Merging husband and wife records?

Crystal Godbolt

We are working on creating major donor reports for an upcoming campaign, and we find that the lists pull in both husband and spouse and often the gifts were not soft credited, so there are different amounts for their cumulative giving. We don't want to pull just head of household since that would eliminate giving for the spouse who may have gifts not recorded on the head of household record. For couples where we know the spouse was not intentionally giving seperately, would it make sense to "merge" those records? I am open to any other ideas as well. 


Thank you

shani traum

We too have seperate records for spouses (when there is cause, not in all cases).  Merging the records isn't realistic in our database as we track event attendance, relationships, etc for each.


When we need to pull what I call "household giving" - giving from both spouses, we pull summary giving for both the constit (either one) and for their spouse, soft crediting the gift to the soft credit recipient.  We export this, and in excel total the 2 summary amounts.


The only problem we find is that if a gift came in from a 3rd party (donor advised fund, for example) and it was soft credited to both spouses, it will double count the gift.  Luckily we know who these folks are and can catch this and adjust as needed.


Good luck!


Shani

Karen Stuhlfeier

Our spouses each have their own records and they are automatically soft credited for each other's gifts. That makes reporting by household work very well. I also think that it's just ceaner for eveyone to have their own record and be linked properly.


In the spouse record the box "Automatically soft credit this individual for gifts" should be checked. you find that box in the General 2 tab in the spouse record.


If previous gifts have not been soft credited you can clean that up by going to "Constituent" in the menu bar and choosing "Soft credit for spouse's gifts" and check ok.

Gina Gerhard

Shani -


This is why we've asked Blackbaud many times to build some categorization around soft-credits - so we could choose spousal soft-credits but NOT other types.

 

shani traum

Gina Gerhard:

Shani -


This is why we've asked Blackbaud many times to build some categorization around soft-credits - so we could choose spousal soft-credits but NOT other types.

 

Yes!!! This is what is needed!  So annoying...

Gina Gerhard

Here are some ideas in Ideabank on this issue - sorry can't figure out how to give you a direct link so you'll have to search by title:


--> Have spouse soft credit option on report parameters like MG options (26 votes)

--> FIX spouse soft credits!!! (69 votes)

Jen Claudy

First, for anyone who doesn't yet know how to create a hyperlink in a Community post or comment, see Holly's Helpful Hint from 03 Nov 2016.


Second, to eliminate the searching (with great thanks to Gina for locating the appropriate Ideas in the first place), here are the links for the RE:7 Idea Bank that Gina posted:  Spouse Soft Credit Report Parameters and Fix Spouse Soft Credits.

Gina Gerhard

Jen - Thanks, how did you actually get the link? Or did you cobble it together -- ??

Elizabeth Johnson

Gina Gerhard:

Jen - Thanks, how did you actually get the link? Or did you cobble it together -- ??

Jen - thanks for the links!


Hi Gina,


We missed you on Wednesday at the regional meeting. Thanks as always for the great handouts.



To get the actual address for the idea I select the idea and then I right click on the name of the idea to copy the link address.

Unless you are following the direct link the URL is normally generic for every idea. I'm sure you noticed that.

Best,

Elizabeth

 

Christine Cooke 2

Crystal Godbolt:

We are working on creating major donor reports for an upcoming campaign, and we find that the lists pull in both husband and spouse and often the gifts were not soft credited, so there are different amounts for their cumulative giving. We don't want to pull just head of household since that would eliminate giving for the spouse who may have gifts not recorded on the head of household record. For couples where we know the spouse was not intentionally giving seperately, would it make sense to "merge" those records? I am open to any other ideas as well. 


Thank you

you can go back and soft credit each spouse for the other's gifts, that way when you pull a report all the gifts are counted no matter who gave them. 


If the spouses currently have separate records, there is a reason, and merging them would not be wise in order to solve a data entry issue that was not setup/done correctly

Kate Hudson

Gina - great idea! If there were varying types, such as one for companies and foundations (like when they underwrite an event), one for DAFs, one for spousal or household giving, that would be amazing.