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  • 1.  Policy for deceasing a record

    Posted 08-29-2024 07:25 AM

    Morning all - does anyone have a written policy that outlines what evidence would be accepted as sufficient to decease a record? Obituary and notice from family are obviously the preferred, but we often have deaths reported via word of mouth or social media and unless we can find an obit to confirm, I hesitate to decease the record for reasons that are hopefully obvious.

    I am not currently looking for suggestions for how to confirm these deaths - I am specifically hoping to draft a policy that outlines what evidence is acceptable vs what would require confirmation via research and wondered if anyone else has gone down this road. I did a search in past discussions and found the discussion of 100yo+ alums from 2022 which is slightly related but not quite what I'm looking for, though I now plan to explore adding a Presumed Dead indicator into our CRM for those situations (no native capacity for this so it would likely have to be an attribute).

    Thanks for any insight you can share!



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    Erin DesMarais
    Phillips Academy, Andover MA
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  • 2.  RE: Policy for deceasing a record

    Posted 08-30-2024 10:00 AM
    Hi Erin,

    A record should only be deceased based on primary information: an obituary, notification from family, lising in a government registry, or the Deceased Do Not Contact registry. Any other form of notification should trigger a research action to confirm the death from a primary source. While a social media post from a family member is a primary source, though it is prudent to seek corroboration for this type of announcement, by e.g. contacting the funeral home named in the announcement.


    Thank you,
    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    Sage70, Inc.
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

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