Deceased Names

When a donor dies, if you wish to continue to include his or her giving history in your reports, you should not delete the name. Instead, mark the name as deceased in their bio record. The "Is Deceased" check box on the Add Household or Add Organization screen is provided for this purpose.

When you mark a name as deceased, a "(D)" appears next to the name. Because every organization deals with deceased donors differently, no other changes are made automatically to the donor's record. You should consider the following:

For individuals in a household

If the deceased person is not part of a couple and is the only name in a household, then mark the household as Do Not Mail, Do Not Email, Do Not Phone, Do Not Solicit. You should also either delete the addresses, phones and email addresses or mark each as Do Not Mail or Do Not Contact. This will ensure that these will not appear in mailings and can be easily excluded from lists and reports.

If the person is not the only name in the household, then make sure he or she is not marked as the primary name. If he or she is the primary name, select a different name in the household to be primary. Remove the deceased person's name from all of the addresses, phones, and email addresses.

For couples in a household

If one person of a couple is deceased, mark that name as deceased. You should then change the couple display name and salutation to reflect only the surviving spouse or partner. If you wish to show the couple's full name on a donor recognition list, you can use an alternate name for that purpose.