Promote all Non-Constituent Relationships to Constituents?

Nicole Kennedy

We are considering promoting all of our relationships to constituents and then creating all new relationships as constituents moving forward to help with record management.  Has anyone else ever considered, performed this clean-up or live in a database where there are no non-constituent relationship records? 


This decision comes after new discoveries on:

• how non-constituent addresses really work (when linking non-constituent to other constituents, you run the potential of losing the earlier address if the constituent you are linking them to is an organization- a relationship can only hold one address)
• how 7.95 treats relationships with phone numbers because they are no longer shared

We are currently in 7.93 and preparing for the migration in the next 6 months.  Please let me know if you have any insight. 

Nicole Kennedy

 

Sunshine Reinken Watson

Nicole Kennedy:

We are considering promoting all of our relationships to constituents and then creating all new relationships as constituents moving forward to help with record management.  Has anyone else ever considered, performed this clean-up or live in a database where there are no non-constituent relationship records? 


This decision comes after new discoveries on:

• how non-constituent addresses really work (when linking non-constituent to other constituents, you run the potential of losing the earlier address if the constituent you are linking them to is an organization- a relationship can only hold one address)
• how 7.95 treats relationships with phone numbers because they are no longer shared

We are currently in 7.93 and preparing for the migration in the next 6 months.  Please let me know if you have any insight. 

Nicole Kennedy

 

 

NXT charges by the number of constituent records, and it is what Blackbaud wants to move all customers to in the future. I wouldn't start a policy that increases the number of constituent records for this reason.

Jane Owsley

We also would like to make this move.  Is there a "global" process that could be used to promote all non-constituen records at the same time?  I can see how they could be Queried but I'm not seeing an obvious Import or path to promote all in one process?  Any advice would be appreciated!  The Knowledgebase did not offer much guidance.

Thanks, all - Jane

Nicole Holt

Nicole Kennedy:

We are considering promoting all of our relationships to constituents and then creating all new relationships as constituents moving forward to help with record management.  Has anyone else ever considered, performed this clean-up or live in a database where there are no non-constituent relationship records? 


This decision comes after new discoveries on:

• how non-constituent addresses really work (when linking non-constituent to other constituents, you run the potential of losing the earlier address if the constituent you are linking them to is an organization- a relationship can only hold one address)
• how 7.95 treats relationships with phone numbers because they are no longer shared

We are currently in 7.93 and preparing for the migration in the next 6 months.  Please let me know if you have any insight. 

Nicole Kennedy

 

 

We upgraded our nonocstituents a couple years ago when we moved to NetCommunity--since it was part  of that larger migration, we contracted with RE for assistance. It was necessary, but I am still cleaning up the mess (as time permits). Raiser's Edge used a plug-in to make this change. I'd just be really prepared to spend time deduping nonconstituents ahead of time, if possible, and be really clear on how/when the "auto soft credit" box is ticked. 

Nicole Kennedy

Hadn't thought of the charge per record- that is definitely something to consider! 


We are keeping duplicates in mind, but are considering cleaning out some of the garbage before any promotion.  Today we have a duplicate checker in-house tool, but are getting ready to move over to Mergomatic. 


Omatic also has a promotion service (1 time use).  I am also seeing if BB has a similar tool! Keep the feedback coming! 

 

Christine Robertson

Nicole Kennedy:

We are considering promoting all of our relationships to constituents and then creating all new relationships as constituents moving forward to help with record management.  Has anyone else ever considered, performed this clean-up or live in a database where there are no non-constituent relationship records? 


This decision comes after new discoveries on:

• how non-constituent addresses really work (when linking non-constituent to other constituents, you run the potential of losing the earlier address if the constituent you are linking them to is an organization- a relationship can only hold one address)
• how 7.95 treats relationships with phone numbers because they are no longer shared

We are currently in 7.93 and preparing for the migration in the next 6 months.  Please let me know if you have any insight. 

Nicole Kennedy

 

 

I worked for a school a few years back and we made all parents constituents.  We choose to use "The Elevator" through Omatic and it was well worth the cost.  We could convert only the parent records, set data defaults and have a static query at the end so that we could go back and work with the records later.  I was able to duplicate the notes, relationships and actions from the "original" spouse's record, so that both parents were as complete as possible.  It wasn't 100% perfect, but it was MUCH better than having only one parent in RE (especially since we were doing regular imports from Powerschool to update student and parent info).

Jill Oster

Nicole Kennedy:

We are considering promoting all of our relationships to constituents and then creating all new relationships as constituents moving forward to help with record management.  Has anyone else ever considered, performed this clean-up or live in a database where there are no non-constituent relationship records? 


This decision comes after new discoveries on:

• how non-constituent addresses really work (when linking non-constituent to other constituents, you run the potential of losing the earlier address if the constituent you are linking them to is an organization- a relationship can only hold one address)
• how 7.95 treats relationships with phone numbers because they are no longer shared

We are currently in 7.93 and preparing for the migration in the next 6 months.  Please let me know if you have any insight. 

Nicole Kennedy

 

 

 Is there a plug in for converting non-constituents relationships to constituents?  

Gina Gerhard

I believe pricing for RE NXT is based on constituent record numbers, so something to think about if you're planning on upgrading to NXT in the near future. I'm hearing organizations discussing the opposite -- archiving/deleting records they no longer need to keep their NXT pricing down.

Melissa S Graves

If you hear of anyone considering archiving or deleting records because of NXT please stop them. Stop. Just stop.

Gina Gerhard

Melissa - Why do you say stop?


We have a whole bunch of 'ghost' records in our database, that were entered because they applied for scholarship but were never awarded (and creating a record was required by a system prior to Raiser's Edge). So there's absolutely nothing attached to them, no legal requirement to keep them, and no value to us.  Would these not be candidates for deletion?

Jen Claudy

Gina, I think in your cited example, you probably could delete with no consequences.  However, archiving records to get them out of your database for the sole purpose of NXT pricing is probably not worth it in the end, nor is it as secure in many cases.  Bill Connors wrote a whitepaper on this and it was talked about at bbcon.


However, if anyone does move forward with removing records from RE, I suggest storing that Excel or Access file as an Attachment (or Media file if not yet on NXT) so that the data is still, somehow, inside your database.  Otherwise, eventually no one will remember where it is, or that it exists at all.

Nicole Holt

 

Nicole Kennedy:

We are considering promoting all of our relationships to constituents and then creating all new relationships as constituents moving forward to help with record management.  Has anyone else ever considered, performed this clean-up or live in a database where there are no non-constituent relationship records? 


This decision comes after new discoveries on:

• how non-constituent addresses really work (when linking non-constituent to other constituents, you run the potential of losing the earlier address if the constituent you are linking them to is an organization- a relationship can only hold one address)
• how 7.95 treats relationships with phone numbers because they are no longer shared

We are currently in 7.93 and preparing for the migration in the next 6 months.  Please let me know if you have any insight. 

Nicole Kennedy

 

 

We upgraded our nonocstituents a couple years ago when we moved to NetCommunity--since it was part  of that larger migration, we contracted with RE for assistance. It was necessary, but I am still cleaning up the mess (as time permits). Raiser's Edge used a plug-in to make this change. I'd just be really prepared to spend time deduping nonconstituents ahead of time, if possible, and be really clear on how/when the "auto soft credit" box is ticked. 

 

Yes to all of this. We also lpromoted all of our records years ago when switching to NetCommunity. It was 2012, I'm still cleaning up the after effects. A big issue is the "automatically soft credit" checkbox: somehow business contacts all had this checked. Ugh. But we also contracted with RE to do the upgrade. Do make sure to have time to run clean-up after (deduping) and I'd encourage a thorough conversation about that soft-credit box.


In the long run (and since we are not on NXT), I prefer the simplicity of just having people be constituents.

Joshua Sacco

Nicole Holt:

 

 

Nicole Kennedy:

We are considering promoting all of our relationships to constituents and then creating all new relationships as constituents moving forward to help with record management.  Has anyone else ever considered, performed this clean-up or live in a database where there are no non-constituent relationship records? 


This decision comes after new discoveries on:

• how non-constituent addresses really work (when linking non-constituent to other constituents, you run the potential of losing the earlier address if the constituent you are linking them to is an organization- a relationship can only hold one address)
• how 7.95 treats relationships with phone numbers because they are no longer shared

We are currently in 7.93 and preparing for the migration in the next 6 months.  Please let me know if you have any insight. 

Nicole Kennedy

 

 

We upgraded our nonocstituents a couple years ago when we moved to NetCommunity--since it was part  of that larger migration, we contracted with RE for assistance. It was necessary, but I am still cleaning up the mess (as time permits). Raiser's Edge used a plug-in to make this change. I'd just be really prepared to spend time deduping nonconstituents ahead of time, if possible, and be really clear on how/when the "auto soft credit" box is ticked. 

 

Yes to all of this. We also lpromoted all of our records years ago when switching to NetCommunity. It was 2012, I'm still cleaning up the after effects. A big issue is the "automatically soft credit" checkbox: somehow business contacts all had this checked. Ugh. But we also contracted with RE to do the upgrade. Do make sure to have time to run clean-up after (deduping) and I'd encourage a thorough conversation about that soft-credit box.


In the long run (and since we are not on NXT), I prefer the simplicity of just having people be constituents.

 

We are in the process of promoting all non- constituent spouse relationships for current parents and granpdarents. Blackbaud is setting up a plug-in to promote the records. my only issue is what happens after they are promoting and we want to link daughter relationships to the newly credit records. Is it something that happens manually?

Christine Cooke 2

Nicole Kennedy:

We are considering promoting all of our relationships to constituents and then creating all new relationships as constituents moving forward to help with record management.  Has anyone else ever considered, performed this clean-up or live in a database where there are no non-constituent relationship records? 


This decision comes after new discoveries on:

• how non-constituent addresses really work (when linking non-constituent to other constituents, you run the potential of losing the earlier address if the constituent you are linking them to is an organization- a relationship can only hold one address)
• how 7.95 treats relationships with phone numbers because they are no longer shared

We are currently in 7.93 and preparing for the migration in the next 6 months.  Please let me know if you have any insight. 

Nicole Kennedy

 

 

I think I'd be mindul of which constituent groups get the most traffic as far as touches and such and break them out into constituents, but not necessarily take every individual that is a non-constit in an org record and make it it's own record.  A lot of those are historical in many cases and no longer active so making their own record would not be productive.  Think of it as a trickle down or hierarchy situation.  In our case, we are a school, we have Board, Parents and Grandparents they all have their own records, but there are other constits where they are not as interactive and therefore, we do not need to consider separate records unless something about their status changes and that is a one-off situation.


Yes, NXT will be charging by the number of records.  Yes, we all have to consider our budgets.  But -- most software that is designed to be using in partnership with RE, the separate records are really required, for emails, for event participation, for volunteer sign ups.  And everyone will have to weigh what they will not be paying IT and equipment costs, that will move over to cover the NXT cost.  Everything I read with any reasoning included talks about it's not about additional cost, it's about reallocating from one area that will not longer be necessary to another.