Memorial Benches - best practices?

Aldera Chisholm:
Hi, I would love to get some "best practices" on this re: Raisers Edge entry. My org has Memorial Benches that donors can contribute to for a family member. My predecessor kept paper files only for the benches. I am trying to get a better system going. My current best idea is: 1. Enter the bench Honouree in as a constituent (usually but not always deceased) 2. The bench donation is flagged as a tribute to that honouree (may be multiple gifts to one bench) 3. On the honouree have attribute called Memorial Bench, including a table with drop-downs for the locations, and date field is the "purchase date." My question is - does anyone have any better suggestions? Our benches are only in place for ten years, so I'm thinking about a second attribute for "expired bench" to help track this. I can at least then run a query based on the purchase date to figure out which benches have been in place for ten years. I can't quite figure out where to put the plaque inscription in there. Maybe just as a note on the constituent file? My first step was taking all the individual paper files and compiling an excel spreadsheet, so that spreadsheet now has Honouree, Primary Contact, Location, Bench Plaque Inscription and maintenance notes. Thanks so much in advance! - Aldera

Sounds like it should work for you.  Other than the honouree as constituent, my only other thought was to enter them as an appeal.  If you have lots of benches that could make for a messy, large appeal list. 

We don't have the tribute module so don't know if there's a better option within that module. 

Aldera Chisholm:
Hi, I would love to get some "best practices" on this re: Raisers Edge entry. My org has Memorial Benches that donors can contribute to for a family member. My predecessor kept paper files only for the benches. I am trying to get a better system going. My current best idea is: 1. Enter the bench Honouree in as a constituent (usually but not always deceased) 2. The bench donation is flagged as a tribute to that honouree (may be multiple gifts to one bench) 3. On the honouree have attribute called Memorial Bench, including a table with drop-downs for the locations, and date field is the "purchase date." My question is - does anyone have any better suggestions? Our benches are only in place for ten years, so I'm thinking about a second attribute for "expired bench" to help track this. I can at least then run a query based on the purchase date to figure out which benches have been in place for ten years. I can't quite figure out where to put the plaque inscription in there. Maybe just as a note on the constituent file? My first step was taking all the individual paper files and compiling an excel spreadsheet, so that spreadsheet now has Honouree, Primary Contact, Location, Bench Plaque Inscription and maintenance notes. Thanks so much in advance! - Aldera

Of course that doesn't help with the location, but could that be coded in the description field of the tribute, bench plaque/maintenance in the notes...?