We just received our records back after sending through the Deceased Record Finder for the first time and I am not sure how reliable the results are.  Of course I closely reviewed the ones with suffixes (jr, sr, etc) and the Mrs. John Smiths vs Mr. John Smiths.  However, I have many records that were indicated as deceased where the last gift date was after the indicated deceased date estimate.  Therefore, we solicited them (in the case of Mr. and Mrs.) and received gifts listing them as Mr. and Mrs. during the period where he was supposed to be deceased.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I really want to be able to mark the appropriate records as deceased and exclude them from mailings (hence purchasing the service), but there are so many suspect that I wonder if it is best to go back to combing the obits or waiting for our donors to notify us.

Hi DeDe,

 Did you ever resolve the question about how reliable the Deceased Record Finder results were?  I'm just looking into it, and was wondering about some of the same issues.

 I also saw your post about permanent membership cards. We started doing these in house last July (both barcoded and mag striped).  So, if you have any questions about this, just let me know.

 Denise Harting, Detroit Institute of Arts

Hello DeDe,

I see that you and Denise have some concern over the results of your DeceasedRecordFinder screenings.  If you don't mind I would like to provide some information that may be useful in setting expectations, as well as helping to understanding how the service works in general.

It looks as though you have done some research into this matter already since you mentioned that you reviewed the records that had suffixes such as Jr., Sr., etc.  This is a very important step to take since the Social Security Death Benefits database may or may not contain data on titles or suffixes.

As much as we would like to, Blackbaud cannot guarantee 100% accuracy with this service.  The DeceasedRecordFinder data principally comes from the Social Security Death Benefits database that I mentioned above.  All of the data is reported to this national database by survivors.  This means that there is a great potential for human error.  Even considering the human error factor involved, we are still able to provide an accuracy rating of about 70%.

We always recommend that you carefully review the records that DeceasedRecordFinder returns.  An easy way to do this is to use the control report or output query created during the import process to review the records with the new Deceased attribute. The attributes have one of the following descriptions:

• Relative Verified: Indicates a relative made a call or sent a letter to confirm the death
• Death Certificate: Indicates a death certificate was sent to confirm the death
• Unconfirmed: Indicates companies, credit agencies, or persons other than a relative reported the death

I hope that this information will be helpful in your endeavor to understand and utilize the DeceasedRecordFinder service in the most efficient manner.  If you have any questions about this please reply and I would be happy to assist if I can.