Best way to record recognition information?

Yes!  We use Gift Attributes to start the process. We use Gift as you can ask the donor's preference when they are giving through NetC online.  :)  Pretty sure you can't link a Constituent Attribute from a Gift form.

Permission for Recognition can be one of the following:  Annual Report, Website Only, Both, Neither


Once we have some kind of permission, we can cross-reference what level they are in, and add a Constituent Attribute to their record.  hope that helps!


 

It sounds like you have the right idea!  


Recording that you published their name as an Action is a really good idea if you don't have another way.  We don't do this at my org., although we do record an Action that they have been sent our Annual Report - so in a way, we are tracking it... one would just have to cross-reference the Action with Constituent Attributes to see which level they were grouped with.  :)

If you feel need to record, we've never recorded on constituent records that they were listed/recognized for a particular year.  For us it's a given.  I also don't need the extra work and for many donors they would have a lot of actions - given for years - cluttering up their records.  I can look at annual report for that year if there's a question.


Nice thing about RE, can be used how each org needs to use it.  So, if you need to record it, go for it.

I agree with JoAnn - annual lists and report or event lists are a given, and if I want to check on whether I included someone, I can look at the hard copy (we're doing our scholarship donors in the program for Scholarship Awards Night as we speak) or look at the query I used to get the names in the first place.  For buildings, plaques, rooms, etc - more permanent and usually for larger donations - we have a constituent attribute called "Naming Details", where the description is what the sign actually says, the date is when it was placed, and the comments indicate the location.  One of our Trustees has about 6 on her record, all of them buildings, suites, classrooms, etc, except for one, which is "Welcome Center Campaign Sign" - that's a list at certain levels, but intended to be permanent.  I have a query set up to grab everyone who has that attribute so that I can check it against other lists or documents to make sure we've recorded them correctly. We're in the middle of a capital campaign right now, and as I hear of them, I enter the intended text with a note if not yet finalized, but I leave out the date until it's actually done.