Tracking Orgs - Name Changes, DBAs, Mergers, Out of Business...

Keri Barnhart · July 2018

Our RE data goes back 20 years, as far as I can tell, and we had some extended vacancies in the DBA/data entry roles in the last 5-10 years that have created gaps in the clean-up maintenance, but haven't most organizations?

I'm finding that a lot of our older constituent records are linked to businesses that simply don't exist anymore, or there was a merger, or a buy-out or any number of reasons that the primary business relationship and address are suspect.

So now that you know the background for why I'm asking: how do you handle business name changes, buyouts, mergers, etc.?

For example, Chris may have been working at Southtrust Bank when it was bought out by Wachovia, and has an original Business Relationship: Chris = Southtrust.

Chris may have retired or been laid off at the time. But if they continued working, they now have a second Business Relationship = Wachovia.

A few years later, Wachovia is bought out by Wells Fargo and Chris still keeps a job there. They now have a third Business Relationship = Wells Fargo.

But what if we don't know that Chris continued working at the same office building through the different name changes/mergers/buyouts, and they only have that original Business Relationship. We know that they can't possibly be working at Southtrust anymore, but we don't have any other information to update the relationship record.

So this is the second part of my question: how does your organization handle tracking business relationships when there has been a name change, buyout, merger, etc.?

I find it's really confusing to not have any indication on the relationships list that an org has changed, or that one org is now a subsidiary of another. We track name changes and subsidiary relationships on the org record itself, but not so much with the mergers/buyouts, and that's all invisible on relationships anyway. So I'm trying to find out how others are handling it, to see how we can tackle the out of date information and make it easier for our Prospect Research and Fundraising teams. To add another hiccup, we have to keep track of gifts by the original org name/record for auditing. I can't just merge Southtrust into Wachovia into Wells Fargo - they have to maintain separate records, but I can create the subsidiary relationship between them.

Heather MacKenzie · August 2018

Keri Barnhart:

Our RE data goes back 20 years, as far as I can tell, and we had some extended vacancies in the DBA/data entry roles in the last 5-10 years that have created gaps in the clean-up maintenance, but haven't most organizations? I'm finding that a lot of our older constituent records are linked to businesses that simply don't exist anymore, or there was a merger, or a buy-out or any number of reasons that the primary business relationship and address are suspect.

So now that you know the background for why I'm asking: how do you handle business name changes, buyouts, mergers, etc.?

For example, Chris may have been working at Southtrust Bank when it was bought out by Wachovia, and has an original Business Relationship: Chris = Southtrust.

Chris may have retired or been laid off at the time. But if they continued working, they now have a second Business Relationship = Wachovia.

A few years later, Wachovia is bought out by Wells Fargo and Chris still keeps a job there. They now have a third Business Relationship = Wells Fargo.

But what if we don't know that Chris continued working at the same office building through the different name changes/mergers/buyouts, and they only have that original Business Relationship. We know that they can't possibly be working at Southtrust anymore, but we don't have any other information to update the relationship record.

So this is the second part of my question: how does your organization handle tracking business relationships when there has been a name change, buyout, merger, etc.?

I find it's really confusing to not have any indication on the relationships list that an org has changed, or that one org is now a subsidiary of another. We track name changes and subsidiary relationships on the org record itself, but not so much with the mergers/buyouts, and that's all invisible on relationships anyway. So I'm trying to find out how others are handling it, to see how we can tackle the out of date information and make it easier for our Prospect Research and Fundraising teams. To add another hiccup, we have to keep track of gifts by the original org name/record for auditing. I can't just merge Southtrust into Wachovia into Wells Fargo - they have to maintain separate records, but I can create the subsidiary relationship between them.

In our DB, that's one of the things that the Alias field helps us out with. We have an alias type of "Former Business Name" and just plug in whatever it used to be there. It's still searchable, which is awesome, when you go to search for a constituent. If you need any historical information about why you changed it, when the buyout or merger occurred, I'd use the Notes area for that information.

Stephanie Crawley · August 2018

Heather MacKenzie:

In our DB, that's one of the things that the Alias field helps us out with. We have an alias type of "Former Business Name" and just plug in whatever it used to be there. It's still searchable, which is awesome, when you go to search for a constituent. If you need any historical information about why you changed it, when the buyout or merger occurred, I'd use the Notes area for that information.

Alias is how we track it also. I'm not sure why you need to keep old organization profiles separate for audits. Maybe something to bring up with the auditors to ask if using Alias would fill their need.

Cindy Shanks · August 2018

We use Alias too! It helps a lot.

Dariel Dixon 2 · August 2018

So this is the second part of my question: how does your organization handle tracking business relationships when there has been a name change, buyout, merger, etc.?

I find it's really confusing to not have any indication on the relationships list that an org has changed, or that one org is now a subsidiary of another. We track name changes and subsidiary relationships on the org record itself, but not so much with the mergers/buyouts, and that's all invisible on relationships anyway. So I'm trying to find out how others are handling it, to see how we can tackle the out of date information and make it easier for our Prospect Research and Fundraising teams. To add another hiccup, we have to keep track of gifts by the original org name/record for auditing. I can't just merge Southtrust into Wachovia into Wells Fargo - they have to maintain separate records, but I can create the subsidiary relationship between them.

If you will allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment, I want to ask about this concept. You may not know, and that may be fine, but this just seems strange to me.

To add another hiccup, we have to keep track of gifts by the original org name/record for auditing. I can't just merge Southtrust into Wachovia into Wells Fargo - they have to maintain separate records, but I can create the subsidiary relationship between them.

Why is this? I would imagine after some time passes, there's no way to determine which entity the gift comes from. Is it from the entity formerly known as Wachovia, or is this a gift given by people who have always been Wells Fargo people? But then again...does it truly matter? You would not refer to them as Wachovia or Southtrust any longer. They are now all WF, While I understand how merging the records can cause issues, especially when you have contacts for each entity, I think you would want to streamline that information as soon as possible.

Tracking Orgs - Name Changes, DBAs, Mergers, Out of Business...

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