Multiple addresses for same organization

Beverly Bean

I have a bank with 9 branch offices, each with different contacts.



What are people doing?    One main record, with 9 different contacts/addresses within that record?    Or 9 records.



When we are searching for the "right" office, it is not immediately clear since several are in our city.     End up opening 6 records to find the correct contact.



??

Gina Gerhard

Beverly - This topic comes up frequently and not sure if there is really only one best solution - but I'll share what we do.

• If there's a true 'main office', we create an org record and then create separate records for each 'branch'.
  • Then create org relationships to the main office for each branch record.
• If there's no main office, we would create relationships between all the branch records.
  • Also, if there's no main office but you have lots of branches you can create a FAKE org record just to organize the branches (ex:  Bank of America ORGANIZATION and then you can link all the branches to this; you would not really use this record - it's only purpose is to help you organize the other records).
• When possible, we try to include something unique in the name of the organization (ex: Bank of America-Concord Branch).
• Then we can hook up the contacts to the appropriate branch.
  • But typically what happens is someone will create relationships for that contact to multiple records - since sometimes they actually hold positions at multiple branches or also at the main office.
  • But since Raiser's Edge only wants one functional business address on a constituent record, this becomes an issue - you really have to choose which of the multiple business addresses is their primary address.

There are also some tricky scenarios:

• We now have a large oganization that has centralized for administrative purposes - they are retaining the local branches but want all the mail to go to one central address.  So each branch has a physical address but essentially a different mailing address.
• Does anyone have a good solution for this?  
  • Do you enter the business address for all the branches as the main address, and then create another address type called 'Physical Address'?
  • This is perhaps similar to a constituent who has a different mailing address and physical address.  
  • I've not really implemented a solution for this - now I'm just recording their physical address in a notepad.

Beverly Bean

Thank you, Gina!    Very helpful.



Bev

JoAnn Strommen

We create separate records for the 'local' branches.  This local record is used for solicitation in that community, maintains local address and contact info. They are the ones who make pledges for that local Y branch.  When donation is received from HQ, HQ receives official tax receipt and local branch gets thank you letter for gift recieved on their behalf.



As mentioned we create link to HQ record for the branch.