Gender: Prefixes and Pronouns

Andre Lamothe · September 2020

Hey all,

I had a discussion with some folks in our organization about gender, prefixes, and pronouns. I have seen a few other Universities and their data standard guides, but I wanted to see what other folks were using in their databases.

We think it's important for Alums that are communicated with to have their proper gender identity acknowledged and pronouns used. We haven't talked as much about how we would get this information, or the data standards around it, this is very early in the process. So far, from what I am reading, the way most do this kind of data collection and storage is pretty much directly from the Constituent, to never assume anything, and to change or note pronouns only when asked.

Currently we have for gender: Male, Female, and Unknown.

We do not currently have any pronouns tracked in the system in a regular field, if we did they would be a note on the record.

We do not have any gender neutral titles/prefixes that I am aware of.

I wanted to know what other folks are doing for their databases in regards to this kind of work.

Thanks!

Elizabeth Perron · September 2020

Hi Andre Lamothe‍,

This is a topic I remember had many different suggestions in the Community earlier in the year. To see all the previous responses type "gender" into the Blackbaud home search bar, then filter by discussion. Click into any of the posts to read the responses. If you reply or ask additional questions, everyone on that thread will be notified to jump back into the convo!

Of course peers may answer on this thread too, I just didn't want you to miss out on the good info shared earlier this year.

In harmony and inclusion,

Elizabeth

Blackbaud Community Team

Lois Smith · September 2020

We use Blackbaud CRM and there is now an "Other" gender that you can populate with an attribute extension. For new constituent entry, I created two attributes extensions (one for gender and one for preferred pronouns) which staff can fill in if the information is known when the constituent is entered. We have a title of Mx. for nonbinary individuals. I also created a data list and new section on the Personal Info tab (directly under the top information section) with the "Other" gender attribute and the preferred pronouns and added the ability to add or edit these attributes right there so the staff member doesn't need to go to the attributes tab to add the information for existing records.

For trans people, we recognize them and all information in the database is for their preferred gender. In addition, we add an interest of LGBTQIA+ Issues. As I explained to our data entry staff, we are not the pants police and we will recognize individuals as they choose to identify.

We are still working out the details of other situations.

Kelli Crispin · September 2020

Our standard at UNC is attached below. (Some org-specific info - Davie is the name of our CRM. the Special Information area is a customization that displays at the top of a record's Personal, Contact, and Relationships tabs and displays a variety of notes to alert users of things that need to be more visible on the record.) We have not used "Other" as a gender yet, but I like what Lois Smith‍ has done.

Steven Cianciarulo · September 2020

If you're up to date with RE, the Gender table is now editable, and while you can't remove or edit Male, Female and Unknown (never mind the fact that male and female are sexes, not genders), you can add new options. We have added Non-binary in that table and Mx. in the Title table.

We also made a decision a few years ago to forgo titles altogether unless requested by a donor. 95% of the time you're just guessing during data entry anyway. More recently we've deactivated gendered Relationship Codes (mother, son, nephew, aunt, for example) in favor of gender-neutral terms (parent, child, nibling, auncle)

There's no good place to do pronouns other than a constituent attribute, as near as I can tell.

Good luck! The data isn't the hard part, it's getting people to see why this is important.

Aldera Chisholm · September 2020

I'm currently working on removing Titles from our donors unless they provide them... but it's a challenge getting my team on-board. My logic is also that Bob and Pat Smith and Dear Bob and Pat is much more friendly than Mr. and Mrs.... etc etc anyway, and we are a more informal org so it's a good fit. A few of my team have come back with "Well, most of our donors are seniors and they prefer to be addressed as Mr and Mrs." My argument is... yes, of course, if they tell us that, great! But, we shouldn't be making assumptions - we had a lovely volunteer who assigned titles based on what she "thought" the name implied, which you can imagine has led to challenges. It's great to see the adoption of gender-neutral terms, something I very much believe in.

kim elder · November 2020

Hi

I've really enjoyed this discussion thread. My idea is to update the names of the current Male and Female fields to - “he, him, his” and “she, her, hers.” I would suggest adding in "they, them, theirs" as well. It answers the question we really want to ask - "How does this person wish to be identified and referred to during our communications?" Due to this, I think Blackbaud updating the names of these fields is appropriate and would help get us take a step forward.

Thanks

JoAnn Strommen · November 2020

Checked your profile to see what type of org you are with but didn't find anything.

The field which contains "male, female..." is titled Gender or Sex. I'm not sure how changing field name or field options to he, him, his or she, her, hers would affect how you reference a person in communications. Generally pronoun "you" is used in communications. Gender/Sex differentiation, IMO, is done through Title field, Mr./Mrs./Ms.... I would never expect to get a letter addressed "Dear Female" or Dear She.

Just my thoughts.

kim elder · November 2020

My point is what's the point of knowing is someone is a Male or Female isn't very important or useful to me. What I'd like to know if how they wish to be identified. Typically we learn this from the Male/Female binary choice. You are correct, I would not say Dear Female. We do a lot of connections and referrals where knowing the preferred gender pronoun would be nice. "I thought you'd be interested in meeting with her" for example.

JoAnn Strommen · November 2020

Thanks for info on how you would use it. Yes, valuable for connections and referrals. ?

Gender: Prefixes and Pronouns

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