Maintain Nearly Duplicate Profile Records

Maintain Nearly Duplicate Profile Records

It is sometimes necessary to keep almost identical Profile records in FIMS. Refer to the following examples for more information about when you might want to maintain these nearly duplicate Profile records.

Example 1

A husband and wife donate jointly to certain Funds, but the husband also donates alone to other Funds. The couple may wish to have these donations tracked separately, so they can be attributed separately on the annual report. To do this, you must establish two Profile records and two Donor records:

• The first Profile record should have a Report Name that includes both the husband and the wife, and the Default Salutation should be the joint format.

• The second Profile record should have a Report Name that only includes the husband alone, and the Default Salutation should use the individual format.

Note: The Partner name still could be present on the second Profile for convenience.

Once you create the Profile records, you should create a relationship between the Profiles. For example, the husband’s Profile could be related to the joint Profile with a Relationship code of Hus (husband), and in the inverse Relationship the joint Profile could be related to the husband’s Profile with a Relationship code of Fam (family). Refer to Creating Relationships Between Profiles for more information.

You can also optionally create a family group for the husband and wife. This allows you to record individual gifts from each individual, along with gifts from the couple. Refer to Working with Grouped Profiles for more information.

Example 2

If you need to write to the Partner of a joint Profile individually, the Partner must have a second Profile record on which they are the principal Profile (rather than the Partner).

Example 3

If you want to keep track of multiple contact people at an organization, you must create a separate Profile for each contact person. You can also optionally create an organization group with a main organization Profile and staff members.

1. Create the Organizational Profile record, using the name of the Executive Director in the Name fields.

2. Save the Organizational Profile record.

3. Use the New Group Members utility to copy the Organizational Profile record and add new Profiles as members of the organization group. Refer to Creating New Grouped Profiles for more information.

4. Repeat this process for each staff member.

Example 4

If the executive director of a Grantee agency is also an individual Donor, but wants to receive letters at the business address, you can add a second Profile record for them. In this case, the agency Profile would be an Organizational Profile and the agency name (not the director’s) would appear in the alphabetic lists.

Use the Copy button on the toolbar to copy the existing Profile and change the necessary information in the new Profile.

Example 5

Some organizations find it expedient to create Individual Profiles for all of their board (and/or other committee) members, with each person’s preferred mailing address for committee business as the default. This Profile record may be a duplicate if they have another Profile record with a Partner to which donations are linked. The purpose of the Individual Profile is to make it easy to get the correct address (home or business) and salutation information.

Note: Refer to Address Type Codes for another solution to this issue.