Options for recording historic donor recogntion preferences

JoAnn Strommen

For our donor recognition listings we currently use address type of "recognition - fund name" and for org we use an alias with the same name. 

 

I now have to recreate donor recognition lists from campaigns previous to our record keeping in RE. The gifts were part of data conversion into RE so I'm hoping to pull lists using them in some way.  Names are currently engraved on large wooden plaques with metal plates throughout the facility.
 

While I have no problem adding more individual recognition add/sal types for these funds, I do not want to add more aliases as users can not limit/specify while in query to only output certain aliases. This will mean my lists will get extremely long with adding 2, 3 or 4 more aliases for donating orgs to reflect their listing for each of these past campaigns. It already takes much longer to review query of orgs to be sure they have the recognition alias added but has seemed to be the best option currently available in RE.

I  have considered a constituent attribute but feel if I record orgs that way I should also record individuals that way for consistency.  I'd really like to keep individuals as an addressee so that I don't have to re-type or risk typos in people's names. 

I chatted with support yesterday and another possibility that we discussed for org was a contact with the last name equal to the org name and a specific contact type like "recognition". I could then use add an addressee for the contact that would enable me to query and just output that addressee type. 

When I get to exporting my lists it's not a problem as I can export specific alias and specific addressee type.  Query can be a mess as it pulls all aliases and all contacts/contact types.

So, for all of you who love thinking outside the box, any suggestions?  Other thoughts for where to record?  I have to say I'm tempted just to type all the lists into a Word doc and call it good but who knows it the lists will need to be generated in a few years again.

Jody Johnson

Add an attribute type for recognition name, and then people can type in the name that the constituent wants, this will allow for things like the "Smith Family", etc. 



Specificific attributes can be selected in your queries, and you can pull queries using blank as the operator to see which records still need the information.  



Category -  Recognition name

Description - what the name is 

Date - when you got the information (in case you ever need to know when the information was added, or last updated)

Comments - you could put the staff members name of who received the information

JoAnn Strommen

Thanks for the response.  Yes, attributes can be used for donor recognition.  In my post I've described what we use and I definitely did not want to open hundreds upon hundreds of records and add several recognition attributes for gifts made years ago.



What I ended up doing was exporting a list of gifts that should have been on each of the plaques with name field, current recognition listing on their record, and gift amount.  Then I could sort by name/gift amount etc to match export to plaques.  Added field to excel field "Listing for Campaign ABC", copied current listing into field then I just compared existing list with what was engraved on the plaque and edited as needed.  Went pretty smooth.  Old recognition is not in their RE record but we're okay with that.  Will make sure to keep an electronic copy of lists should they be needed in distant future.