Hi

I have looked at some of the topics on this subject. I would like to post my thoughts about this issue and would like to get any comments - Is it the way you do it in your organization, do you have other solutions that are working for you.

The issue is what is the better and easier way to track organization who has contacts / employees / owners and so on and individuals who have a small business.

Organizations and Individuals

What are the needs for development departments related to organizations and what are the options to track information about it:

1. Starting with an organization as a prospect

1. No contacts identified yet.

1. Create only one organization record

2. Actions tracked in the organization record.

3. Mailing will use the address in the organization record.

4. Phone, fax and so on. Same

2. Contacts has been identified for solicitation.

1. Add relationship as a separate constituent record specifying that this person is a contact and what type of contact he is such as Primary, Owner, Board of Trustees, Clergy, ...

2. Action - Action will start to be recorded now on the individual contact record

3. Mailing - To the contact only using the mailing processing options in Raiser's Edge

3. The company has donated a gift

1. Enter a gift to the organization record

2. Give the contact a soft credit.

4. The contact donated some money and matching gift is NOT expected from the organization

1. Enter a gift to the individual record.

2. Q: do we want to give the organization a soft credit?

5. The contact donated some money and a matching gift is expected or the organization was identified as one that automatically make a matching gift

1. Enter a gift to the individual record

2. Enter a matching gift (or get an automatic matching gift) in the organization record.

2. Starting with an individual who has a small business.

1. We do not anticipate any giving from the business

1. Option A: Just enter the business address as Business type address

2. Option B: Create a non-constituent business relationship and enter the full name of the business with address

3. Actions - on the individual record. Note: Raiser's Edge cannot record action to Non-Constituent record.

4. Mailing to the individual record unless we instructed to send it to the business address.

5. Gifts - enter to the individual record. Note: Raiser's Edge cannot record gifts to Non-Constituent record.

2. We anticipate that the individual will give all or some of the gifts through the business

1. Create an organization record. If there was already a non-constituent organization associated with this individual convert it to a regular organization and keep the relationship.

2. Actions - use  the individual record.

3. Mailing - to the individual using the edvanced mailing processing options in Raiser's Edge

3. The individual gave a gift not through the business

1. Record the gift in the individual record

2. Decide / or get request to give the business a soft credit

4. The gift comes from the business

1. Record the gift in the business record

2. Give the individual soft credit.

 Thank you

Moshe Yalovsky

American Jewish University

Raiser's Edge conversion project manager

This is a great topic. I like the best practices you've created here. I've attached a doc we created based on some of our experiences.

What gets tricky is with the Events module. If constituents are in an organization as a relationship, they need to be checked off as a Contact in order to even get to them, e.g,. via queries, for invites and access to fields like their email address.

 It's also very difficult when you have an event, and are either getting scans from visitors, e.g., at a booth, or taking their names down on a postcard. If they list an organization, then someone (data entry person) is going to have to look up the org in your RE, and get their import id (for a CSV import) or search for the org if you are using the Batch facility. Note that the postcard should also have a check box or some sort of notation if the address is a business or residential as you will need to inser the org name in the address field in order for the constituent to receive any snail mailings, if the address written down is a business address.

Thanks for the document.

As for events. You say "... If constituents are in organzation as a relationship then need to be checked of as contact..." do you mean that they do not have their own records as individuals?

Ah I see how what I wrote is confusing. In the Event Module, when you have an organization attending an event you have the ability to specify a Contact (via a drop down in the Partcipant/Registrant window). The individual relationship should be marked/checked as a Contact in order for the name to appear in the drop down.

One interesting thing I found was that if you are importing via a CSV file, you can insert a non-constituent contact in that field, but it will only show up in the event Registration/Partcipant Contact dropdown (and not on the Org relationship) which is probably OK.