Such a fun topic!
Dariel's criteria are clearly stated and readily applied, and very close to our criteria. The only difference is that, while we would absolutely like to have contact information (and as many contact points as possible), our criteria focus on being able to differential this John Smith from all the other John Smiths in the world. Contact data is the usual way to do that, but sometimes we will, under the right circumstances, satisfy the requirement with some other triangulating data point, like this is the John Smith is a business associate of Mary Jones, or the John Smith who is the recipient of the Galactic Prize for Extreme Cleverness, etc. Sometimes all we know is that this is the John Smith who was referenced in a Benevity distribution and whose zip code is 12345. Sigh.
We're now in the process of implementing a new CRM whose architecture does not appear to allow the same structure as our legacy system, namely, that a spouse or child or guest or other relationship can be specified (ideally) as a link to another record or (alternatively) as a free text field where we type in the other person's name. Our initial design in the new CRM is to set up a second person record type, tentatively called "Non-Constituent Person," that would be designed for a stripped-down record that would have to be linked in one of a limited set of contexts, such as the child of a full Person constituent or a guest at an event where we don't have additional information about (or interest in). The design also includes the requirement that, if we do later develop additional interest (and have additional information to record), there will be an easy process to convert the Non-Constituent Person record to a Person record. And the same structure would apply to a Non-Constituent Organization, which we might use to list an employer in which we don't otherwise have an interest, etc.
How well will that work? No idea. It seems to have vanished into some downstream eddy of the implementation plan. I'm casting a line from time to time to try to pull it back out of the depths before we float past it....
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Alan S. Hejnal (he/him)
Smithsonian Institution
Washington DC
hejnala@si.edu
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-01-2025 11:09 AM
From: Dariel Dixon
Subject: When (or when not) to Add a New Constituent
This is always an interesting topic @Michael Adzovic. I have always tried to make these decisions simple; we create a new constituent when two criteria are met:
- We have a need to record a relationship with the organization or more information than can be recorded on a non-constituent record.
- We have all of the data needed to create the record. At my org, we require at least one method of communication as well as a name fields. At least some way to determine if this record may be a duplicate somewhere down the line. It seems obvious to say, but you would be surprised how often people ask for records to be created without the minimum amount of information.
Going back to number 1, this is where the decisions need to be made. For instance, attending as a guest would not be enough to warrant a constituent record, as there is no shown relationship with the organization. Attending as a guest of a constituent only shows a relationship to that entity. My organization defines a relationship by making a gift or being a prospect, having a defined relationship with the organization (i.e. Board, Employee, etc.), or having a defined action outside of a relationship with another constituent. For instance, if we have two married individuals who have different constituencies with the organization. A lot of these things depend on the business rules of your organization.
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Dariel Dixon
Chautauqua Institution
ddixon@chq.org
Original Message:
Sent: 04-23-2025 10:55 AM
From: Michael Adzovic
Subject: When (or when not) to Add a New Constituent
Greetings, Everyone!
As we have been pushing forward into our database conversion, we have been discussing when (or when not) to add a new constituent. Some examples include:
- Someone outside of our database volunteers as as part of our volunteer program.
- Someone attends an event as a guest of a constituent
I know that, ultimately, we need to decide what actions are valuable to us and detail those as part of a policy. I'm curious, though, if anyone else has detailed this. I would be grateful for a template to move our own efforts forward. Also, if anyone would like to share your thoughts in the thread, I would be grateful for your thought leadership.
Cheers!
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Michael Adzovic
Northern Illinois University Foundation
madzovic@niu.edu
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