Donors adding 2 names in first name field from online donation forms

Allison Reville
Allison Reville
Seventh Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

Looking for best practices when donors enter multiple names in the first name field when making donations through online forms. For example: “Chris & Pat Smith" or “The Hernandez Family”. Our preference has been to have one constituent/record and add the applicable relationship and soft credit if applicable.

Comments

  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 March 2026 Challenge: Answered Questions January 2026 Monthly Challenge

    @Allison Reville I can relate! Our university president does a lot of his donations online and always adds his wife's name with his. It's sort of cute.

    If new data add the second name as a relationship. When it's family name I try to find time to research and get a first name.

    If the spouse/second name has their own record they are automatically set to soft-credit.

  • Austen Brown
    Austen Brown Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 PowerUp Challenge: Product Update Briefing Feedback Task 3 bbcon 2025 Attendee Badge

    @Allison Reville - You could try to add an additional (optional) text field to the form for “Recognition Name” this gives folks the space to put in the data you're seeing.

  • Aldera Chisholm
    Aldera Chisholm
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 5 PowerUp Challenge: Data Health #3 First Reply

    @Allison Reville, I have a maintenance query I run periodically to search for constituent names that contain “&,” and I will then add the “&” person as a relationship and update the Add/Sal to an editable format with the “Mike & Cathy Smith” information as entered by the donor. I prefer to set up as a relationship and adjust the primary constituent so that we don't end up with the Head of Household being “Mike & Cathy Smith”, who has a spouse of “Cathy Smith” which can result in an automatically updated addressee of “Mike & Cathy and Cathy Smith”

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