Some organizations choose to include more than one individual in a singular contact profile, instead of creating households within 'Donor Management'. This is most commonly used for couples who consistently give together, or a parent-child relationship who give together frequently.
There are two options when choosing how to manage contacts inlcuding more than one donor. Below we have listed the “pros” and “cons” of each one, to help you decide which works best for your organization’s needs.
Tip: As a best practice, we highly encourage asking donors how they prefer to be addressed, recognized, and communicated with.
Option 1: Members are entered separately into a contact profile
Pros:
a *|First Name|* merge tag can be used for e-mail, letter, text, and video correspondence to each individual within the relationship
each individual can create a login to 'Fundraising Pages' that links their donations to the corresponding profile (tracking, communications, donations, etc.)
individuals can be flagged in “relationships” with other contacts in the database without impacting the other’s data records
each individual can be flagged as the “point of contact” for an organization in the database (if applicable)
two or more individuals can still be added to a “household” for joint communications via direct mail
Cons:
if each member of the couple donates to the organization, the total giving of the couple cannot be easily pulled using filters within 'Donor Management'
if a donation is entered for one member of the couple, the other will show up as a “non-donor,” even though the total number of donations of the household is still visible in the household profile
when creating households, only one member can marked as the 'Head of Household'
if the couple chooses to file separately when reporting donations to the IRS, it can be challenging to determine who gave what
Option 2: Couples are listed together in one profile
Pros:
the total giving history of the couple is tracked in one contact profile
the total number of contacts being managed is fewer than if individuals were entered separately
Cons:
when the *|First Name|* merge tag is used, both names are included, even though the correspondence is sent separately to each individual; you risk offending one member of the couple by listing them second – or potentially only sending the correspondence to one individual and not the other
it is impossible to know which member of the couple any relationships listed apply to
if one individual is a "point of contact" for an organization, both individuals would be listed as such
Tracking Donations
When multiple individuals are entered into a singular profile, all gifts are listed as coming from each individual – which may or may not be accurate.
When individuals within a relationship choose to donate independently, we recommend tracking them separately.
That said, having a clear picture of the total giving history of everyone in a couple or a household is crucial. If you have decided to enter individuals separately, it is important to carefully manage and monitor the donation history of the couple through the 'Households' feature.
Our recommendation when entering a gift from one member of a couple sharing an individual contact profile is to assign 'Soft Credit' to the other. This allows you to create filters within 'Donor Management' to identify and segment all your donors (including those with 'Soft Credit') or all non-donors (those without 'Soft Credit').
Tip: Document your organization's process for managing and tracking this information so your data remains accurate and consistent!
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