Parent Data Into RE NXT

Joe Pauwels

Is anyone in higher ed inputting Parent data into Raiser's Edge? If so, what is the source of your data? We've struggled consistently to get accurate parent data. At the moment, we generally call or send mail to "the parent/guardian of..." and that's not exactly the ideal method of contacting someone.


Anyway, just curious if anyone has come up with an innovative way to gather and input parent data. Thank you!

Donna Woods

We used to add Parents to RE (used to - it's a story!).  Anyway, we'd create a constituent record with a constituency code of Parent.  If their son/daughter was still a student, we'd add a record for him/her/them in RE and link them all together via Relationship tab.


If their student was dismissed or transferred, we code the Student as "Alumni - Non-Degree" and the parent as "Former Parent".  Those coded Former Parent would no longer be contacted by our University.


Donna

 

Carolyn Moatz

 

PreK-12 school. We get our parent data from the Registrar's office. They use Education Edge, so we're integrated. Before we integrated, they sent a spreadsheet that we imported.

Judith Raub

We have a table set up at Orientation and have a form given in their Orientation packets.  They fill them out and drop them by the table or mail the form back to our office.  Of course, we do not capture all parents, but a big majority (the problem is trying to interpret what is written on the forms).  Also, the alumnus come by the table with their student and pick up a small give away to the alumnus and we hear wonderful stories and get to meet the child.  We also welcome those legacy students in the fall that are living in the dorm with a little welcome goody bag and capture some parent information at that time while parents are helping move their child in and our Board and Staff also assists with move-in.  During that move-in day, there is also a parent's reception to grab a cool drink, relax and socialize before parents head home.

 

Daniel Bayer

Joe Pauwels:

Is anyone in higher ed inputting Parent data into Raiser's Edge? If so, what is the source of your data? We've struggled consistently to get accurate parent data. At the moment, we generally call or send mail to "the parent/guardian of..." and that's not exactly the ideal method of contacting someone.


Anyway, just curious if anyone has come up with an innovative way to gather and input parent data. Thank you!

THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.


Our data came from the school's registrar database, Colleague (Datatel), which was imported from the Admissions application, Slate. The data from Slate came from the student's application (usually the Common App), which meant it was riddled with bad/incomplete data, and it certainly wasn't consistently formatted - ESPECIALLY for the parents. I had to do a LOT of work on formatting after pulling the data from Colleague, especially since data for parents was often inconsistently placed - some parents had two records with two different addresses instead of one record with two addresses. It was basically a nightmare, but having seen the giant mess of a spreadsheet Admissions got from Slate, I can honestly say it could have been a LOT worse.


We ended up creating a record for each parent, linking them as relationships to the student, and linking them as spouses if appropriate, but there were sometimes issues because the data was never in a place where it could be "automated". It's important, even necessary, data to have, though, so just export from whatever the most recent, cleanest point of contact is for the data at your school, format it how you need, and import into RE. I imagine a tool like Importomatic or Importacular could be a huge help, but don't really know for sure.


I'm also happy to go into more detail and help via email/messages here/phone, just let me know!

Becky Griswold 2

Joe Pauwels:

Is anyone in higher ed inputting Parent data into Raiser's Edge? If so, what is the source of your data? We've struggled consistently to get accurate parent data. At the moment, we generally call or send mail to "the parent/guardian of..." and that's not exactly the ideal method of contacting someone.


Anyway, just curious if anyone has come up with an innovative way to gather and input parent data. Thank you!

Our primary source is from a Banner report/ Admissions. But we also gather parent data from Athletics and Student Housing.  The student housing data I use v-lookup to add the data into the Banner report which is then translated through an Import-Omatic profile to create new records or match to existing and linked to the student record.  Athletics data requires more clean-up so is done through a separate import after everything else is imported.  I've found that doing "Parent of" records causes a nightmare later as it creates a larger potential for duplicate records, etc.  We do our best to have one record for both parents (if we have both names and they appear to be at the same address).  Since it is mostly student disclosed information we do get a fair amount of "bad data" which gets vetted through our phonathon program, emails or mailings.  Records are only created for parents where we have a name and a way to reach them.  Happy to discuss further if you have questions.  

Christine Cooke 2

Joe Pauwels:

Is anyone in higher ed inputting Parent data into Raiser's Edge? If so, what is the source of your data? We've struggled consistently to get accurate parent data. At the moment, we generally call or send mail to "the parent/guardian of..." and that's not exactly the ideal method of contacting someone.


Anyway, just curious if anyone has come up with an innovative way to gather and input parent data. Thank you!

The lower schools K -12 start off with parent info at the time of enrollment.  But higher ed, that could be a challenge, though with students that are coming in as Freshmen righ tout of high school, their parent info should be on their enrollment and/or financial info.  Most students have their parents as the person paying at least part of their tuitioin.  Also the emergency info.  It would be kind of like herding cats.  I would suggest getting the data keepers throughout your campus together and see what they have and what you can coordinate as a system. 

Colleen Jones

Daniel Bayer:

 

Joe Pauwels:

Is anyone in higher ed inputting Parent data into Raiser's Edge? If so, what is the source of your data? We've struggled consistently to get accurate parent data. At the moment, we generally call or send mail to "the parent/guardian of..." and that's not exactly the ideal method of contacting someone.


Anyway, just curious if anyone has come up with an innovative way to gather and input parent data. Thank you!

THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.


Our data came from the school's registrar database, Colleague (Datatel), which was imported from the Admissions application, Slate. The data from Slate came from the student's application (usually the Common App), which meant it was riddled with bad/incomplete data, and it certainly wasn't consistently formatted - ESPECIALLY for the parents. I had to do a LOT of work on formatting after pulling the data from Colleague, especially since data for parents was often inconsistently placed - some parents had two records with two different addresses instead of one record with two addresses. It was basically a nightmare, but having seen the giant mess of a spreadsheet Admissions got from Slate, I can honestly say it could have been a LOT worse.


We ended up creating a record for each parent, linking them as relationships to the student, and linking them as spouses if appropriate, but there were sometimes issues because the data was never in a place where it could be "automated". It's important, even necessary, data to have, though, so just export from whatever the most recent, cleanest point of contact is for the data at your school, format it how you need, and import into RE. I imagine a tool like Importomatic or Importacular could be a huge help, but don't really know for sure.


I'm also happy to go into more detail and help via email/messages here/phone, just let me know!

 

We also imort parent data, but not from Colleague (tho that's the student system).  We get a file directly from Admissions (Slate), and I do a little clean up and column additions to fit my Import Omatic profiles. I would rather not have to copy over the student address to the parent with whom he/she resides, but that's how Slate or the e-application works.   It takes a few passes to import it all, but I can get all student/ parent biographic data in that way.  This year I will attempt to create the relationships through Omatic (otherwise we link them manually).  Selected parent education and employment is entered manually.  We also have a Qualtrics Parent Information Form on the First Year student website - part of their "to do" list after depositing -, and I get an email notification of them, which supplements the Admissions parent data.  I can also download the survey results to a spreadsheet (Qualtrics).  Our campus relies on us for parent addresses, since we mail to pareants regularly and get NCOA address updates over the 4 years. I'm very happy with Import-Omatic! No worrying with import IDs.

Therese Morris

We import parents as constituents with the child on their record as a non-constituent. We get the data from an Ellucian Banner job we run after the census date. We use ImportOmatic to bring in the data. Students are put in as constituents and linked to their parent if they donate or are an athlete. When students graduate we again get the data from another Ellucian Banner job we run and import them/their degrees into Raiser’s Edge.