How to avoid duplicate mailings for spouse constituents?

Tim Mcmullen

I've read a lot of information on the pros and cons of keeping spouses under on constituent record, or giving each spouse separate constituent records linked as spouses. Most recommendations say the best way depends on the individual situations.

The problem that my organization is having is that when the spouses are separate constituents, they sometimes both receive the same mailings, such as, they both received Christmas cards.

Can you recommend ways to prevent these duplicate mailings, other than 1) merging all spouses into single constituencies, or 2) manually spotting the duplicates in the mail list? Merging loses certain tracking options, and manually spotting the duplicates has failed us in the past.

Thanks!

Tim

Harriet Farmer

Tim Mcmullen:

I've read a lot of information on the pros and cons of keeping spouses under on constituent record, or giving each spouse separate constituent records linked as spouses. Most recommendations say the best way depends on the individual situations.

The problem that my organization is having is that when the spouses are separate constituents, they sometimes both receive the same mailings, such as, they both received Christmas cards.

Can you recommend ways to prevent these duplicate mailings, other than 1) merging all spouses into single constituencies, or 2) manually spotting the duplicates in the mail list? Merging loses certain tracking options, and manually spotting the duplicates has failed us in the past.

Thanks!

Tim

 We have both situations, where the spouses have separate constituent records or are under one record as spousal relationship only..  For example, each spouse may have donated separately, or volunteered at different events, or only one spouse has a relationship with our org.

When there are individual records for spouses, we control sending of duplicate mailings by using a Solicit Code on one record that keeps that record out of the mailing query.  If you are concerned about an address showing only one spouse's name, you can make that Add/Sal on the record to be included to show it the way you want it to be. For example, Mr. John Jones could have his Add/Sal changed to Mrs. and Mrs. Jones, without disturbing the Bio 1 info.

JoAnn Strommen

Tim Mcmullen:

I've read a lot of information on the pros and cons of keeping spouses under on constituent record, or giving each spouse separate constituent records linked as spouses. Most recommendations say the best way depends on the individual situations.

The problem that my organization is having is that when the spouses are separate constituents, they sometimes both receive the same mailings, such as, they both received Christmas cards.

Can you recommend ways to prevent these duplicate mailings, other than 1) merging all spouses into single constituencies, or 2) manually spotting the duplicates in the mail list? Merging loses certain tracking options, and manually spotting the duplicates has failed us in the past.

Thanks!

Tim

Are you are using the Export function to generate your mailing lists?  If not how are you generating them?

If so, the easiest way is to use the Head of Household processing options on Export General Tab 1.  If the two records are linked as spouses, one of them is automatically identified as the Head of Household - you'd have to check the records to see which.  When exporting you just need to check the box 'Export constituents marks as HoH only.' 

As previous response suggested, we have addressee/salutation formats to pull both names so this works really well.  No need to add solicit codes, attributes etc.  You never know when you may need to send to the spouse you've coded not to receive mailings.

We have spouses as relationship records and spouses with their own constituent records.  This works well to handle both types. 

Tim Mcmullen

Harriet Farmer:

 We have both situations, where the spouses have separate constituent records or are under one record as spousal relationship only..  For example, each spouse may have donated separately, or volunteered at different events, or only one spouse has a relationship with our org.

When there are individual records for spouses, we control sending of duplicate mailings by using a Solicit Code on one record that keeps that record out of the mailing query.  If you are concerned about an address showing only one spouse's name, you can make that Add/Sal on the record to be included to show it the way you want it to be. For example, Mr. John Jones could have his Add/Sal changed to Mrs. and Mrs. Jones, without disturbing the Bio 1 info.

Thanks for your reply.  I've determined that our problem is that the selection criteria is anyone who donated over a certain amount over a certain period of time. If both spouses met that criteria, they both got a Christmas card. I don't think using a solicit code will help in this case.

Tim Mcmullen

JoAnn Strommen:

Are you are using the Export function to generate your mailing lists?  If not how are you generating them?

If so, the easiest way is to use the Head of Household processing options on Export General Tab 1.  If the two records are linked as spouses, one of them is automatically identified as the Head of Household - you'd have to check the records to see which.  When exporting you just need to check the box 'Export constituents marks as HoH only.' 

As previous response suggested, we have addressee/salutation formats to pull both names so this works really well.  No need to add solicit codes, attributes etc.  You never know when you may need to send to the spouse you've coded not to receive mailings.

We have spouses as relationship records and spouses with their own constituent records.  This works well to handle both types. 

JoAnne, Thanks for your reply.  I've determined that our problem is that the selection criteria is anyone who donated over a certain amount over a certain period of time. If both spouses met that criteria, they both got a Christmas card. Using the head of household identifier eliminated the duplicate problem, but it also eliminated cases where only one spouse met the criteria, and that spouse is not the head of household. Considering our criteria, I'm still not seeing any solution other than manual intervention, which has failed in the past. :-(

Aldera Chisholm

Tim Mcmullen:

JoAnne, Thanks for your reply.  I've determined that our problem is that the selection criteria is anyone who donated over a certain amount over a certain period of time. If both spouses met that criteria, they both got a Christmas card. Using the head of household identifier eliminated the duplicate problem, but it also eliminated cases where only one spouse met the criteria, and that spouse is not the head of household. Considering our criteria, I'm still not seeing any solution other than manual intervention, which has failed in the past. :-(

At my org we did two things: 1. I did a query for all couples that the donor is not the head of household, and we then went through and changed them so that the donor is the HoH. Our HoH theory is that the donor is one we want as the primary. Sometimes both are donors, but much of the time, for us, it's only one. 2. For exports, I tend to use the "first constituent found" button, as it covers us for those odd ones where the donor is not the HoH. Since we ensure both spouses have the address/sal set up to include both (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) This works really well for us, and has greatly reduced having to manually pull people, and we haven't had incidents of missing people. A.

JoAnn Strommen

Tim Mcmullen:

JoAnne, Thanks for your reply.  I've determined that our problem is that the selection criteria is anyone who donated over a certain amount over a certain period of time. If both spouses met that criteria, they both got a Christmas card. Using the head of household identifier eliminated the duplicate problem, but it also eliminated cases where only one spouse met the criteria, and that spouse is not the head of household. Considering our criteria, I'm still not seeing any solution other than manual intervention, which has failed in the past. :-(

Doesn't seem like it should eliminate the non HOH records in the query - sorry don't have time right now to test and see what happens.

What Aldera suggested should work. 

We shouldn't have to do much manual clean up for straight-forward things like that.  If you're still having issues, I'd ask support.  Worst they could say would be that you have to keep doing what you're doing. 

Tim Mcmullen

Aldera Chisholm:
At my org we did two things: 1. I did a query for all couples that the donor is not the head of household, and we then went through and changed them so that the donor is the HoH. Our HoH theory is that the donor is one we want as the primary. Sometimes both are donors, but much of the time, for us, it's only one. 2. For exports, I tend to use the "first constituent found" button, as it covers us for those odd ones where the donor is not the HoH. Since we ensure both spouses have the address/sal set up to include both (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) This works really well for us, and has greatly reduced having to manually pull people, and we haven't had incidents of missing people. A.

Aldera Chisholm,

I think you got it! The "first constituent found" button in the Extract main menu function seems to have solved our problems. We were going straight from the Query, and had not fed it through the Extract function. If others mentioned this before, it didn't sink in at the time, because the Query also has an 'export' option. Thanks so much!

Tim

JoAnn Strommen

Tim Mcmullen:

Aldera Chisholm,

I think you got it! The "first constituent found" button in the Extract main menu function seems to have solved our problems. We were going straight from the Query, and had not fed it through the Extract function. If others mentioned this before, it didn't sink in at the time, because the Query also has an 'export' option. Thanks so much!

Tim

It would be nice at times if Export module/function had a different name, because yes it will function very differently than just doing an export while in query module or any other module.  

Glad you got it to work! 

Jill Oster

Tim Mcmullen:

I've read a lot of information on the pros and cons of keeping spouses under on constituent record, or giving each spouse separate constituent records linked as spouses. Most recommendations say the best way depends on the individual situations.

The problem that my organization is having is that when the spouses are separate constituents, they sometimes both receive the same mailings, such as, they both received Christmas cards.

Can you recommend ways to prevent these duplicate mailings, other than 1) merging all spouses into single constituencies, or 2) manually spotting the duplicates in the mail list? Merging loses certain tracking options, and manually spotting the duplicates has failed us in the past.

Thanks!

Tim

We just went through this and I'd love to figure out an easier way to pull our holiday card mailing list.  We send a paper version to people at higher levels as well as those with the attribute of Director's Holiday Card - Paper Version and then an email version to those at a lower level of membership or with the attribute of DHC-Email.  We also send to those who have given gifts of 1000 more or an inkind gift as well as advisory council and other important constituency codes.  I run the list through mail and use and output query.  I also remove those who have received the paper mailing in a query list.  Somehow we always get people on the email version that have already received the paper version.  I am pretty sure that I have identified why but I'm not sure how to make it simplified or re-coded to avoid this in the future.

I believe it's happening for these three instances:

1. when the dual member isn't head of household so they still come into the email version (I think we may need to look at merging dual constituents into one membership to simplify but my membership/gifts person is hesitant to do this)

2.  When one member received the paper version because they had the attribute or constituency code so when I pull them out of the query it only pulls out the spouse with the attriibute (i'm thinking if both have the attribute this would solve the problem)

3.  Business contacts- if they are individual members but recieve the mailing for being the business contact they aren't pulling out of the mailing.  (any ideas?)

I would love to simplify this. Is there a way to segments this mailing list run?  I haven't done many segmented mailings but I think it only applies to letters/mailings.

Thanks in advance!

Jill Oster

Princeton University Art Museum

Melissa Graves 3

Jill Oster:

We just went through this and I'd love to figure out an easier way to pull our holiday card mailing list.  We send a paper version to people at higher levels as well as those with the attribute of Director's Holiday Card - Paper Version and then an email version to those at a lower level of membership or with the attribute of DHC-Email.  We also send to those who have given gifts of 1000 more or an inkind gift as well as advisory council and other important constituency codes.  I run the list through mail and use and output query.  I also remove those who have received the paper mailing in a query list.  Somehow we always get people on the email version that have already received the paper version.  I am pretty sure that I have identified why but I'm not sure how to make it simplified or re-coded to avoid this in the future.

I believe it's happening for these three instances:

1. when the dual member isn't head of household so they still come into the email version (I think we may need to look at merging dual constituents into one membership to simplify but my membership/gifts person is hesitant to do this)

2.  When one member received the paper version because they had the attribute or constituency code so when I pull them out of the query it only pulls out the spouse with the attriibute (i'm thinking if both have the attribute this would solve the problem)

3.  Business contacts- if they are individual members but recieve the mailing for being the business contact they aren't pulling out of the mailing.  (any ideas?)

I would love to simplify this. Is there a way to segments this mailing list run?  I haven't done many segmented mailings but I think it only applies to letters/mailings.

Thanks in advance!

Jill Oster

Princeton University Art Museum

Jill, My recommendation: When you send the paper version - code those receiving it with an appeal. You can then use query to SUB out anyone who received the appeal OR anyone whose spouse received the appeal. This should help in both spouse issues. I am not sure I understand the issue with #3. If you used "Mail" to export your mailing list you have choices on how to deal with org contacts. You can choose to mail to them at home, at their company or both". Whichever you choose will be the one coded with the appeal. I do not have a recommendation on how to exclude them from the email without pulling manually, however.

Melissa Graves 3

Tim Mcmullen:

Aldera Chisholm,

I think you got it! The "first constituent found" button in the Extract main menu function seems to have solved our problems. We were going straight from the Query, and had not fed it through the Extract function. If others mentioned this before, it didn't sink in at the time, because the Query also has an 'export' option. Thanks so much!

Tim

Tim, I am so sorry RE's poorly named export button in Query has again foiled another user. It should never be used for any list that is going to be used for mailings. Until you understand how it works and when you can use it safely, I suggest not using it at all for now. Whenever you can use "Mail" that is your first choice. It has the best settings for getting the proper people included and excluded, some you do not even need to think about (like those with send mail unchecked, has no valid address, an end date before today on the address, etc.) After that, if Mail does not meet your needs, use Export.

Jill Oster

Melissa Graves:
Jill, My recommendation: When you send the paper version - code those receiving it with an appeal. You can then use query to SUB out anyone who received the appeal OR anyone whose spouse received the appeal. This should help in both spouse issues. I am not sure I understand the issue with #3. If you used "Mail" to export your mailing list you have choices on how to deal with org contacts. You can choose to mail to them at home, at their company or both". Whichever you choose will be the one coded with the appeal. I do not have a recommendation on how to exclude them from the email without pulling manually, however.

thanks so much,

I just got off the phone with blackbaud and we were able to fix the problem with a segmented mailing.  We basically created two segmented output queries and it worked!  this has taken so long to figure out but I wanted to share how we resolved it because I'm sure others are looking for a similar fix from time to time.  we put in the query for the paper holiday card and then the email query and i checked it against the excel file I had created manually.  it worked perfectly!  thanks for all your feedback!

jill