Do you require documentation for change of name and/or gender?

JoAnn Strommen · March 2022

Working with the university, transcripts and diplomas reflect a persons legal name so documentation of a name change is required when a diploma is requested with a new name.

This has raised the question for our database, should we require minimal identification prior to changing a name? Should we verify someone's identity before making a change in name and/or gender. (This is not a question about storing a changed name - there is a different thread on that subject.)

Do other organizations, especially higher ed, require that I need to prove who I am (ID before or after update) so that I can change my name and/or gender on my record?

If so, do you require it for all name changes, such as marriages/divorces as well?

Larry Wheeler · March 2022

I would love to require documentation for such changes, and believe it should be kept historically. I lost the debate to force Legal Name on Tax Letters because a very few donors wish to use their nicknames, abbreviations, etc… in ALL correspondence and get very upset when it's not done.

So, no we don't require, or even request documentation for divorce, marriage, name changes of any kind, nor gender change (which is going to be a real issue for databases soon due to the ability to legally change one's gender).

If the donor sends an email, or makes a call, the request is carried out. Our donors are also able to make these types of changes on appeals, online giving forms. It's scary, from a data/technical perspective

Elizabeth Johnson · March 2022

@JoAnn Strommen We only change the first name fields when we have legal documentation because of the transcripts/diploma issues. We don't seek proof of marriage and divorce when they tell us. We are a very small school so this is much easier for us to manage. Each class only has roughly 60 students. I'll be interested to see how others respond. Thanks for posing the question.

@Larry Wheeler I'm curious why changing gender on someone's record in our database would be a legal issue. I've never needed to share genders with anything regarding a gift. I think it has more to do with respecting the donors'/constituents' wishes than needing to be legally binding. Much like knowing constituents' pronouns.

Larry Wheeler · March 2022

@Elizabeth Johnson I didn't say it was a legal issue with changing the data. I said it was a legal, or going to be legal, option for the constituents. It will become the same problem as legal name, marriage, divorce, address etc… as far as pertaining to the topic - documentation or no documentation.

Dariel Dixon · March 2022

Interesting question @JoAnn Strommen. I think it's more a philosophical question than one of practice.

Yesterday, I was recording a gift from a “new donor”. This donor had a similar email address as one of our existing constituents, but the last name was different and the address was different. My instincts told me I should investigate further as I felt these were the same person. My research proved that I was correct. I added the new information onto the record (including the new name) and deleted the duplicate record. Obviously, I made this name change without the constituent's permission, but it's only a part of good data hygiene.

We all struggle with the concept of keeping up with constituents, whether that be name, phone, physical or email address. We have to make this process as easy for our constituents, because if it becomes a hassle, they won't self-report it, which is the most verifiable way to get this data.

If you get this documentation, what would you do with it? I don't know if someone had a change in name or gender, I would want any other confirmation outside of them letting me know, whether that be a simple email or a phone call or in person. Those changes are so personal, and having that conversation with a stranger can be awkward at best.

Academic departments such as registrar can generally fall back on something like a student ID for identification. Generally, development database don't have customer known IDs, so there is not a whole lot of other verification outside or name and contact info (if you store student IDs in your database, that makes things a little easier). That said, I don't know if the lengths to change your name in the development database needs to be as through getting it changed on the official university academic records. If your institution has a feed directly from the academic database to the fundraising database, that may change things a bit.

Elizabeth Johnson · March 2022

@Larry Wheeler Thanks for the clarity.

Karen Stuhlfeier · March 2022

Great answer Dariel!

JoAnn Strommen · March 2022

We have several different kinds of requests beyond standard marriage/divorce.

We have a number of international students who chose to “American-ize” their name. Some are just preferred changes and some are legal name changes.

Recently we've had several requests for name/gender changes. Those looking for new diploma/transcript changes are forwarded to the university who maintains their own records and require photo ID and documentation.

Maybe we're overthinking. There are some cruel people in the world and those who think it would be a funny prank to change someone's name/gender record. So question came up, “Should we at least require some type of identity verification when a change is requested”? Then, to be consistent, should this be required for change requests due to marriage/divorce. It could get cumbersome.

So, checking so see if any of you have procedure/policy for this. Thanks to those who have already posted.

Faith Murray · March 2022

@JoAnn Strommen does your registrar's office rely on data from your development database for updating their own alumni data? That would the the one time I could see requiring documentation. A registrar's record must conform to the legal name, and so documentation should be required of any data feeding back into the legal alumni roster.

At our org, the registrar's records feed into RE, but not the other way around. We use RE as a relationship-building tool. So if a donor decides she wants to be called Humpty-Dumpty – well, that's what floats her boat and shows that we are respecting her wishes.

One might make the argument that having non-legal names in our records causes problems with tax receipting. But unless you live in a state or province that requires legal reporting of donor names to government watchdog entities, that's really the donor's preference. If my donor finds out that her tax preparer won't accept a donation receipt with her non-legal name, then she may make her own choice whether she wants us to re-issue the receipt with a corrected name.

For those nonprofits who DO have to report donors above a certain gift level: I would recommend keeping an Addressee field conformed to the name on the gift transaction, and using that for legal reporting. My donor may want to be called Humpty Dumpty, but that's unlikely to be the name actually used on her check or credit card transaction.

Faith Murray · March 2022

Oh, I see your question, JoAnn. I don't believe we've ever had a problem with people making false claims on other donors' records, so the issue has never come up as a policy question. The closest issue we've ever had was a divorced couple where one spouse wanted removed and the other didn't, making it messy for address issues.

Your concern sounds sensible, but hard to implement. I don't really see the majority of our donors sending us legal documentation for names or genders. Most will figure that if we want their money, we should call them by whatever name they tell us.

Nowadays, too, I think young college students are more likely to post embarrassing gender stuff on their colleague's social media, than try to mess with their snail mail. After all, when I get mail with a messed up name, I usually just assume it's a technical error and throw it away – so the joker wouldn't gain any emotional satisfaction from the prank and the joke would fall flat.

Do you require documentation for change of name and/or gender?

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