Mrs. X - Just an initial for the last name

Joelle BerubeCheng
Joelle BerubeCheng
Seventh Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions
Hi Everyone!


This may have been covered in a previous thread but I am looking for some advice or direction on dealing with records where someone entered their information into a form for a registration or to receive the e-newsletter and they only put an initial as their last name. Does anyone find this problematic? Do you feel it muddies your data? Do you have a workaround for this? Let me know your thoughts!!


Thanks!

Joelle

Comments

  • Dariel Dixon
    Dariel Dixon Community All-Star
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply PowerUp Challenge #3 Gift Management
    It's problematic, but what alternative do you have?  Maybe you could find some information that might lead to a gift, but other than that, do you have another solution?  I'd probably look to purge that record after a year if there are no actions or gifts associated with them.  
  • Joelle BerubeCheng
    Joelle BerubeCheng
    Seventh Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1
    Thanks! I really appreciate your thoughts on this. 
  • roger berg
    roger berg Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 PowerUp Challenge: Data Health #3 PowerUp Challenge #3 Gift Management
    Did they put an address on the form or just an e-mail? If e-mail maybe contact them for more complete information. If address, do a reverse lookup online.
  • Phillip Bicknell
    Phillip Bicknell
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 1 Participant Facilitator 1
    Where there's literally no valid characters, we use a full-stop (US: period).


    And being in Europe (UK until the end of the year, but still likely governed by GDPR), we wouldn't attempt to find more data about a supporter by other means. We just work with what the supporter has supplied. So in such a case we'd most likely use Friend for both Addressee and Salutation.


    In fact, the day after GDPR came into force I took a call from a supporter who wanted to know what data we held about her and how much we'd delete - I talked her through it and she went away very happy, and has continued to donate since.


    So maybe your Mrs X is sensitive to privacy concerns. But if she donates, attends, etc then what's the problem? Judge her by what she does, not by how she self-identifies!


    My final word on this - I work for a campaigning charity that has implacable, hostile and violent opponents - so some of our supporters choose to use an alias for as much as they can.
    https://www.league.org.uk/News/fox-hunt-supporters-given-suspended-prison-sentences-for-brutal-attack-on-league-investigators 

     

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