Do you soft credit spouses?

Meg Nygren

I am curious to know how other organizations handle soft credits with spouses?

Do you soft credit a spouse for gifts made? (I know you can set this up to happen automatically.)

What are the benefits to doing so if we have been putting gifts on only one constituents account and just assuming that the spouse is part of the gift?

Why would you not soft credit a spouse?

Thank you for your input and help!

Elizabeth Johnson

Hi @Meg Nygren, We do soft credited spouses for each other gifts when they are record holders. We generally do not have separate records for a couple unless they have separate and different relationships. We are a school, so if their only relationship to us is as parents we would only give them both records if they happen to also both be something else too like employee, alumni, etc.

Being able to see a clear giving history regardless of which record you are on is the most compelling reason for us to do this.

Our database is small, only around 20,000 records. Out of that we have 3 couples that do not want to be soft credited for each other gifts. In two of the cases they are still linked as spouses as they don't mind being solicited together. In the other case they don't even want the same solicitations so their records are not linked as spouses. It is relatively easy to manage as they do both give, we use annotation/alerts, and it is only one couple.

Looking forward to seeing how others respond.

Dariel Dixon

@Meg Nygren I think it's worth considering why the spouse is a constituent. If you have a constituent that has a record but you are recording all their giving on the spouse record, it may be worth considering if they need a full record altogether. As @Elizabeth Johnson noted, it depends on your organization and your coding structure.

Granted, soft credits can make things such as mailing lists and reporting more complex, but sometimes it is worth the tradeoff to get a better view of the household in one record.

I would not create a record for the spouse just to enter a gift. I would only consider entering the gift on the non-HOH record if there was a specific reason for doing so. I've seen married couples send two different checks from two different accounts in the same envelope, so in those cases it is clear that they are giving separately.

JoAnn Strommen

@Meg Nygren Agree with points made by @Dariel Dixon and @Elizabeth Johnson. Accurate giving record is main reason.

Yes, we SC spouses. As a university, we have alumni married to one another. They both are credited and names appear for class giving and/or lifetime totals.

I would not create records to soft credit if there is not valid reason for the spouse to have their own record in your db.