Should we save actions under the individual record for the Org contact or under the Organization record?

Helen Normand

Hello Raiser's Edge community!


We are looking to get more consistent with our use of the actions function in relations to Organization records. 


Currently, when an email is sent to someone who is a relationship/contact (non constituent) in the organization, we save the action under the Organization record.


However, we are considering changing all non-constituent relationships to individual records so as to save communications/actions under those individual records rather than the organization record.. I'm looking to see what other users have done as far as this is concerned and what the pros and cons of keeping all actions under the org record vs. under the specific contact at that org would be.


Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!


Thank you in advance.

Ray Bergman

Moving this to the Raiser's Edge community.

Dariel Dixon

I think I would look at why you are corresponding to these people.  Is it because of the personal relationship, or is it simply because of the title?  I would think most NPOs have contacts in their database that act only as agents of their respective organizations, and some where the relationship is with the person, and not necessarily with the business.


Honestly, if the person is the most important, then it should go on the personal record.  However, if it's primarily with the organization, then maybe those actions should be there.  People change positions all the time, and to create individual records for people who are just contacts to save actions will make finding a complete story more difficult.  Especially if the people change often.  I also don't know if creating records for people who aren't prospects or donors for your organization is the best idea.  If the record only becomes a repository for those actions and nothing less, I'm not sure much is gained.  I don't know what happens to the record when that person is no longer a contact.  You won't want to delete the record because there's actions tied to it, and those actions are key for historical purposes not necessarily because of the person tied to the action, but because of the organization they represented at the time.  


With that said though...I kind feel like a bit of a hypocrite, as we usually create records for deceased individuals as a repository for tribute gifts.  *shrug*


 

JoAnn Strommen

Dariel Dixon‍ hit on the key points and great questions to consider for the future.  If someone is looking to see if the organization for notified about XYZ, are they going to look at org record or one of any number of individual records?  I would look on the org record.

Helen Normand

Thank you Dariel and JoAnn! 


I very much appreciate your input and agree with your points. It would make sense that we keep things under one record for historical purposes.