Updating Deceased Records

Published

Have you ever read through a particularly lengthy obituary and then thought – wow, I feel like I know so much about this person now? Obituaries can be very specific, but they can also be really helpful – especially if your job is to update information about people in your database.

At International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), we add obituaries to each record in our database that we mark as deceased. We’ve implemented this best practice as a way to record deaths as well as a way to obtain information about donors. Even though an obituary is marking the end of a life, the information it provides can be invaluable to our organization. It’s a great way to learn birthdays, names of family members, and even church membership. Sometimes, we learn that the family members of the deceased have requested that donations be made to our organization in lieu of flowers!

While you may spend several minutes searching the internet for these obituaries, we think it’s worth it!

News Organizational Best Practices Blog 07/24/2017 1:30pm EDT

Added by Kirsten Mathisen

32 Comments

Sue Christensen Jul '19

We do this as well! So helpful!

Kristine Marvin Mar '19

Good blog. We also attach obituaries to deceased records. You feel like you have learned about a donors whole life in a snap-shot.

Melanie Lachcik Mar '19

Thanks for the tip and insight!

Marilyn Bellemore Mar '19

We do the same. Obituaries are a great source of information.

Austen Brown Mar '19

Legacy.com is a great resource! In addition to adding the obituary to the constituent's record, we also note if the obituary directs friends and family to make a donation in lieu of flowers to our organization.

Elizabeth Hall Jun '18

Thanks for your insight Kirsten!

Susan Chomsky Jun '18

Adding the obit, sending condolences and recognizing relationships to the donor help to round out the records. Thank you for the info.

KaLeigh Lee Jun '18

Great ideas - thanks! We read the daily newspaper and update obits that way, but how do you handle out of area updates? Do you include the actual obituary as a media file, or do you just mark the const. as deceased with the death date?

Lawrence Rush Jun '18

We also add obituaries to our deceased constituents. They usually offer a lot of information and help us fill out the relationships tab.

Christopher Blitz Jun '18

When you refer to adding obituaries, are you just saving as a pdf and adding to the Media section of the D.B.? Please advise.

Becky Rine Jun '18

Great post! We routinely attach the obituary of a constituent who has passed, and our alumni magazine publishes the alums we lost since our last publication. When we are fortunate enough to receive contributions in the name of the deceased to fund awards, the obits and other notes come especially in handy to help in preparing the award honoree description.

Jayme Klein Jun '18

Great topic, Kirsten! I have numerous Google alerts set up, including one for just the university that I work for. Every obituary that we find is entered into the Notes section of their record. I also pull out pertinent information (such as spouse or family member's names) and add that in as well.

Shawn Silva May '18

This is a great best practice, thanks for sharing!

Katie Vitale May '18

I read so many of these too. It's great for the birth and death dates and family member names and relationships. Many of our records are for children. It's really hard to find obituaries for them. Any tips?

Terri Chambers May '18

I agree with some folks, it's a shame to learn so much about someone after they died. Too bad we didn't know this or that about them when they were with us...so use your connections wisely and smart!

Marc Seal May '18

While I hate to hear of anyone's passing, a well stocked obituary can be a treasure trove of information for a record. Great blog!

Emily Herberich Apr '18

This is a good idea, and something that my organization does when we can. This is a good practice to make a regular habit.

Claire Gardien Apr '18

Very helpful!

Austen Brown Apr '18

Completely agree. Obituaries are an under rated source of great information.

Jennifer Warner Apr '18

We use Blackbaud's data services to run a deceased check annually to catch anyone for whom we didn't find an obituary. We have many donors that live all over the country and that helps keep the data cleaner. Sadly, the deceased check stopped offering exact dates of death, but it is still very valuable for us.