I have a local foundation that has made a gift to us. They have requested that instead of listing the foundation in our annual report we list three individual names (it's a family). I have the foundation in RE as an organization therefore there is no addressee/salutation, where could I put their names to make sure they get pulled next year in the correct amount catagory? Any suggestions please?

 Thanks, Lara Hermann; lhermann@beloitmemorialhospital.org

Ther is no right or wrong way to do this.  You have multiple options - the trick is choosing an option, documenting your procedure, consistently following your procedure, and remembering this procedure next time you pull data for your annual report.  (not as easy as it sounds

1. You can create an attribute.
2. You can create an alias.
3. You can create a note type.
4. You can mark the foundation as anonymous and soft credit the 3 individuals and include soft credits in your annual report.

I prefer option 4 when I soft credit just one person.  Depending on how they want their 3 names listed (together or separately in alpabetical list) then option 4 may or may not work for you.

good luck.

Melissa,

Thanks for your suggestions.

Lara

Even with Mellisa's options (we also use #4)  I have an old fashioned paper "Honor Roll Problem" file.  I add a piece of paper for each problem that I want to make sure gets corrected on the Honor Roll.  This would qualify.  Then when I am putting together the Honor Roll, I manually check and if necessary correct  those problems.  I have a coworker who is even more diligent in checking (she's a bit obsessive compulsive) and know she will rudely and in front of the boss, point out any I miss.  I find having this file really helps.

I can't tell you the number of times I have produced a draft annual report listing and had the word Anonymous and included the donor's name just because people will insist I screwed up the listing because so-and-so is not on it. 

Yet still when I produce the final version and remove the names they still come running up to me and say, "Melissa! YOU ran this report wrong because so-and-so is not on it!" 

First I freak because I do not know so-and-so's listing preference by heart and think "Did I make a mistake?" And then I check their record to find that they requested to be anonymous.  I hate it when the run to me before checking RE. 

I am much better now at calmly asking if they checked RE and if they say "no" I send them back to their desk and tell them to come back to me if they still feel after that that I have made a mistake.  They rarely come back.

Melissa

Luckily, or unfortunately, our list is small enough that I add a sticky note next to, say,  Anonymous (3) with the last name of the 3 people.  This gives them the information without them having to run to me.  What gets me is when or AF director just changes the listing without looking in RE to see if the donor specified something different.  Yeas ago she decieded the default style for those who don't specify and  sometimes when a listing doesn't conform, she doesn't look it up in RE to see if the donor requested it that way.  She just changes it. I have to go back and look it up and then explain to her why I did not make the change.  The she goes and looks it up in RE and ok's the non change.  It would be soooo much easier if she would look it up in the beginning. 

Databases are pretty powerful and useful tools... IF YOU USE THEM.  LOL

I use attributes for the companies and when I am exporting the information, I export the attribute next to the addressee salutation and replace it.  If is an individual, I have an annual report addressee that I adjust accordingly.

good luck.

Lara - We use a "special recognition" addressee/salutation. In this case, you'd probably need 3 additional add/sals on the foundation's record; one with each individual's name. In Notes, we document who/what/where/when we were told to use that recognition.

Lara - We use a "special recognition" addressee/salutation. In this case, you'd probably need 3 additional add/sals on the foundation's record; one with each individual's name. In Notes, we document who/what/where/when we were told to use that recognition. The only problem with this method is that on the list, it's going to sort based on the Foundation Name so you're going to have to sort these three names manually on the final list. For us, it serves as a "flag" that's there's something special going on with these donors & we need to double check things.

Tracie - Would you create a contact for each of the people and then put "special recognition" in the addressee/salutation? And then when you are pulling the names, if the organization name is pulled, how do you know that one is "special"?

Lara

Yes, we'd add the contact to the organization record. When we run the final list, we export the add/sal from the contact (if present) otherwise we'd use the org name. Basically, any add/sals that come up blank (because there isn't a recognition add/sal) would be overwritten with the org name -- that's a manual addition once the list is in Excel format.

I was going to suggest the contact route, if you create a contact type of "annual report" or something to the fact then that record isn't added as a record to the database just so to have a soft credit for the annual report. THen again, if you like the concept of having more people to solicit then adding them a constituent record would be the way to go. I would not suggest attributes, appeals or events as I think the soft credit and/or contact is using R.E. more like it was designed.

Oh, and to add to the discussion. I always count on 5 calls from donors saying that we published something wrong in the donor report. Even after we've crossed checked and double checked and tripped checked and everyone in the office has checked it and I've run 15 different queries to check it against we ALWAYS get something wrong (according to the donor). It's a little game I play, as soon as the issue is released i put the magic names on my white board and compare the number to the previous year. So far, I have ever only recieved at most 5 calls, my first year. This year 3. If the year comes I don't get any, I'm retiring. ;)

Similar to Nina's "old fashioned paper "Honor Roll Problem" file", I always add a note of type "Annual Report Exception" whenever a constituent requests an irregular listing.  I then query for that note while generating my lists and make any requested changes.  I then delete any of those notes that pertain just to this year's report, and keep the notes that pertain to ongoing requests.

I had a similar problem that involved naming opportunities in a capital campaign.  I had to keep track of what their name would appear on and how they wanted it to appear.  I created a table under gift attributes which worked great.  You put them in your query output.  Hope this helps - it was a simple solution.