Hi -
Please help! What is the best way to handle husbands and wives or familes in terms of records? Should each person have their own or should there be 1 primary record with the spouse and/or children having non-constituent relationship records to the primary?
We are preparing to open a children's museum and therefore, I'm envisioning we will have whole families as constituents - I don't think I want to be creating new records for each child. I think I want to have a primary person (mom or dad) and then have the spouse (if applicable) and the children be non-constituent relationships off that primary record. Is there a downside to doing this? We are going to be intergrating the Patron Edge software with our Raiser's Edge in the coming months. Not sure if that has any effect....
Can I get some opinions about the pros and cons of doing it both ways?
thanks!
Melissa
Melissa.Walker@pretendcity.org
Melissa,
For me and my organization, having as few separate spouse records as possible works best. We have many separate records that are linked (the practice before I started this job), so we have to be very careful with who is/is not soft credited. I stopped allowing the addition of separate spouses unless some very clear guidelines are met -- the spouse is a board member, physician, employee, etc. When two separate records are linked, we use primary constituent code heirarchy to determine who is head of household and default to male if the spouses have the same primary constituent code. As far as children, I definitely would not add them as separate records unless they are adults with their own giving history or solicitation potential. You can then link the records through relationship. I wouldn't even put minor children in relationships but haven't thought much about where I would put that information -- maybe notes. HTH,
Leslie
This has been discussed many times on the different forums -- see archives here and elsewhere.
I believe the general opinion was, as with many things in RE, each organization is different. We are a college and therefore each alumni must have their own record. Many of our alums are married to another alum, hense spouses with two seperate but linked records. For non-alum we try to make the Bio1 name the person who has a relationship with the school, even if they are just the one who signs a donation check. We do not create a seperate record for a spouse unless he/she also has a relationship with us other than just a spouse.
We do add children in the relationship tab but do not with their own record (s). The more info on a record the better. We offer children's art classes through our extended studies program. I do not add them to RE unless their parents already have a record. I do add all adult extended studies students so that they can be solicited.
Nina,
I completely agree... we can only do what is best for our own organization. That's why I love this forum, it's a great way to share information and experiences in order to continue to refine processes as appropriate for each of us.
Hi there,
I agree with the responses, and that all organizations are unique in their approach to matters of data entry. In my organization we only create a separate spouse record, only if we know that they want to give separately. We only have a few of those. And quite frankly, I prefer to have them in one record, which is what we do generally.
I say go ahead with what you are proposing to do.
Elizabeth