Do you have a policy on when to create records for new organizations?

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My boss wants to develop a policy on when to add organizations to the database if we do not have a relationship with them yet.



Generally, I have been creating records when I do research on a company or foundation.



Her suggestion is to create a record for an organization when we reach out to them, regardless of the response so that we no that we have made the attempt.
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  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen Community All-Star
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    We add the record when we have the information.  We do not require that they be contact.  Contact can be recorded in attributes/notes etc later.  We use a constituency code of 'prospective donor' for those type of records.
  • At my organisation (a University with a RE database of Alumni), we add an organisation to the RE database when this organisation is linked to a constituent/alumni, i.e. when we receive the employment information of an alumni. We only add the most basic information of this organisation to RE: the organisation name and (if the information is easily found on the internet) the physicial address. 



    When an organisation is linked to a lot of our constituents (alumni), then we add more details, like the contact info (general/contact phonenumbers, website, emailaddresses). We do the same when this organisation donates cash (or is a prospect).
  • You can indicate that an individual works at an organization without creating a record for the organization itself.  I wouldn't think it would be necessary to creat an organization record for the employer if you were not interested in establishing a relationship with that organization.  For example, an alum works for a small company on the opposite coast that has nothing to do with your university.  It is therefore highly unlikely to contribute or be involved in any events.  In this case, I would list the the employee's job under relationships, but I would not create a separate record for the employer.
  • Larry Ladutke:

    You can indicate that an individual works at an organization without creating a record for the organization itself.  I wouldn't think it would be necessary to creat an organization record for the employer if you were not interested in establishing a relationship with that organization.  For example, an alum works for a small company on the opposite coast that has nothing to do with your university.  It is therefore highly unlikely to contribute or be involved in any events.  In this case, I would list the the employee's job under relationships, but I would not create a separate record for the employer.



    If you don't create a relationship record for an organization, you cannot see how many constituents work for or are linked to a particular company. At our organization we would like to know how many constituents (alumni) work for which companies.



    For example: I would like to know how many and which persons are working for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. If the organization is not added as a record you might get lots of different company names (PWC, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Price Water House Coopers etc etc...) and thus, you cannot use the company name to make a query to see how many people work at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. By adding the organization as a record you can go to record itself and rightmouseclick on the relationship list and get an immediate list. Or make a query with the correct company name. Etc.





     

  • When the need arises.  In both of your examples you'll want to add the Org record.  It's a fundraising management system so includes prospecting.  When you get the lead, you'll want to enter it.  Then when you research and/or reach out, you'll want to add Actions.

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