Addressees/Salutations

Elena Koutouzos

Hello there,


I am new to RE, and I was wondering if anyone would mind sharing their policies & procedures for addressees & salutations? Anything with examples would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance.


Take Care,

Elena

JoAnn Strommen

When I began in RE I didn't do anything in with addressee/salutation for several months. We had a primary add/sal of single person formal format.  After I saw what we generally used and wanted I began set up of our procedures.  


I rearranged order of add/sal to create at the top of the drop down these formats:

1. Single, formal add  Mr. John Smith
2. Single, formal sal  Mr. Smith
3. Single, informal, add  John Smith
4. Single, informal, sal    John
5. Joint, formal add - used smart features so we could have this format on all records,  couples or singles  Mr. & Mrs. John Smith
6. Joint, formal sal -  ditto smart function  Mr. & Mrs. Smith
7. Joint, informal add - ditto smart function  John & Sue Smith
8. Joint informal sal - ditto smart function John & Sue
9. Last name, first name (single)   
10. Last name, first name & spouse first name  ----  This format I used for reports.  So much easier to search and review with last name is first.

This was followed by a break using symbols and then joint formats to accommodate different last names.

Another break and formats switching so spouse name was first for joint formats.

I also created "Anonymous" "Friends" and one or two other formats we regularly used.

The set of 10 formats was a default set and part of new constituent batches so was entered on all individual records. 


Another thing to consider is how you will track recognition listings.  At this org, we had add type of Recognition - ABC / Recognition - XYZ say for annual fund, endowment donor.  This worked well for us. Anyone making gift to annual fund.  This addressee line was entered.


I'm still in first year at current org and still evaluating their system.  They use formal primary add and sal. Have a recognition listing and then a "Preferred Addressee" and "Preferred Salutation" that will pull in informal or joint with spouse format.  This is set up in letters to use as first option. It's seems to be working well for their procedures. 


My tips:

• Avoid using the editable box unless no other options. 
• If your org is new to RE, decide what you need to start. How do you address most correspondence.  If you can take some time to evaluate and see what your needs are and think about what they might be as you continue to grow. It is possible to add more formats as you need them.
• The formats can look very similar but with different names, change significantly. Restructure the order of the drop down with desired formats at the top. 

Keri Barnhart

Since you are a college, consider not using any titles at all for most of your standard add/sals. You will have a larger number of "Dr." or "Prof." than non-colleges, but also it can be difficult to know for sure if someone prefers those titles!


As your alumni - especially the young women - age up and marry, you will have to deal with name changes. This means using "Ms." or "Mrs." can be troublesome - they don't always tell you their preference until you get it wrong! You'll also find that more young alumni are eschewing the traditional titles altogether as they identify as a non-binary gender (or just because!), and that can make add/sals tricky to establish and keep simple.


You would, of course, still store this information if you have it available, but only use it for a top-level formal add/sal designation for formal invitations, letters, etc., that would typically go to your top donors or partners. For most of your mailings, use a full name with no title at all. I believe that many of the larger colleges and universities are doing this, but many haven't transitioned yet or are in the midst of determining exactly what their preference is for the transition.


My biggest recommendation is to echo JoAnn Strommen‍ about avoiding the "editable" checkbox wherever you can - it leads to headaches in the future! - and suggest keeping the set-up as simple as possible. When organizing the config table for add/sal formulas, you can create "dummy" formulas with numbers, such as "1 - Default Individual Options"; "2 - Informal Joint", "3 - Formal Joint", "4 - Household" etc - this both helps visually when scrolling through the drop-down when adding to a record, and the number prefixes allow you to jump directly to the group you need.


(If a record doesn't have all the name fields filled in and you use the drop-down, it can appear to have a lot of identical names. This is especially the case when the constituent doesn't have a spouse - Mr. John Smith looks the same as Mr. [and Mrs.] John Smith or Mr. John Smith [and Mrs. Jane Doe] - there is no Mrs. Jane to put in, so those parts are left empty.


The process I use when starting a new add/sal project is this:

1. Determine where you use add/sals or other name recognitions

2. Decide what styles you want those uses to have - make sure you have a variety of name data combinations!

• Single Individual, with or without middle name, with or without complete first name, with or without suffix, etc.

• Couple, where both have the same title, only one has a known title, one uses a middle name, both use middle names, different last names, both have suffixes, etc.

• Reverse Couple, where the constituent whose record pulls into the data set is not the person you want to be listed first in an add/sal. (if you don't want Mrs. and Mr. Betsy Smith!)

3. Is there overlap in any of these styles? Can you reduce any of them to descriptive categories that work for multiple uses? If so, define what those categories are and create a policy for matching the category to the use, and an alternate category if the first one isn't available (RE provides Addressee Processing in Export, Mail, and Reports that gives you a Preferred and Backup style)

4. Go into the Add/Sal Config and make sure the list of configurable formulas includes everything you need to use.and then remove anything you don't need.

5. Go into the Add/Sal Type Tables in Config and list your assignable categories - Formal, Informal, Nametag, etc. - also make sure you know which ones every constituent needs or only some constituents need!

6. Perform some basic queries to divvy up your constituents and non-constituent contacts according to their name field data, if relevant, and use a Global process or Import to assign your new add/sal categories and formats to the records.

7. Establish which category or format you want to see in your exports, reports, and mail parameters. Set up any defaults such as in BBNC or through the "Constituent" menu on a record, down in the "Load Defaults from..." option.


I hope this helps you! And if you need detailed instructions on how to start a clean-up project for add/sals, if you search the forums, you will find some ridiculously detailed help from me and JoAnn and others this summer.

Elena Koutouzos

Thank you so much for your feedback, JoAnn and Keri. While I am still new to RE, the college has been using it for years. There are some things I would like to do to make a bit less antiquated, but I wanted to get feedback from others before making any changes. The biggest changes I would like to make would be removing the use of titles in all addressees and salutations. For salutations I would like to use first names (or nicknames, if available) to make things more personal. Below you mention that titles should only be used for formal mailings and letters. Would you see any harm in not using titles for these? Also, I was curious when addressing joint addressees/salutations which spouse to list first. My thought was to list the spouse whose record I'm on first. The issue I would run into with that would be listing the male on a record 1st who is a junior or senior, etc. For example, it wouldn't really be correct to put John and Jane Doe, Jr.  And lastly, when I record gifts that are checks, I put them on the record of the person who signed the check. However, if I know the other person listed on the check is the spouse would it make sense to use a joint addressee/salutations as a preferred addressee/salutation? Do any organizations typically put joint addressee/salutation as the preferred addressee/salutations?

Jane Van Ingen

Elena:


First, I want to echo what Keri and JoAnn mentioned. In addition to not using editable, I would avoid using additional addressee and salutations.


Yes, I have joint addressee and salutations for a donor and their spouse/partner. This can get a bit tricky, especially with hyphenated names and couples (straight and lgbt) with different last names. You will have to tweak it based on the couple, but in general (and esp. for older couples), I would say yes.


Good luck!


Jane

JoAnn Strommen

You don't have to restructure entire add/sal to use first names. If you have that format on records, you can chose it for your letters.


Previous org, we used informal - first names for 99% of our communication.  The primary format on record was formal (just how we ended up when we started with BB - if I were starting over for them I'd probably switch formal/informal) but the selection used in letters was informal joint add/sal. We used joint add/sal for all receipts/thank yous. What you format your letters/receipts for does not have to be the primary format on an individual record. 


Regarding use of titles - we use for invitations to endowment banquet, some people want their titles used all the time.  As a university, a lot of alum are proud of that "Dr." title. With culture today, using Mr/Mrs/Ms is less common and a lot trickier to track.


Which spouse first is open for debate.  There are old discussions on that. Some say Mr. & Mrs. - male first, some say ladies first. 

Do you have a high # of records with suffixes? Is it a large enough issue to base your decision on?

Elena Koutouzos

All very helpful information, JoAnn. Thank you again. I may consider leaving the Dr. title for those who are. I will attempt to run a query to see if I can determine how many records we have with suffixes. 

Keri Barnhart

Oh, Elena, we are peas in a pod! ?


I had many of the same questions and thought processes when I was proposing an overhaul to my university's add/sal policies two years ago (implemented them last year). I'm at a social services org now that focuses on the elderly, so it's a very different constituency and donor base, and I had to recalibrate my brain to the different add/sal needs.


Anyway, here is what we went with, after approval from our leadership and board, in the order of your questions:

• Using Titles: Only use Titles such as Dr, Prof, etc., when explicitly asked to by the donor OR in formal situations - invitations to the annual president's gala, the president's inauguration, etc. Anything else automated such as receipts or the university magazine would eschew titles. We did not have a policy for personal communications from development officers or deans or anything - and if we had students writing notes, we would give them an option.
• Name Order: To simplify the formulas and make it very clear which spouse's record is pulled for a mailing, we did not use "reverse" add/sals and used the full name for each. [Margaret J. Smith and John J. Smith, Jr.] OR [Michael R. Jones and Jillian K. White-Jones] would match to the same formula and we wouldn't need to worry about where the suffix lies or what happens if the spouses have different last names. If they're linked as spouses, Constituent A's record always reads A and B, Constituent B's record always reads B and A.
• Determining Name Order: We did have to verify which spouse was head of household to properly prefer certain records over others if we had data pulls that included both, but that was a matter of "who is the alumni" and "who has the stronger relationship". Most times, this only mattered with our major donors or most active alumni/board members, in which case we would be reviewing those records manually on a regular basis anyway.
• Using Joint Names: We used 3 basic add/sal for everyone: Primary Addressee, Primary Salutation, and Informal Addressee. The Primary Salutation was always the person's preferred name, which can be paired with either a more formal full name (Primary Addressee) or a simplified preferred first + last (Informal Addressee). Joint versions were exactly the same, but "and [spouse]". Within RE, you can specify that on receipts or acknowledgement letters, Joint Primary Addressee is preferred, and if it doesn't exist, use Primary Addressee.
• Salutation Names: Finally, to answer the first name question out of order, we set up a rule that everyone had to have a preferred name / nickname. The First Name field would be their first name - and if that's their preferred name, it's also the preferred name. However, not everyone would have a complete first name. If someone was only known to us as "J. Michael Jones", the first name would be "J. Michael" and the middle name would be blank. The preferred name would be "Michael". This made it easier for our name formulas in the config, and if the default name was pulled, we would have more useful information than simply "J. M. Jones". (I'm not sure if this makes sense...but it's definitely something that I found very helpful after years of working with the name fields!)

We ended up having some trouble with people who go by "J. Michael Jones" formally and use "Mike" as their preferred name if we also know their full first name - often because of alumni records. I set an attribute for names to track folks who explicitly said they want us to address them with a formal title at all times, and ended up creating another table item for folks who use their middle name, which I incorporated into QA queries to assign the correct formulas using import or global functions. But whenever possible, I tried to use the default formulas and not deviate!


Some of the more complicated name matching is best done using multiple Excel formulas and an attribute, especially if you want to only allow a very limited range of options in the drop-down add/sal menus.


My recommendation for a policy/process for ✨Fancy Names✨ is to establish A) when to use a fancy formal name, an Excel workbook with stored formulas, and C) an export parameter with all of your name fields that you can dump into the Excel workbook and then match to your mailing list file, or re-import to RE as a temporary overwritten "Editable" Add/Sal assignment.


Your export would need the following - and be sure to select "both" on the Head of Household processing:

CONSTITUENT

- Constituent ID

- Import ID

- First Name

- Middle Name

- Last Name

- Preferred Name

- Suffix 1 [ reserved for familial suffixes such as Jr, Sr)

- Suffix 2 [reserved for professional affiliations]

- Title 1 [Addressee title - The Honorable...]

- Title 2 [Salutation title if different - Senator...]

- Gender

- Relevant attributes for how this person prefers their name

CONSTITUENT SPOUSE

- Is head of household?

- Constituent ID

- Import ID

- First Name

- Middle Name

- Last Name

- Preferred Name

- Suffix 1 [ reserved for familial suffixes such as Jr, Sr)

- Suffix 2 [reserved for professional affiliations]

- Title 1 [Addressee title - The Honorable...]

- Title 2 [Salutation title if different - Senator...]

- Gender

- Relevant attributes for how this person prefers their name

These are the general formulas I would use in Excel:
Helper columns to determine which combinations need to be used

- Helper column A: last names are the same Yes or No
- Helper column B: title 1 are the same Yes or No
- Helper column C: Constituent's salutation title (if both titles are present, use 2, otherwise use 1)
- Helper column Spouse's salutation title
- Helper column E: Constituent uses F. Middle style? (from attribute)
- Helper column F: Spouse uses F. Middle style? (from attribute)
- Helper column G: OVERRIDE constituent or spouse prefers a name style that does not match traditional formal format (from attribute)

- Helper column H: OVERRIDE if constituent or spouse has a non-binary gender OR if either spouse is missing Title 1 (you'll want to check for gender = male or female for both, and probably manually enter these)

Helper formulas to create basic elements to concatenate in the final name combination

- Helper formula 1: formal constituent first name section (if E = Yes, then concatenate the first letter of the first name + "." + middle name, else concatenate First name and Middle name, being sure to check if the middle name exists!)
- Helper formula 2: formal constituent last name section (concatenate the last name with the suffix, if it exists, or just the last name)
- Helper formula 3: formal constituent spouse first name section
- Helper formula 4: formal constituent spouse last name section

 

Final Name Combination Formulas
- Hide duplicate last name

If Helper A = Yes, then concatenate Preferred Name "and" Spouse Preferred and Last Name. Else, concatenate Preferred Name Last Name "and" Spouse Preferred Name Spouse Last Name

For any joined-up names using titles, always reference your Override columns - either sort and delete the result formulas, or use it as a wrapper IF/THEN to leave the results blank (I like to put in an code and conditional formatting so those cells are orange or something).

- Use formal addressee with titles and traditional name order

If Helper A = No (different last names), then use Title + Helper formula 1 + Helper formula 2 + "and" + Spouse Title + Helper formula 3 + Helper formula 4

If Helper A = Yes (same last name), then

-- If Helper B = Yes (same titles) then

----- If Spouse Head of Household = No, Title + Helper Formula 1 "and" Spouse Title + Helper formula 3 + Last Name

----- If Spouse Head of Household = Yes, Spouse Title + Helper Formula 3 "and" title + Helper Formula 1 + Last Name

----- (Note: this results in Dr. Chris K. and Dr. Pat R. Banks OR Dr. Pat R. and Dr. Chris K. Banks, depending on which is the HOH)

-- If Helper B = No (different titles) then

----- IF gender = Male, use Title + "and" Spouse Title + Helper Formula 1 + Helper formula 2

----- ELSE if SPOUSE gender = Male, use Spouse Title + "and" Title + Helper Formula 3 + Helper formula 4

----- (Note: This will always result in "Mr. and Dr. James F. White" so if you want to list Dr. Judith's name first, you'll need to add a helper and additional formulas to spot that.)

- Use formal, traditional salutation

if Helper A = No (different last names) then Helper C +  Last Name "and" Helper D + Spouse Last Name

if Helper A = Yes (same last names) then

-- if Helper C = Helper D (same titles) then Helper C "and" Helper D Last Name

-- Otherwise, if they are different titles

----- IF gender = Male, use Helper C "and" Helper D Last Name

----- ELSE if SPOUSE gender = Male, use Helper D "and" Helper C Last Name

----- (Note: This will always result in "Mr. and Dr. White" so just like with the addresse, if you want to list Dr. Judith's name first, you'll need to add a helper and additional formulas to spot that.)


There are so many other ways you can create formulas for Excel to manage - export alumni information for nametags (the default add/sal only includes 1 alumni year), create "Family" designations, etc. You can include specific add/sals in the export, as well, if you already have building blocks available.


If you use the specific formula set-ups I have listed here, you will want them to cascade in the same order, so that "Mr. John Smith and Mr. James Knight" always come out in the same order per constituent. In cases where both spouses use the same title, you will NOT be able to "remove duplicates" in Excel - but I like to use this excel file as a VLOOKUP data source, so I want both constituent and constituent spouse, since I might not know which one the HOH processing chose. Where the spouse is not a constituent, it will still always come out in the same order.


And if you have a constituent who does not have a spouse, you can add an IF wrapper to the formulas to just check for a blank spouse import ID and if so, go with your default (this is where I would export my preferred addressee or informal addressee, then just concatenate with the appropriate title prefix for addressees, or concatenate the Helper C with Last Name for a salutation).


Raiser's Edge just plain can't do this kind of complicated matrix of If X and Y are the same, then do this. but if X and Y are different and A and B are the same, do this. If X and Y are different AND A and B are different, do a third thing. And then switch it all around depending on HOH or gender...... There's a lot more freedom in having an excel file that stores basically every combination/formula you'll ever want, which you can then match up with a CSV data source and have it calculate all those But what if... situations. Then, anyone who needs a list of complicated name formats/styles for a project can be taught to use the (formula locked!) excel file, match it to their output CSV, and then match their working data sheet with the excel file using vlookup. I had a lot of success teaching people how to do this when they're otherwise not very strong or confident in excel formulas, because they don't have to do anything - just save and link a few files, copy a bit of excel code, and select the result they want - and those instructions are easy to put into a short word doc/pdf!

Keri Barnhart

Oh gosh, I'm sorry about yet another wall of text going into ...extensive... detail about how to handle add/sal formats. ? I started working on it this morning when I saw the email with the thread reply, and was adding to it off-and-on between my other tasks and lost track of just how much I had written! I may take it and PDF-ify it with a sample excel file, if I have the opportunity.


One of the handy things about creating this kind of Excel processing file and using name fields inherent to records is that you can apply it to just about any dataset, as long as it has the necessary fields, and if you're able to set up additional helper or check formulas to look for empty data or bad combinations....


I agree with @Jane Van Ingen‍ about avoiding additional addressees and salutations if you can help it (I suppose that may be obvious, given my enthusiasm for my excel processing!), but her reply made me think of something else you might want to consider doing. Depending on how often you use certain complicated formulas and the size of your database, it can be helpful to do a periodic process with the excel file as I've listed, then import some of the results to your records - but make absolutely sure that you are auditing those name formats on a regular basis!


If you decide to import these custom/excel processed add/sals, I recommend doing it like this:

1. Create table entries for your new category and be sure to indicate that they are custom/overwritten. For example, I prefer to indicate when the data was added: "Formal Invitation Addressee (from Aug 2020)" or "Alumni Event Name Tag (June 2020)".
2. Create an add/sal configuration entry that is simply "Import Overwrite" or something that makes it clear this is not a "real" add/sal meant to be used.
3. Global change any constituent/non-constituent records who need this new add/sal type to add the category and assign it the new "Import Overwrite" config option.
4. Export all records with this new add/sal category and its import ID
5. Use your fancy excel file, vlookups, whatever you like to match the new formula with the add/sal import ID and constituent or non-constituent import ID (make sure you convert all formulas to text......i had to make this an explicit step in my reference book for myself) and include a column for "Editable", which you will make Yes.
6. Import into RE your new import file, and voilà, your records now have an editable custom add/sal type in a category that is explicit about what it is used for and when it was set.
7. When the cycle comes around to verify the custom name formats - perhaps after the end of the next semester, or prior to the annual homecoming gala - run the process again for any categories/types that need to be updated. You can rename the category with the new "last audited" date, add the Editable Overwrite to all new records, then import the newly processed data file as before.

If you use Membership Module Name on Card or Events Module Placecards/Nametags, and you want to preserve a specific iteration of the category that got used for a membership card, place setting, or name tag, instead of renaming the category in config tables and re-using it, global change all records assigned the category to delete it. Any records using the category in the Membership or Event modules will bounce back as an error "could not be deleted, is being used" and the rest will be cleared out. Some of our events people found it useful to know what certain people used for their nametags previously, and it was nice to be able to know how stale the name field data may have been at the time the tag was created.

Elena Koutouzos

Hi
Keri,

 

I appreciate
all of the information you have provided. To be honest I’m a bit
overwhelmed by it and it’s currently a bit over my head. Would you
mind if I reached back out to you in the future for a
zoom/Microsoft teams meeting or call to discuss some more? I have 2
new staff members and some student workers starting that I need to
get trained (which is a bit comical since I started on 04/01/2020).
But once I have some staff to help process gifts, I’ll be more able
have more time to focus on the database administration. Let me know
your thoughts. Thanks again.

Take Care,

Elena Koutouzos ’10

Director
of Alumni & Donor Relations

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

p:  
252.985.5581

f:    252.985.5243

3400
N Wesleyan Blvd.| Rocky
Mount, NC