I am the development assistant and database manager for raiser's edge at Cheshire Medical Center, NH. Lately, we just don't seem to be consitent with our coding policy and our reports don't reflect the correct totals and if someone has multiple codes then it creates issues with reports as well.  I must mention that last year our database completely crashed and and I was hired to re-build it from scratch purely by re-entering every gift over the past 5 years and re-entering lost codes. We have come a long way but I still run into many reporting, coding, and query problems with duplicate results and so on.

 I wanted to pose a question for anyone interested in commenting or suggesting  ways in which I can build or create a better system for constituency codes. Right now I have about 300 records with no codes. I am working off a query that shows me all records with blank codes and adding codes to each record as I go. If they have gift history, I code them as donor and in the attributes tab, specify for what type of fund or appeal. Some people who have no gift history have no code and I'm not sure what to do with them. Should I mark them inactive since there is no activity? Is there a general code that would be suggested? What about a constituent who is deceased and is an honor/memorial. Shoudl I code them as hon/mem? Lastly, what about the spouse who is the primary constituency and their spouse is deceased and they have no gift history?

Does anyone have any suggestions for consistency or best practices?

Thanks!

Martha D.

Have you done any searches for past posts on this topic.  This has been discussed a lot and it is always recommended you start there.

I do not recommend ever having a donor code.  There is no need for it because you can always query on whether someone is a donor based on the presence of gifts on the record.  Therefore I code all individuals with an individual code (unless you are a board member or former board member).  Try to think about your codes as a very basic description and preferably something that is not duplicative of something else on their record.  For example - why put an hon/memorial code on someone who is already coded as such on the honor memorial tab. It causes you to need to remember to do two things each time you need to add a tribute which increases the likelihood of an error.

I do not ever use the inactive checkbox simply due to the constituent having no activity.  Again search past postings on this topic and you will undoubtedly find my inactive records policy mentioned here in past postings.

One way you can search for previous posts related to constituency codes is by clicking the constituency code tag in the popular tags panel on the main forums page.

Hope this helps!

Martha,

With all due respect to Melissa who is very knowledgeable on RE, there are those of us who out there who do use a constit code of 'Donor.'  We do, as that is the primary relationship/reason many of our constituents are in RE. 

For those in RE, we hope to have a donors in the future we use a code of 'Prospective Donor'.  I would not mark them as inactive.  We do not have the module with the memorial/tribute info so I do have a constit code of 'Memorial/Honorarium Donor' for donors who've given to memorials but do not have any other relationship with the Y. 

I have the constit code displayed in the constituent window when I'm working in batch to enter gifts, so I can see anyone that needs to be changed from 'prospective donor' to 'donor.'   When I have a few spare minutes once a quarter I can run a query to make sure that no changes were missed.  Works for me.

To add the constit codes, I would work with queries and do global changes/add.  It would be much, much easier than opening 300 records.  Just be sure the query is pulling exactly the records you want. If you need the fund or appeal in the attribute (not sure why as you can filter on these - but I've seen that we each have unique needs for reports) you can also do this through global add.

Good luck.

I work with 5 hospitals, 28 clincis , etc. and we have a bit of a different system than some.

'Donor' we use for individual donors that may have been patients, etc. that have a 'general public' relationship with us. I would prefer this to say 'public' but management is more comfortable with donor as our general catch all. We do use Prospect for those that have never donated

We have a few different levels of employees (and also affiliates employees as constituency codes)

Board Members are a constituency code (encompassing all Boards but the specific Board detail is housed elsewhere)

Corporations, Foundations, Estates,Vendors, not for profits, matching gift orgs, Deceased etc. are all codes as well

Individual & Organization are constituent record types so i don't feel a need to categorize that way. I also don't feel a need to categorize what I consider gift types or appeals' as constituenct codes - i.e. Memorial Donors. I use solicit codes to use as an indication whether or not to mail to someone going forward.

We use the codes most in demographical/statistical reporting so you may want to base your constituency codes on how you want to report historically and going forward. Things like measuring employee participation, etc. BTW I use a deceased constituency code in addition to the deceased checkmark so that when these reports are run management can easily see what percentage of gifts are not renewable resources.

Hope this helps