should spouses who are constituents be assigned solicitors

Audrey Katzman

We have assigned solicitors to constituents for our annual fund appeal. Some (but not all) of their spouses are also constituents. On a spouse (who is a constituent) record, the same assigned solicitors are listed as on the constituent. However, the information does not show up in a query grouping together assigned solicitor + their donors. We are using a query to export a mailing list. What am I missing in the query?

What is best practice: should we assign annual fund solicitors to the spouses who are constituents?

Dan Snyder

@Audrey Katzman Can you share more about your query and export? Specifically are you using a query and attaching that to an export file? Also, any other criteria/output information you can share (sensitive information redacted of course) might help to get you an answer.

Karen Diener

@Audrey Katzman it sounds like you are NOT using Export to derive your final list, which is a separate problem.

But for starters, hard to say what is best practice because that depends on a lot on how / what you are reporting. But I have seen situations where both individuals of a couple have separate records, and the solicitor assignment could be on either record. Sometimes it is the Head of Household but not always.

The key is to Export (and Query, where necessary) the correct fields. In a Constituent Query, you can pull Constituents where the Spouse solicitor is a certain type or certain person, which is in a different section than the main constituent's solicitor assignment. The same in Export.

But when you use Export, you indicate that you only want details on ONE of the individuals in the couple, most likely the Head of Household. If the Head of Household is not the one with the solicitor assignment it is fine, but you have to make sure you are exporting the Solicitor for the constituent meeting the Query criteria AND the Solicitor for the Spouse. You'll end up with two columns on your final spreadsheet but can quickly consolidate them by sorting and then cut / paste.

Remember that Query is a rubber banding or grouping tool. When you want a final mailing list, you should ALWAYS use Export or one of the Mail functions in RE (none of which have assigned solicitor available as an output field).

Karen