A longtime member calls to say her husband passed away last month. She’s renewing the family membership, and she’d rather not get any more mail addressed to both of them. That’s a small request, but in Altru it touches the constituent record, the household, membership, giving history, and every mailing list built from a query. If you miss one of them, the next renewal letter goes out to “Mr. and Mrs.” anyway.
Very little of this is decided by Altru itself. It mostly comes down to choices your organization makes, and if you make them once and write them down, staff aren’t working it out from scratch each time a call like this comes in.
Start with the individual, not the household
The first step is to mark the person who died as deceased on their own constituent record, with a date if you have one. That flag is what your queries, mailing exclusions, and solicitation rules should key on. If people on your team note a death only in a comment or an attribute, it won’t reach your exclusion lists, and you’ll keep mailing them.
Once the flag is set, check what it actually does in your database. Depending on how your queries and communication lists were built, some exclude deceased constituents automatically and some don’t. A good test is to take one recently deceased constituent and run them against your main appeal, renewal, and newsletter selections. If they still show up in any of them, fix that query now.
Keep, edit, or dissolve the household?
There isn’t one right answer here. These are the three usual options.
Keep the household with the surviving spouse as head
This is usually the safest choice. The household keeps its shared giving and membership history, the surviving spouse stays linked to it, and you update the names so mail goes to the living person. Use it when the survivor is still engaged and you want their “member since” date and lifetime giving to stay together.
Remove the deceased member from the household
Some organizations take the deceased person out of the household and leave the survivor as the only member. That makes the household look clean, but before you do it, check what happens to history credited to the household and to the deceased individual. Gifts and memberships recorded under the deceased person’s own record stay with that record. If your reports roll giving up through the household, totals may change once the link is gone.
Dissolve the household entirely
Dissolving makes the most sense when both spouses have died, when the household existed only for mailing convenience, or when the survivor is moving and you’d rather start fresh. It’s also the option that’s hardest to undo. Exactly how Altru handles household history, revenue recognition, and relationships when you dissolve or remove members depends on your setup. Before you set a policy, try it on a test constituent in a sandbox, or ask Blackbaud support how your version treats it.
Whichever option you choose, keep the relationship between the two individuals (spouse, or deceased spouse if you use that type). It’s how a future gift officer will learn there was a spouse at all.
The fields that cause the awkward mail
Most of the embarrassing letters come from name formats, not the household structure. After a death, review these on both the household and the surviving spouse:
- Addressee and salutation formats. “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Chen” and “Dear Robert and Linda” need to become formats for the survivor alone. Ask how she wants to be addressed. Some widows keep their married name format, and some don’t.
- The household name. If it’s built from both names, update it so lists and reports don’t keep showing the deceased spouse.
- Primary contact information. If the deceased spouse’s email or phone was marked primary, move the survivor’s contact information to primary so automated messages reach the right person.
- Solicit codes and communication preferences. Some families ask for a pause on appeals for a while. Record that request so your appeal queries honor it, rather than counting on someone to remember.
Membership: the part members notice
If the couple held a dual or family membership, decide ahead of time what happens to it. A common approach is to let the current term run as is and simply remove the deceased person as a cardholder or named member, so the survivor doesn’t have to show a card with their late spouse’s name at the door. At renewal, the survivor may want to stay at the same level (especially if grandchildren visit) or move down to an individual level. Offer either without making them explain why.
Check renewal notices too. Those queries often pull the names on the membership, not the household formats, so a notice sent weeks after you updated the household can still list both names. Run your renewal selection for the affected member before the next batch goes out.
Giving history and memorial gifts
Leave historical revenue where it is. Recredit old gifts only if you have a specific reporting reason. Going forward, if friends or family make gifts in the deceased spouse’s memory, record them as tribute gifts tied to that person so the family can be acknowledged and you can see the total. When both spouses have died, review the record for planned-giving or estate notes before you inactivate anything. That history is often needed later.
Write the policy down
A short internal checklist does more than any setting. Cover who marks the record deceased, which household option is the default, which name formats to change, how to handle the membership, and how long to pause appeals. Then build one query of recently deceased constituents whose household or membership still lists them as an active cardholder or addressee. Run it monthly. It will catch most of what slipped through.
Quick answers
Should we delete the deceased constituent’s record?
Almost never. Deleting removes giving and membership history and relationships you may need later. Mark the record deceased and keep it.
What if we hear about a death from a returned envelope or an obituary instead of the family?
Mark the individual deceased and update mailing formats, but wait before restructuring the household or membership until you’ve confirmed the details or heard from the family.
