New Spouse Record Created... Best Way to Copy Data

Bernard Nemis · September 2023

Hello, Everyone.

If I created a new record for a wife, what is the best way to copy the existing data from the husband? I know past gifts can be soft credited automatically, but wasn't sure about relationships, attributes, appeals, events, etc.

Thank you.

-Bernard

Austen Brown · September 2023

@Bernard Nemis - Has the husband died? Is this why you are creating a new record for the wife?

Joe Moretti 3 · September 2023

@Bernard Nemis I would first ask yourself, what is the reason for creating a new record for the spouse and is it necessary. I ask this, since there is no such thing as being able to copy all of the information from one record to another. For gifts, you will have to go to each gift and soft-credit the spouse. All of the information you would want to “copy” has to be manually entered. If it is a little info, fine, but if it is much information, again ask yourself the reasoning for this.

Bernard Nemis · September 2023

@Joe Moretti
Thank you Joe. We have transitioned from 1 record for both spouses to separate records for husband and wife. Every now and then we would find a very active husband who has been married since. So the wife gets soft credited for all the gifts. We use the Attribute to tag lifetime and annual giving levels (so we tag both spouses), we use Appeals Tab for solicitation efforts we send to households (so we add the appeal to both spouses) and there are events where we invite both (so we add their records to the specific event as invitees).

Bernard Nemis · September 2023

@Austen Brown
Hi, Austen. That could be a case. I know the system prompts you to create a constituent record for the spouse if the other dies. I believe the gifts are automatically added to the surviving spouse, but the relationships (ie. children) do not.

Tatyana Leifman · September 2023

@Bernard Nemis the only way to do it would be to export all the data from the husband's record and import it into the wife's record. You'd need break it up into several export/imports--actions, relationships, etc. And you'd need to make sure you export all the fields that are used by your organization. It might be easier and simpler to export/import the most important data (such as attributes used for segmenting/recognition) and add a note that "for actions/notes etc prior to date ddmmyyyy consult the husband's record."

Karen Diener 2 · September 2023

@Joe Moretti:
For gifts, you will have to go to each gift and soft-credit the spouse. All of the information you would want to “copy” has to be manually entered.

Not necessarily. If they are still linked via the “Spouse” checkbox, you can soft credit all gifts at once. Open the record for the spouse who needs the soft credits, and on the menu bar, click “Constituent” and then “Soft Credit for Spouse Gifts”.

Karen Diener 2 · September 2023

@Bernard Nemis:
I know the system prompts you to create a constituent record for the spouse if the other dies. I believe the gifts are automatically added to the surviving spouse, but the relationships (ie. children) do not.

The system prompt is something that can be configured for each organization - it is not automatic. Just wanted to clarify that in case others stumble across this post in the future. It is in Config | Business Rules | Constituent Options | Deceased Options.

Austen Brown · September 2023

@Bernard Nemis - You can switch out the bio information on the record to be the wife's information and create the husband as a partial relationship record on the constituent record, marked as deceased. That way there is no need to figure out soft credits or how to copy all the data from the deceased record to the living spouse's new record.

Joe Moretti 3 · September 2023

@Karen DienerThat is correct if the spouse is on the record and linked, which if it was linked, I would assume the spouse is already getting soft-credited to begin with/ The scenario was not very clear about that though.

Bernard Nemis · September 2023

@Karen Diener
Thanks, Karen. This has been a saving grace for me. I wish there was a way to do this also for other information like the attributes, events, relationships. I appreciate your input.

Bernard Nemis · September 2023

@Austen Brown
Thank you for your input, Austen. I may think about adding, “please refer to husband's records” if anything. There's still potential issues there (ie. divorce, remarried… divorce again, etc.). But will see. ") Thank you.

Bernard Nemis · September 2023

@Tatyana Leifman
Thanks, Tatyana. I will look into that. I appreciate your input! ")

Elizabeth Johnson · September 2023

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@Bernard Nemis @Tatyana Leifman's setup of exporting and merging is great. If you just want to move a few things like attributes or actions you can move all of the items from one tab to the next in the database view using the merge function.

It will not keep a copy on the original record.

Also, I want to highlight that while yes you can soft credit a surviving spouse for the deceased hard credit gifts you can not copy over the soft credits so if they gave through a third party - Tatyana's method is golden.

Bernard Nemis · September 2023

@Elizabeth Johnson
Hi, Elizabeth. Thanks for chiming in. Yes, I considered and tried the merge, but unfortunately it doesn't copy but moves data from one record to another (too bad). And yes, I have been manually adding the wife as soft credit if the gift comes from a donor advised fund since automatic SC for spouses is only possible if the gift is directly recorded into the husband (or vise versa). I guess we can't have it all. ")

Elizabeth Johnson · September 2023

@Bernard Nemis - yes it was a long shot ? and wouldn't it be nice if we could have it all! ?

New Spouse Record Created... Best Way to Copy Data

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