Spouses as separate constituents - would like opinions

Ann Milkowski:

We had this discussion when I first started at my current organization.  Their process had been to just have one record for the household, but then history was being lost if the non-primary spouse attended an event by themselevs, joined a committee, we had notes just specific to them, etc.  These were not being captured in any logical way, and then the development office was wondering why they could not easily see if that spouse attended an event by themselves or not, etc.  



Now our process is we start with one record for the couple, with whoever we have the "closer" relationship to as the primary, otherwise we default to having the husband be the primary.  At any point, if the non-primary spouse attended an event on their own, makes a donation just from themselves, joins a committee, volunteers, etc. they are immediately broken out into their own full record (of course staying linked as spouses).  Then moving forward, if we have any actions, notes, relationships, etc. that pertain to both spouses they are added to each record, otherwise information just specific to each spouse is put on their own record.  It seemed this might be cumbersome with entering some things twice, but it really only takes moments to add them to both.  We now have a business rule when if a record is opened and their spouse has a full record as well, a window pops up saying the spouse has a full record.  That way the user knows they can also check the spouse record for any additional information they may be looking for.  



This process has worked really well for us.  We don't have a ton of them, but it really helps with better accuracy when pulling lists on who came to events, is on a committee, etc.  We also felt it makes us look more "on top of it" when we can easily address letters to just the spouse who came to the event or gave a donation, and not just address it to the household.  I know there are ways to still do these things with just one record for the household, but this really streamlined the process and made things much easier.  



 

Thank you! I like this approach as a compromise. It can just be hard when typically the women are the primary right off the bat with giving and volunteering, and since the men are automatically the constituent (and always the HoH and decision-maker in development's view), it would be more manual work than I'd prefer. But then reducing my own workload might be selfish

JoAnn Strommen:

I read Kate's post more than twice.  Thought it ironic that development wants one record and database admin two.  Seems like it's usually the opposite.  Can't imagine that development would not want the detail provided by separate records.

Ann Milkowski:

For our organization it really isn't the man who automatically is the primary and gets marked as the HOH.  If it was the woman who first made a donation, reached out to volunteer, etc. she is made the primary so there really isn't much "clean-up".  

Ellen Turner:

I work at a JK-12 school, and we have 1 record per household. Generally the male is the lead record (there is a set rule of exceptions). We track participation in the PA Board (either as grade reps or officers) in attributes with the appropriate parent name, and attendance at events in Actions. We also use specific addressee/salutations for the spouse who is on the PA Board or has other roles.



When spouses divorce, then the one who was linked gets her own record and we soft credit all of the previous gifts and copy the attributes and actions as appropriate.



If the lead spouse dies, then we flip the records.



If a current parent marries another current parent, each one keeps their own record and we give one record an attribute that will exclude them from mailings so they don't get duplicates of everything.