converting a group of spouses to constituents

Audrey Katzman
Audrey Katzman
Ninth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

We have identified couples who have attended an event and/or donated within the past 5 years and the spouse is not a constituent. The spouses are usually women and many of them have email addresses. Because we use RE NXT webview to send eblasts, spouses don’t receive electronic communication. We want to reach out to more women directly via email and therefore we need to change some spouses to constituents (I have a query grouping the spouses who fit the parameters). I have tried to find information on changing spouses to constituents in webview and it appears that these changes can only be made one at a time. Is there a way to change spouses to constituents as a group either in webview or database view?

Also, when I change a spouse to a constituent, some information does not automatically transfer over to the new record and still needs to be updated manually (such as addressee, soft credit giving info). Is this due to a business setting or user setting?

Thank you for any assistance!

Comments

  • Tania Pinard
    Tania Pinard
    Third Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant

    We have similar question : is there a quick way that we could convert all of the non-constituent-contacts in our database to constituent?

  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 January 2026 Monthly Challenge 2025 bbcon Attendee Badge

    @Audrey Katzman I think to create the spouse as a constituent it's a one at a time manual process. Don't know if there's any power automate options to do this. I think it would be an issue to match to correct constituent record.

    In database view,
    You could create a default set for new spouse records that will auto fill the selected addressee/salutation formats

    There is not an option to globally soft credit for past gifts. It's manual as far as I know. You can globally mark your new records to be SC for future gifts.

    Knowledgebase Article 37429

    How to globally mark or unmark the Automatically soft credit this individual (or organization) for gifts checkbox

  • Audrey Katzman
    Audrey Katzman
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @JoAnn Strommen Thank you.

  • Karen Diener
    Karen Diener
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply Name Dropper

    @Audrey Katzman and @Tania Pinard -

    Technically, you could do this via an export and import, but it is a fairly high skill level and requires a lot of planning. On a high level, you export the non-constituent information AND a link to the record to whom they are connected. Then you create constituent records for the non-constituents (via import) and link them to the appropriate existing constituent.

    The final step would be to delete the non-constituent records. I know I've done this before but cannot remember how for sure. It can be done via a Global Delete, which would require a Relationship Query so maybe that was it?

    As I said, pretty high level and and intricate steps. Depending on how many situations you have, it might be worth doing this manually but prioritizing the cleanup. For example, correct the recent donors first, or board / committee members, or volunteers, or constituents in portfolios, etc.

    Karen

  • Dan Snyder
    Dan Snyder Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 March 2026 Challenge: Answered Questions Commented in Discussion

    @Audrey Katzman Great answers from @JoAnn Strommen and @Karen Diener so nothing much to add there except to add to JoAnn's that there is a Power Automate action to convert to constituent. That being said, I have not used it and if this is a one time project probably not worth the time.

    I think the approach you go with depends on how many you need to convert. If just a handful, I would just do it manually, but if we are talking hundreds definitely look at Karen's option.

  • Christine Robertson
    Christine Robertson
    Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant First Anniversary

    @Audrey Katzman I imagine that you may have already completed this project, but I'm commenting in case someone else searches for this topic later on. I would recommend looking at Zeidman Development and their paid option for Individual Relationships. If you add that data destination, you can upgrade these relationships without duplicating them (saving lots of clean up time!). You can also copy a great deal of information from the primary constituent in the process. When I worked there, I wrote up documentation and recorded a video on how to do this - you can see that here: Can I use Importacular to convert non-constituent relationships into constituents? : Zeidman Development Support (freshdesk.com)

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