Data Health Tools - DeceasedRecordFinder - Yay or nay?

@Rachel Kauer
Yay! We use Deceased Finder and find it helpful in identifying folks that wouldn't be found through our University keyword searches through other services. The service scans our entire database (I'm pretty sure that's the only option in Web View).

Pros
Identifies records in a list and allows for org to research and determine if the constituent is actually deceased and mark it as such if so.

It's possible to remove records from the list if it's determined they are not deceased.

Anyone with rights to the Data Health area of web view can go in and work through a few records as there is time.

It is possible to export the list and add the system record IDs in query if Database view is preferred.

It is possible to filter the list by when the constituent was reported deceased to narrow down the results.

The list has columns for the Constituent Name, Impact Risk, Date Deceased, Birth Year, Reported by (death certificate relative, etc.), and Date Reported.

No need to export data and send it to an outside vendor!

Cons
Only looks up individuals with full constituent records. In other words, spouses with only a spousal relationship will not be included.

Like any append, it requires research to determine whether it is the same person. We find a good number of family members with the same name (especially grandfather/father/son situations) where the older generation passed away but our alum is still living.

@Rachel Kauer We use it and have had good results. Check out this KB article for the differences in running thru web view vs. db view.

We have only done alumni and we have done all records. I would agree with @Becky Griswold's Pro/Con. Covered it well.

We run thru db view have the data uploaded to attributes. We have consistently had 2 records noted as deceased where it was father with same name. I've noted that in attribute of previous run and know it.

When we submit all records, I (control nut that I am) search for ‘Alumni’ that are not certain.
I pull others with attribute list from RE and the DRF list and give to our student worker to search for the obits online of the ‘friends/non-alum’ that are listed. They usually find over 90%.

Absolutely @Rachel Kauer. When I ran DRF, I based it off a query. We received the data back with a report. It was several years ago, but I remember getting the data back segmented by confidence. There were records that were confirmed dead, suspected deceased, and other variations. I determined based off the data we got to only import in the confirmed deceased records, and everyone else was researched. We eventually did code some of the other records as deceased after researching, but it was a process. I did the appends in DBV at the time. I'm not sure how the process works in NXT.

EDIT: To add in @JoAnn Strommen's reply, the confidence ratings were added as a DeceasedRecordFinder attribute, which was added by the system during the process. We were able to used those attributes to see the confidence score of the records and base queries off them. I don't remember the process automatically coding any record as deceased.

@Amanda Tindale I believe both are US based searches

From knowledgebase:

AddressFinder is recommended for use with domestic addresses only. International addresses may be updated incorrectly in an AddressFinder screening if the Post Office is able to CASS certify an address based on Street Address and Zip Code. It is advised to only submit domestic addresses for AddressFinder screenings to ensure accurate results.

Address changes that are present in the NCOA database, which is the U.S. Postal Service's National Change of Address database. For information on how the addresses are matched from The Raiser's Edge database to the NCOA database, refer to How does AddressFinder match addresses?.

The Deceased Record Finder service screens existing constituents submitted from your database through sources like the Social Security Administration Death Index and other publicly available data. It returns a Deceased Attribute for those constituents found to be deceased. The primary data source used for this service is the Social Security Administration Death Index, with additional sources such as obituaries and other publicly available data also being utilized. The "Reported By" details indicate how the information about deceased individuals was obtained.

I would ask support if there is a version available for the UK. There are some other vendors that offer international screening possibly like SmartZip. Not sure exactly what their search capabilities are.

@Rachel Kauer
I have used Deceased finder in both Database and NXT views. I much prefer NXT and it runs continuously and adds an attribute on the record and creates a list of those they identified as deceased. We then go through each record and research the obit to see if we can confirm. If we cannot, we do not mark them as deceased. If we do, we add the obit to the record and then add the deceased date. It has helped us tremendously. Database view was not as user friendly and we abandoned that process years ago.