Attributes across Constituent Records who are spouses

Amber Mullins

Hey all- I work for a Symphony Orchestra. We use Raiser's Edge to track our season ticket holders and those who purchase single tickets. We are currently listing these in Attributes. When the system was first set up the decision was made not to separate Spouses into different records however this is becoming an issue with constituents that have passed away but the spouse is still alive. So I was planning on going through and separating the spouses into two different constituent records that are linked together through the spouse relationship. However, this becomes an issue when we want to pull queries based on certain attributes. Is there an easy way to share attributes to two records that are linked to a spousal relationship without double entry? 

Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE

I'm not sure I understand the issue but do you create a new constituent record for the spouse when the other spouse/main record is marked deceased?  


"However, this becomes an issue when we want to pull queries based on certain attributes. "

What is the issue when pulling queries?

JoAnn Strommen

WIth separate records you'd need to manually enter - no sharing function.


I would suggest you implement the business rule to make the surviving non-constituent spouse a constituent. You would not have to create separate record and the data on the record would stay there.


Search knowledgebase for business rule spouse deceased or something like that you'll get a number of results that explain rule, how to use it, how to have gift records show etc.

I think that's your best option.

Amber Mullins

Right now there are no procedures or processes in
place. I'm trying to create a procedure so we are not running into
this issue in the future. However, after thinking of some possible
solutions I am concerned that in the future we will need to be
adding attributes to two records to have a complete picture of
their ticket purchasing history. So I just need to know if there is
a way to share attributes across two different
constituent records without double entry. 

--

Amber
Mullins

Development Manager | Knoxville Symphony
Orchestra

100 S Gay
St, Ste 302 | Knoxville, TN
37902

Cell 865.924.2993 |
Direct 865.521.2319 | Fax 865.546.3766

amullins@knoxvillesymphony.com 

“It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put into
giving.” -Mother Teresa

www.knoxvillesymphony.com 

Aaron Rothberg

Hi Amber-


There's no way to share Constituent Attributes across two different constituent records, but I think you're on the right track. I would promote the living non-constituent spouse to a full constituent record, but you're going to have to copy the Constituent Atttributes from the deceased constituent to the living newly-created spouse constituent record. I would use Export to pull the Attributes out, replace the deceased Constituent Id with the living spouse Constituent Id, and then import back in.

Jen Claudy

At my last 2 orgs, we had a policy to create a new record for the surviving spouse if the deceased constituent had a connection to our org that wasn't shared by the surviving spouse.  However, if the connection was with them as a couple, we just flipped the names and added a Const Note just in case.  We also used Relationship Types of "spouse", "sibling", "parent", etc. so those didn't need to be changed in most cases.  Just flip the names & birthdate and adjust the Addr/Sal.  But neither org was somewhere where you might have a lot of data that only pertains to the HOH (one was a museum the other a social service org).

The most important thing is to think thru the options, figure out which one will work best for your org, document the heck out of it, and be consistent in applying it.  And when the occasional exception pops up, be sure to add a ConstNote explaining why this record is handled differently than the policy would indicate.

Heather MacKenzie

Aaron Rothberg:

Hi Amber-


There's no way to share Constituent Attributes across two different constituent records, but I think you're on the right track. I would promote the living non-constituent spouse to a full constituent record, but you're going to have to copy the Constituent Atttributes from the deceased constituent to the living newly-created spouse constituent record. I would use Export to pull the Attributes out, replace the deceased Constituent Id with the living spouse Constituent Id, and then import back in.

Aaron, you just gave me an idea of how to handle a large amount of attributes on a very recently deceased constituent transferring to the surviving spouse.  If there are just a few, I'd do it manually, but there are about 30 on this particular record.  Thanks!

Jen Claudy

If you are looking to move Constituent Attributes from one record to another, you can use the Merge Constituent function, select only Attributes, and then be sure to not check the box to delete the constituent record.  If you're looking to copy them, then Export/Import is probably the best option...especially if you have a lot of them.