Households, prospects, and portfolios

@Krista Berg
Best practice would typically be to only have one actual constituent record per household. The other would only exist as a relationship record. However, there are all sorts of situations where this just doesn't work, so calling it ‘best practice’ is more of a suggestion really.

If all you need is the ability to get an accurate count when you need it, as opposed to always having an accurate count visible in workcenter, then you can do this by using a list filter. I'm not sure if this is a new filter or not (I have only recently become aware of it), but there's a “household” filter in the constituent basics filters in constituent lists. Add it, and then set it to suppress anyone not marked head of household. And then of course include a filter indicating which fundraiser the person belongs to, and you'll have an accurate count.

You can also do this in the Portfolio tab in workcenter, so the accurate count is easier to get to. The tab itself will always display the total number of records assigned, but if you set that filter within the tab, then whenever you click into it you'll see the accurate number in the upper left.

@Krista Berg you're getting some great feedback and suggestions from Dariel and Ryan. I wanted to share another model that was used in an large organization I worked with a few years ago, which was to use Solicitor / Fundraiser types to help focus the list.

That organization used “Prospect Manager” as the Type when they assigned prospects to staff. If there was a spouse or family foundation that also needed to be grouped into the mix, they were assigned to the same staff person as “Protected Manager”. Actions, Proposals / Opportunities, and Prospect Statuses were always placed on the record where the main assignment was made, but this helped us to group entities together in order to include or exclude them in queries and reports. Obviously, you can use whatever language makes sense to your organization.

This was well before webview existed, but I've explored the workcenter using this model and I believe it would still be helpful. The only thing that would be inflated would be the number of assignments, but that list could be filtered by Fundraiser Type.

Karen

@Krista Berg We recently started assigning solicitors to both spouses. In web view in the Work center and on NXT lists, we now filter on the head of household so that a true number of constituents in a portfolio can be viewed if needed. Both spouses get the same assigned solicitor. It creates more work when there is a change, but allows both spouses to show that a solicitor is assigned to the household on the individual records.

We have separate records for each spouse so that they can both receive emails via web view email.

@Karen Diener Our process is similar. We use Primary Solicitor on the head of household and Associated Solicitor on the other family members or connected businesses/organizations.