DeceasedRecordFinder and Spouses

Steven Koplin:
Does anyone have any experience using DeceasedRecordFinder with spouses? When processing married couples we confirm a deceased constituent and swap the spouse with the constituent. The deceased becomes a spouse relationship and the former spouse, now widow, becomes the constituent. However this is problematic when using DeceasedRecordFinder as these records must be processed manually... I'd love to hear how some of you handled this kind of situation. I've got over 5,600 deceased constituents of whom over 450 have a living spouse. Steven Manager of Development Records and Research The Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street New York NY 10128

Steven,

Sure don't envy you dealing with that situation.  My only recommendation for the future would be not to 'swap' them if you mean you change the names on the record and the relationship.  Instead use the configuration that is part of RE when a constituent is deceased to convert the spouse relationship to a constituent.  This has worked well for us and then we uncheck the 'spouse' box and all the addressee/salutations adjust also. 

Just my 2 cents..

Steven Koplin:
JoAnn, Thanks for your thoughts. Our policy has been in place long before I got here so we will continue it for the time being. The reason we swap spouses is that everything else in the record - relationships, addresses, giving histories, memberships, notes, - everything, stays with the widow. Some of it has to be tweaked - relationships, addresses, etc - but keeping the history is invaluable. Making the spouse a constituent in business rules would be a great solution if it could do all of the above... Steven

I understand.  Every user needs to make RE work for them.

The giving history can be maintained as is the preferred address.  I can see where you'd want membership info.  For us, most of relationships are specific to the spouse so don't need them on surviving spouse records - can always check deceased record if there's a question.  I agree the history is invaluable - we just keep some of it on the deceased record.

 And no it can't do all of the above, just some. If you haven't looked at the business rule options, these are the options listed in knowledgebase BB16844

 The following options are available. They determine what The Raiser's Edge will do when the Deceased checkbox is marked on the Bio 1 tab of a constituent record.

• Enter the current date as the deceased date - This options fills in today's date in the Deceased field as soon as the deceased checkbox is marked.
• Uncheck the "Send Mail?" for all the deceased's addresses - This marks all addresses for the deceased constituent so that they do not receive mail. The spouse is now mailed to regardless of who is marked as Head of Household.
• Make the deceased constituent an honor/memorial - If the Tribute module is present, constituents can automatically become honor/memorials when marked as deceased. This also allow for a default tribute type to be used, and for the tribute to be marked to receive gifts.
• Enter the current date as the "Date to" on all constituency codes - This option will fill in the current date on all constituency codes so that these codes are no longer valid for this constituent.
• Make the spouse a constituent - If the constituent has a spouse who is not already a constituent The Raiser's Edge can create that new record automatically.
• Soft credit the spouse for all gifts given - This will create soft credit entries on all the deceased constituent gifts so that the spouse will now show up in reports as being a soft credit donor.
• No longer soft credit deceased for gifts given by spouse - Keeps the deceased record from being included in any further soft credit gifts.
• Change the marital status of the records - This allows for male and female spouses to have the marital status changed from married to widowed.
• Make the spouse an acknowledgee on the tribute for the deceased - If the option is marked to automatically make the deceased an honor memorial and a tribute is created this option will place the spouse as an acknowledgee automatically.
• Prompt to update the spouse addressee/salutation - This prompts the users that spouse is now a widow so that addressee/salutations can be modified accordingly for correct mailings. The addressee must be updated manually or added globally to a group of records.

Steven Koplin:

JoAnn Strommen:

Steven,

Sure don't envy you dealing with that situation.  My only recommendation for the future would be not to 'swap' them if you mean you change the names on the record and the relationship.  Instead use the configuration that is part of RE when a constituent is deceased to convert the spouse relationship to a constituent.  This has worked well for us and then we uncheck the 'spouse' box and all the addressee/salutations adjust also. 

Just my 2 cents..

JoAnn, Thanks for your thoughts. Our policy has been in place long before I got here so we will continue it for the time being. The reason we swap spouses is that everything else in the record - relationships, addresses, giving histories, memberships, notes, - everything, stays with the widow. Some of it has to be tweaked - relationships, addresses, etc - but keeping the history is invaluable. Making the spouse a constituent in business rules would be a great solution if it could do all of the above... Steven

I agree with Steven...we struggle with reporting giving data for the surviving spouse if it is only in a soft credit?  Is there a process for doing this that others have found workable?