in Compyle as a participant. This individual is the organization’s primary contact, but does not have to be the person completing each survey. The primary contact will receive any email notifications for the survey.

When [adding participants to a survey instance](https://support.clearimpact.com/en/adding-participants-to-a-new-survey-/-data-collection-tool?hsLang=en), organizations appear at the top of the **Participants** list, followed by individual participants. 

![](https://support.clearimpact.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-May-01-2025-05-01-47-9307-PM.png?width=830&height=288&name=image-png-May-01-2025-05-01-47-9307-PM.png)

*See also* [Survey/Data Tool Responder Types](https://support.clearimpact.com/en/compyle-survey-responder-types?hsLang=en)

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