My organization is deliberating whether or not to make address required in our new Raiser's Edge system currently being designed. There is strong disagreement about this and it is best practice for integrity reasons to require address.
One side simply wants to add name, email, and business affiliation. They will not use the database unless those are the minimum requirements for constituents.
So far, the verdict is to build the database with only requiring name, affiliation, address OR email.
What pitfalls have those who have only name and email only in their database (other than horrendous dupes)?


--- Edited at 7/26/2007 4:45:06 PM by Janie Burkett

Technically, you don't have a choice. The address is required on all records, however none of the fields are required, so you can have an address with completely blank fields. We started off requiring every address to have a country field. That was a big mistake. As I said before, every record requires an address: constituent and non-constituent records. That means that every relationship required a country for the address, because addresses are required for each record and we had set it to require a country for the address. We quickly changed it so that no fields were required for addresses. I would recommend not requiring any fields for addresses. Drew J. Drew Allen Children's Hospital of Philadelphia [Email Removed] Check out the user run RE Forum at http://www.blackbus.org/.  Check out the Crystal Reports blog "Crystal Clear" at http://www.blackbus.org/blogs/viewblog.php?userid=63

To my knowledge, you can not require one OR the other (address lines OR email) using basic RE parameters. It does not work that way. You may be able to use API or VBA with advanced programming to require them that way but not with basic parameters. So you would make them both not required and create a query that searches for records without either and monthly audit your database for records that do not meet the criteria and go to the person who added the record and ask them to complete one or the other. The only downside I can see would be the horrendous dupes that you would be unable to find and resolve without a lot of manual research which is a huge downside. What "side" does not want to require address? It is best for cultivation of donors/prospect, and is needed for prospect research and can easily be made required for online giving so you get it in the transaction. Are these constituents donor prospects or some other group of people on an email list that are just going into RE using it as a rolodex or email listserv? It get really hard to manage RE when it is not truly defined as a donor prospect database. It is much easier to manage if everyone in it is either a past donor, current donor, or potential future donor. Other uses frequently muddies the waters. It is not impossible to do but adds complexity that you would need to enter into with trepidation. I do not require anything in an address but it is our policy that blank addresses must have the "has no valid address" checkbox marked. I audit monthly for records with nothing in any of the fields and do not have the checkbox. I then have a business rule that pops up when you enter a record with no valid address to ask you if you know a valid address that you notify me or the Development Associate. Melissa S. Graves Director of Development Services The Village for Families and Children mgraves (at) villageforchildren.org www.villageforchildren.org  GET ON THE BUS! Check out what the Blackbaud User Society is talking about today at www.blackbus.org!

Thanks, this has been useful information. Raiser's Edge will be used as a CRM database (reference your comment about being hard to manage), so yes, it will be used for programs (for relationship tracking and communciations) and the communications department. There is great protest by non-development groups at adding an address to a record. There is some comprimise with storing the name, email, and business relationship link (which would have an address) however I don't want to muddy up the reporting for the development department. Great tips on the business rules and the invalid address box. Thanks!

Good luck with the CRM piece of it. It is a challenge but glad to see you are thinking it through before charging in. You still need to know that you will be creating a policy stating what is required and that you can not actually stop a person from creating a record with a blank address and no email. You can audit the database regularly to find records that are not within policy requirements but the x or y requirement does not exist in basic RE. Melissa S. Graves Director of Development Services The Village for Families and Children mgraves (at) villageforchildren.org www.villageforchildren.org  GET ON THE BUS! Check out what the Blackbaud User Society is talking about today at www.blackbus.org!

Thinking it through I would still make it a policy that "if known" an address must be added to the RE database. You have to think about the scenario and how it will help all sides to participate in eliminating the potential for dupes. Not only will it help the development folks to know that Mr. X is also on ABC list of X program or met with someone in communications. But it has to enhance the relationship they have with Mr. X to know that he is a $10,000 donor to the organization. It is win-win to put in as much information as possible. When truly the information is unknown - allow it. When it is known but they do not think they need to put it in... uh uh... it is required "if known" would be my suggestion. Melissa S. Graves Director of Development Services The Village for Families and Children mgraves (at) villageforchildren.org www.villageforchildren.org  GET ON THE BUS! Check out what the Blackbaud User Society is talking about today at www.blackbus.org!

It is challenging when you have different departments using the same database and may have different needs. Our database is used for tracking the donor side of things and for those who are applying for membership. We're a mission organization and members raise their own support. We wanted to use the same database for years because many of our members are also donors and we were disconnected. Right now to save a record we require a last name, city and constituent id number. But keep in mind that all RE sees is if there is a character in the field. We have people typing in "unknown" in the city field and the system is happy with that although it defeats our purpose. Like Melissa said, doing maintenance queries regularly is a necessary job. Angie Snyder Operations Manager Wycliffe Bible Translators Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.