Do you have a policy on when to create records for new organizations?

Larry Ladutke

My boss wants to develop a policy on when to add organizations to the database if we do not have a relationship with them yet.



Generally, I have been creating records when I do research on a company or foundation.



Her suggestion is to create a record for an organization when we reach out to them, regardless of the response so that we no that we have made the attempt.

JoAnn Strommen

We add the record when we have the information.  We do not require that they be contact.  Contact can be recorded in attributes/notes etc later.  We use a constituency code of 'prospective donor' for those type of records.

Joost Groen

At my organisation (a University with a RE database of Alumni), we add an organisation to the RE database when this organisation is linked to a constituent/alumni, i.e. when we receive the employment information of an alumni. We only add the most basic information of this organisation to RE: the organisation name and (if the information is easily found on the internet) the physicial address. 



When an organisation is linked to a lot of our constituents (alumni), then we add more details, like the contact info (general/contact phonenumbers, website, emailaddresses). We do the same when this organisation donates cash (or is a prospect).

Larry Ladutke

You can indicate that an individual works at an organization without creating a record for the organization itself.  I wouldn't think it would be necessary to creat an organization record for the employer if you were not interested in establishing a relationship with that organization.  For example, an alum works for a small company on the opposite coast that has nothing to do with your university.  It is therefore highly unlikely to contribute or be involved in any events.  In this case, I would list the the employee's job under relationships, but I would not create a separate record for the employer.

Joost Groen

Larry Ladutke:

You can indicate that an individual works at an organization without creating a record for the organization itself.  I wouldn't think it would be necessary to creat an organization record for the employer if you were not interested in establishing a relationship with that organization.  For example, an alum works for a small company on the opposite coast that has nothing to do with your university.  It is therefore highly unlikely to contribute or be involved in any events.  In this case, I would list the the employee's job under relationships, but I would not create a separate record for the employer.

If you don't create a relationship record for an organization, you cannot see how many constituents work for or are linked to a particular company. At our organization we would like to know how many constituents (alumni) work for which companies.



For example: I would like to know how many and which persons are working for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. If the organization is not added as a record you might get lots of different company names (PWC, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Price Water House Coopers etc etc...) and thus, you cannot use the company name to make a query to see how many people work at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. By adding the organization as a record you can go to record itself and rightmouseclick on the relationship list and get an immediate list. Or make a query with the correct company name. Etc.





 

Jenny Kleintop

When the need arises.  In both of your examples you'll want to add the Org record.  It's a fundraising management system so includes prospecting.  When you get the lead, you'll want to enter it.  Then when you research and/or reach out, you'll want to add Actions.