How do you handle tributes for married couples?

Amy Horrocks

I am trying to decide the best way to handle these for the upcoming holiday season. We are a senior living community and have the tribute module. In my previous job (same industry), we had separate tributes for husband/wife. Here, they often have them as combined…one tribute for M/M. I just wondered how others manage these.

Given our industry, we often have both Bob and Mary Jones living here (and donors). Gifts are given IHO. Bob dies and gifts are given IMO. Later, Mary dies and gifts are given IMO. The following year, gifts are given IMO both.

Potential pitfalls I see…

Scenario 1 — At quarterly publication time, go thru the tributes to see if gifts given IMO Bob Jones and IMO Mary Jones were actually IMO Bob and Mary Jones, combine names as needed. Cleaner record keeping, but time consuming.

Scenario 2 — There would be 3 different tribute constituents — Bob Jones, Mary Jones, and Bob and Mary Jones. Each would be linked to one another via Relationship. No tedious review at publication time, but lots and lots of records.

Thoughts/comments/suggestions? Thanks.

Karen Diener

This is the sentence sticking out in my mind: "Here, they often have them as combined…one tribute for M/M. I just wondered how others manage these?"

Do you actually mean there is one - and one only - tribute on the Honor/Memorial tab of a record, or that there is one record for the couple (most likely setup is the Bob is the primary record holder and Mary is his non-constituent spouse.

If it is the former, there is no reason you cannot have multiple tributes on a single record. I always teach it that way. Imagine that someone could ask for donations in lieu of gifts for their college graduation, and then again for their marriage. Later, they might do the same for anniversaries or birthdays. Each one of those should be a different tribute on the same record. When you receive a donation, make sure you are linking it to the correct tribute.

Scenario 2 should be avoided at all costs. Linking those records together will be a nightmare for gift tracking purposes and you definitely do not want to unnecessarily increase your record band and ultimately pay more.

Amy Horrocks

The majority of our records are Constituent Bob Jones, with non constituent spouse Mary. There is an IHO tribute for Bob and Mary, plus a (Christmas appeal) tribute for Bob and Mary. There's no reason then there couldn't be an IHO for Bob and an IHO for Mary, as well. I guess my concern was what happens with tribute records upon the death of one. I just did some testing and found the answer. Just a mind shift for me from 2 constituents with a relationship to 1 constituent. Thank you!