[hainslie]

Hello all!

Does anyone have a policy as to when a constituent gets marked inactive and is removed from mailing lists etc.?

Thanks,
Heather

[Peter Gulka]

for individuals it is use din extreme cases where they absolutely want
nothing to do with us ever again and they threaten to burn our house down.


For orgs it's for the same reasons or when they go out of business

[Anne Marie]

We actually treat "inactive" and removing from mailing lists separately.

If someone asks to be removed from a mailing list, we don't automatically code them as "inactive" (you're referring to the checkbox, I assume).

We only use the Inactive checkbox when basically there is no hope that we'll ever get support from that person again. In particular people who are incapacitated ie. seriously ill folks, elderly people who have moved into care homes and have given all their funds to care etc.

No one has threatened to burn our house down yet, but if they did, as Peter has suggested, we would make them Inactive too. Who needs that kind of action??

[andrea.bbbs]

I mark individual records inactive if they have given at least once but they moved and I cannot hunt them down. I mark organizations inactive if they have gone out of business but have donated at least once. I do confess to recently going through and (very carefully) doing a global delete of all records at least 10 years old that have never given even once.

[Melissa Siobhan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrea.bbbs

I do confess to recently going through and (very carefully) doing a global delete of all records at least 10 years old that have never given even once.

I would never do this as the fact that they were solicited and were unresponsive is important data to me. If I deleted it and then in 6 months someone wants to solicit them again I have lost the appeal history to show that they are not a good prospect.

Melissa

[andrea.bbbs]

Yes - that is very true. But these records had NO data except the Bio1, Bio2 and Address. No history, no relationships, no appeals, no donations, no attributes. To me they were a waste of space.

[Nina Williams]

We have a couple of levels of "Inactive" or "Removed". If a person requests to be removed, we check the inactive box, save their address and then change their preferred address to removed and give an attribute of Do Not Mail -- Donor request or Do not mail -- hostile. We never inactivate an alumni/ae unless deceased with no spouse.
But for other individuals, we are currently working through the database. We are making them inactive if; 1. they haven't given in more that 5 years, 2. they used to live here but moved out-of-town, and haven't given recently; 3. were added to the database before we moved to RE (9/2004) and have had no activity since; 4. we have no idea why they are in the DB, no indo, not activity etc. - but we do not delete them.
Corporations/Foundations and Orgs are only made "Inactive" if they merged into another company, when out of business or otherwise dropped of the planet. We have primary and secondary attributes for Corps/Fdns/Orgs and only Primary get all mailings.
Hope this helps

[marcin]

i notice no one mentioned deceased constituents. isn't that the definition of being inactive?

[andrea.bbbs]

It depends on which plane they are on. Maybe they are active somewhere else.

[Elaine Tucker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrea.bbbs

It depends on which plane they are on. Maybe they are active somewhere else.

Andrea,

U are soooooooooooo invited to our AU. (Alternate Universe)...

There is a different check box for deceased. But technically yea, they would be inactive in the Database

[DrewAllen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcin

i notice no one mentioned deceased constituents. isn't that the definition of being inactive?

We have a lot of memorials in our database. Even though the constituent is deceased, their records are often still quite active.

Drew

[Elaine Tucker]

Drew - excellent point!

[marcin]

true, memorials are important, but does the inactive button somehow stop memorials or memorial giving? this hasn't been my experience.

[Peter Gulka]

for some reason I've noticed a lot of people in many different orgs really
trying to "make sure" about some piece of information and entering it
multiple times in multiple places... you know.... just to be sure.


I inherited a database at my new job with people who did just that and the
result is you can't trust the data. You need to take the time to really get
solid definitions for how your org uses each and every field and stick to
them.

If someone is deceased then you mark them as deceased. Marking them Inactive
as well dramatically changes the picture of who they are/were.

Case in point: I show up at my new job in April to find peopel who have no
valid address are:

1) haivng their address fields deleted, so they just have a blank address
2) bieng marked as don't send newsletter (you know... just to be sure we
don't send a nerwsletter to a bad address)
3) "No Valid Address" is not being used

Net result - we get a new address for these people and now I have no way to
know if they were marked not to receive the newsletter becuase they actually
requested it or if it was just because we didn't have an address for them.
Now I'm stuck - If I mark them "Yes" people are going to call me and
complain that "I TOLD YOU not to send the newsletter", or if I don't
"Where's my newsletter?!?!"



If they are deceased, do my heart some good and just use the deceased
checkbox. Do it for me. And the children. Think of the children.

[DrewAllen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcin

true, memorials are important, but does the inactive button somehow stop memorials or memorial giving? this hasn't been my experience.

I was just pointing out that being "deceased" is not enough to meet our definition of "inactive". Our definition is that the record has been merged with another record and is pending deletion.

Drew

[andrea.bbbs]

Elaine - thanks for the invite - but so many Universes, so little time. As a practicing Space Cadet I have so many bookings....

Of course remembering where, when and

What was I saying?