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One In Honor Of Record

Christiana Congelio

Hello!

My organization uses one record named "In Honor Of" for any tributes that come in that are not a constituent. With the new matching in NXT for unmatched constituents, I'm struglling to figure out how to match them with that record, but since the honoree are thigns like "my students", I'm having trouble figuring out what to do with them. Any advice?

Thanks!

Christiana

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Alex Wong

May want to think about why you are recording that piece of information.

Are you using it in any way? If not, why are they being recorded at all?

My org will not record anything that is "in honor of god" "in honor of usa" "in honor of the earth the sun the sky"

Carlene Johnson

I have an Individual record using "Generic Tribute Record" as the last name. We use that record for any tributes received for which there is no one for us to notify about the tribute. I just search for and link to "Generic Tribute Record" when doing my data review. It works really well for us. Let me know if you have any questions!

Christiana Congelio

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/309132#Comment_309132

OK, @Carlene Johnson yes, this is my problem! When I use NXT and there's someone I would usually add as a tribute record on our version of "Generic Tribute Record", I have to delete every name that has ever been used as a tribute and not to be dramatic but I dread it and it takes way too much time. Do you also really just delete all the random acknowledgees that have ever existed on there?

@Alex Wong we mostly record it so that we can use it for acknowledgement letters to the associated constituent I am totally open to a different way, but this is the system I inherited and I haven't really figured out how to get rid of it.

Joe Moretti

I do not even see the point of creating such a useless record. If the honoree is just a generic one, like my students, with no one to contact, why bother creating such a record. Just store that info in the gift record in the reference field.

Whoever started that had no idea what they were doing or what issues it can cause down the road.

Elizabeth Johnson

@Christiana Congelio There absolutely is a purpose for this, while everything someone thinks of as a tribute is not, there are many reasons one might have multiple tributes on a single record that would be important to an organization. It worked in the past and should continue to work going forth.

I have run into this issue when using the web view donation forms.
Here are some ideas you can vote for:

https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-7515

https://renxt.ideas.aha.io/ideas/RENXT-I-8924

There are more out there as well.

Carlene Johnson

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/309133#Comment_309133

Can you tell me more about having to delete every name that has ever been used as a tribute? I don't understand. I just keep adding additional tributes to that record like this:

Is that not what you are doing?

Carlene Johnson

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/309144#Comment_309144

@Joe Moretti I hear your point — it can feel clunky when tributes don’t have a clear contact. In our case, though, the “Generic Tribute Record” approach wasn’t about someone not knowing what they were doing, but about creating consistency for acknowledgement workflows. It ensures that every tribute gift, even the ones with abstract honorees like “my students,” has a place to live in the database so staff can process acknowledgements without exceptions.

I’d also add that saying folks had “no idea what they were doing” comes across as insulting to other users. Most of us inherit systems that were designed with a purpose, even if they don’t fit every organization’s current needs. You might want to think about tone here, since many of us are just trying to share approaches that work in our own contexts.

In fact, the workflow in NXT forces us to link to a tribute. There’s no way to delete the tribute from online gift processing and rely only on the reference field. If I were processing checks, I’d absolutely just use the reference field — but with online gifts, that isn’t an option.

I agree there are other ways to handle it (like gift reference fields), but for organizations that rely heavily on tribute reporting or need to keep acknowledgement letters standardized, having a single placeholder record can be practical. The bigger question is how Blackbaud can support both approaches — those who prefer tribute records and those who prefer gift-level notes — so we’re not stuck with workarounds.