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Why would you ever want to delete a record that has a gift on it. There is certainly an argument for deleting records without any activity on them for a long period of time (although I don't agree with that either) but I don't think that there is ever a reason for deleting constituents who have given to you. They are obviously a prospect for a bigger gift some time in the future.
Never delete a record with a gift on it. I would suggest that you should never delete any constituent in your system. If you have clear reasons why they were entered in the first place, and this is not a clear duplicate constituent, then it is very easy to mark them as inactive, and just leave them alone. You never know when they will resurface as an active constituent in the future.
I agree with the above posters. Every gift is part of your organization's financial record. I do not see any reason for deleting someone who has given to you. You can code them in many ways to reflect their characteristics. i.e.attributes, solicit codes, constituent codes and so on.
__________________ Anne Marie
I was born with nothing, and I still have most of it.
As with everyone else - it is our policy to never delete a record with a gift. If you find the database too large, then maybe going "inactive" or coding them to be excluded from tallies would be advisable.
__________________ Sage
Advancement Database and Records Manager
Grand View University www.grandview.edu
My thought is that IRS says you only have to keep financial records for 7 years. If someone hasn't donated in that time and doesn't respond to leters or emails, I don't see why we should keep them in the data base.
My thought is that IRS says you only have to keep financial records for 7 years. If someone hasn't donated in that time and doesn't respond to leters or emails, I don't see why we should keep them in the data base.
Is the primary function of your database to provide documentation to the IRS or to steward your donors and support your organization? If the only reason for your database is to provide documentation to the IRS, go ahead and delete them. On the other hand, if the primary function of your database is to support your organization, then keep the records.
Our database is designed to serve our organization, so we keep the records.
Drew
__________________ J. Drew Allen
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Crystal Reports and SQL Server Consultant
It is better to live your destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.
A Board Member come to you and suggest that Joe and Sally Smith would be great prospects and you should have your ED make a personal visit. So you call the Smith's to set up the appointment only to hear "We used to support but we got angry at what you were doing ten years ago and stopped. Don't you have that on our record?" -- All records should be kept for historical reference. If, for no other reason, than to explain to the Smith's that "Yes, we do have that on our records, but our ED would like to talk to you and see if things have changed enough that you might become a supporter once again." or to the Board Member the Smith's history with your organization. Mark them inactive, Do Not Solicit or Do Not Mail, but keep them.
__________________ Nina T. Williams The Cleveland Institute of Art Making Art Work
Does anyone track race and ethnicity? Curently IPEDS is changing the way you capture race and ethnicity. Currently in the Raisers edge I only see there is a field with Ethnicity. Does anyone know if you can capture race and ethnicity in the Raisers Edge? Thanks
__________________ Anna Wilk
Saint Xavier University
773-298-3328 a.wilK@sxu.edu
Anna,
There are several fields on the Bio 2 that you can customize to display as something else. So, for example, if you don't use the birthplace field, you can change it to display as Race, and make it a Look-up (table)field. Alternatively, you could track it as a Constituent Attribute. Either ay, I strongly suggest you make it a table value to keep it consistent.
Good luck!
__________________ Sandy Wilder
President
Leading Edge Software Solutions www.LESSllc.com
Does anyone track race and ethnicity? Curently IPEDS is changing the way you capture race and ethnicity. Currently in the Raisers edge I only see there is a field with Ethnicity. Does anyone know if you can capture race and ethnicity in the Raisers Edge? Thanks
I like Sandy's suggestion but if you do not want to use another field you could change your drop down in the ethnicity lookup to have combo fields. Race1-Ethnicity1, Race1-Ethnicity2, Race2- Ethnicity1, etc.
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