Combining Filters with AND, OR, and Exclude

The Filters section of a saved group lets you stack conditions to match exactly the right people. This article explains how the three ways of combining filters work: AND (narrow), OR (widen), and Exclude (remove).

Before you begin

You need admin or staff access to the People area.
Start a group under New audience, or open an existing saved group and edit its Filters.

AND: everyone in one group must match

When you add more than one condition to the same group, a person has to meet all of them. This narrows your results.

The first condition appears as soon as the builder opens, and the criterion picker opens so you can choose a field.
To add another condition to the same group, click the small + button next to the last condition.

Example: "Group is Young Adults" plus "Gender is Female" finds only the women in Young Adults.

OR: match any group

To widen your results, add a second group. A person is included if they match any group, so this is how you say "either this set of conditions or that one."

Click OR group. A new group appears below an or divider.
Add conditions to the new group the same way you built the first.

Example:

Group 1: "Group is Young Adults"
Group 2: "Group is College Ministry"

This finds everyone in Young Adults or College Ministry (or both). To remove an extra group, click Delete group at the bottom of that group.

Exclude: remove people who match

The exclude section takes people back out, even if they matched the groups above.

Click Exclude (the trash-can button below your groups). A red-tinted exclude section opens.
Add the conditions for who to leave out.

Anyone who matches any exclude condition is removed. So if you exclude "Tag is Already Registered" and "Group is Staff," a person is dropped if they have the tag or are in Staff.

Example:

Include: "Group is Young Adults"
Exclude: "Tag is Already Registered"

This finds everyone in Young Adults who is not already registered.

Editing and clearing conditions

Add a condition: click the + button in a group, or Add filter in the exclude section.
Remove one condition: open the ... menu at the end of that row and choose Delete.
Start over: click Clear all to remove every condition at once.

Good to know

A half-finished condition (a criterion with no value chosen yet) is ignored until it is complete, so the live count never dips while you are still setting one up.
The people count and preview at the bottom update automatically each time a condition is complete.
You can add as many groups and as many conditions per group as you need.
Within a group and within the exclude section, conditions of the same type combine as you would expect, so build them one at a time and watch the count to confirm.