Honor/Memorial/Tribute gifts and connections

Marc Seal · March 2019

I process lots of tribute gifts; money given in honor of birthdays, anniversaries, etc, as well as in memory of folks who have passed away. I like to be as thorough as possible creating these records, connecting the right people, and entering the gifts. On occasion, I feel more of my time is wasted than necessary finding some of the information I need. I don't mind spending the time and going the research, but it's just not always as efficient as I think it can be.

For example, I'll get a gift in memory of someone with very common first and last names like John Johnson, then when I search for an obituary, I'll get a page full of people from all over with that name who have passed recently. Or I'll get one with a nickname like "Scooter" Smith, please acknowledge this gift to his wife. (My apologies if anyone here is actually named John Johnson or Scooter Smith) Not much to go on, right? Not to mention nicknames aren't always listed in obituaries, nor home addresses for the family.

Aside from the internet in general, I do have some sweet resources at my disposal like People Smart, but sometimes even that doesn't help much. I don't really have much influence on the forms people fill out for these or I'd include fields for more information that could really help me like date of passing, the city they lived in, etc.

Anyone else have this issue or have any tips, tricks, or advice for me? Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings, and even more thanks if you can help.

Faith Murray · March 2019

Marc, it's wonderful that you're able to be so thorough on these. For our organization, we do take a different approach. If a deceased person being remembered is not already in our database, we don't add a new record for them. As you said, oftentimes the information is too scant to make an accurate call. Then too, we don't care to add people to our database who are dead and themselves have no relational history with us, for the sake of a single memorial gift. As a religious organization, we simply get too many memorial gifts to do that. Instead, we keep all unknown tributes attached to a dummy constituent record named "Tribute Dummy". Only in the case of a loyal donor, whose memorial is generating multiple gifts (perhaps they have named us as a recipient in their obit), will we connect tributes to their actual donor record, so that we can generate a report of donations to send to the bereaved family.

Marc Seal · March 2019

Thanks, Faith. I appreciate the speedy reply. We do something similar for "indecipherable" tributes as well, we just link them to an Anonymous record. Unfortunately, our standards and practices were set long before I started, so there's not much I can do to change them. I may not be aware of them, but I guess they had their reasons for doing it that way. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Once again, thanks for responding and have a great day!

Dariel Dixon 2 · March 2019

If I don't feel like I have enough information to create a record, I won't. I don't believe in creating inactionable records. (Yes, I just made that word up, but you know what I mean). In the case of memorial gifts, if there is no acknowledgee of any type, then I probably won't create a record either. The reference field is great for this type of thing.

Of course, if I get enough gifts in that makes it worth the time to create the record, then I will. I have seen instances where we didn't create a record, and the last piece of information needed came in years later. It can happen

Faith Murray · March 2019

Dariel, I like the word "inactionable". That should be a real word. ?

Michelle Tribe · March 2019

My organization only serves a municipality, so we're relatively small. We get weird tribute notes as well. Our practice is to phone or email the donor if the tribute memorial or acknowledgee information is incomplete. Usually having a nice chat with the donor - even when they do not have the information - creates a positive image of our NP and they are happy to have had made the donation even if it can't be acknowledged. Unfortunately, tributes take a lot of time, but we feel that the customer service for them is important due to the sensitivity of the donation.

Marc Seal · March 2019

I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond.

Dariel and Faith, I agree, inactionable should be a word. I'll contact my peeps at Websters.

(Just kidding, I have no people at Websters.) I, too have had more information come in much later that eventually connected things, so maybe that's why my predecessors set things the way they did...just in case.

Michelle, depending on my workload for the day, if I get a phone number with an incomplete tribute I have reached out in some instances. I'm still kind of new to all of this so I'm still working on my phone skills. Another one of my duties is contacting recurring donors when their credit cards don't go through. Probably my least favorite thing to do because even though I know I'm not a bill collector, I still feel like one when I make those calls.

Once again, thanks for all of the responses.

Kim Riener 2 · October 2020

I do not have an answer for your questions, but you said you do lots of Tributes, if so how are you creating your acknowledgee letters?? Would love to find out all about your letter process.

Dariel Dixon 2 · October 2020

Kim Riener:

I do not have an answer for your questions, but you said you do lots of Tributes, if so how are you creating your acknowledgee letters?? Would love to find out all about your letter process.

For my honor/memorial acknowledgee letters, we use the mail function in RE. We've created some letters using the honor/memorial acknowledgement letter function. It's pretty straightforward.

Kim Riener 2 · October 2020

Thanks, yes I can use that, looking at other options for someone that has more complex needs. The want to include the comments that people make with the gift.

Dariel Dixon 2 · October 2020

Kim Riener:

Thanks, yes I can use that, looking at other options for someone that has more complex needs. The want to include the comments that people make with the gift.

I think that's pretty difficult to manage. I haven't found an option that doesn't completely break the formatting of the form letter when including those comments. I am not sure if there is not a better method to deliver those notes and comments

Kim Riener 2 · October 2020

Thats what I am finding, but had to do the research just to make sure.

Katherine Manniion · October 2020

Kim- Couldn't you put the comments in the reference field, and include that in the ack letter? It's been a while, but I think that's what we did, and it worked perfectly.

Katherine Mannion

WIST Data Solutions

Kim Riener 2 · October 2020

HI Katherine, yes if you generate per gift, but they want to generate per Tribute, so that only one letter goes to the acknowledgee not multiple.thanks.

Katherine Manniion · October 2020

Kim Riener:

HI Katherine, yes if you generate per gift, but they want to generate per Tribute, so that only one letter goes to the acknowledgee not multiple.thanks.

Ahh, yes, I see what you're trying to do. I can't think of a way to do that, unfortunately. Sorry!

Kim Riener 2 · October 2020

Thanks for for your comments.

Bonnie Kraft · October 2020

Good Morning,

What I do to include comments by the donor is to find their name and address on the Family Ack letter, space down then using Italics font and quotation marks around the comment I type the comment. Sometimes time consuming but once you get the hang of it it gets easier and adds a nice touch to the letters.

Hope that helps a bit!

~Bon

Honor/Memorial/Tribute gifts and connections

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