A check arrives signed by both spouses. A month later, one of them calls to ask why the thank-you letter only had her husband’s name on it. At year end, the couple asks for a single giving statement, and you find the gift split across two records with nothing linking them. None of this is unusual. It comes from one simple fact: in Altru, a gift has to belong to one constituent, while the people who gave it think of themselves as a unit.
The fix is less about a special setting and more about deciding, once, how your organization records couple gifts, then making sure the household and the acknowledgment carry the joint part.
Start with the household, not the gift
Before you enter anything, make sure the couple is set up correctly:
- Both people have their own constituent record. Resist the temptation to create one record named “John and Mary Smith.” It breaks deduplication, mailing logic, and any future gift that comes from just one of them.
- They are linked as spouses through a relationship on their constituent records.
- They belong to the same household, with one of them as the primary or head of household if your setup uses that.
Search for both names before creating anything. Couples often already exist as two unlinked records from separate ticket purchases or a membership under one name and an event registration under the other. Merge any duplicates first, or you will be recording a joint gift against a fragmented history.
Choose who the gift belongs to
Revenue gets entered on one constituent. Pick a rule and apply it every time, so reports and donor history stay consistent. Common choices:
- The name on the payment. Whoever is on the check or card is the revenue constituent. Easy for staff and easy to audit against bank deposits.
- The primary household member. Every joint gift goes to the same person, which keeps the couple’s history in one place. This works well if most of your reporting rolls up by household anyway.
- The person the couple tells you. Some donors care about this, especially for tax receipts. If they specify, honor it and note it on the record.
Option 1 is the most defensible for finance. Option 2 is the cleanest for development. Whichever you choose, write it in your gift entry procedures so a new staff member does not invent a third approach.
Give the other spouse credit
The spouse who is not the revenue constituent should still show up as a giver. How you do that depends on what your Altru configuration supports:
- Household rollups. If your giving reports and queries look at household totals, the gift is already credited to the couple even though it sits on one record.
- Recognition or soft credit. Some organizations credit the second spouse through a recognition-type credit on the revenue. Whether and how this is available depends on your Altru setup, so test it in a sandbox or ask Blackbaud support before you train staff on it.
- A consistent note or attribute. If neither of the above fits, add a constituent attribute or revenue note such as “Joint gift with spouse” so the information is at least searchable.
Be careful not to enter the gift twice, once on each spouse, to make both histories look complete. It doubles your revenue totals and someone in finance will find it.
Get the acknowledgment right
This is where couples actually notice. The thank-you letter and any tax receipt should name both people when both gave. Check how your addressee and salutation formats pull names for a household or for spouses, and confirm your letter templates use a joint format when one exists. A letter to “Mr. John Smith” for a gift both spouses signed reads as a mistake to the donor, even if the data is technically right.
Also confirm a few edge cases with a test gift:
- Couples who use different last names.
- Couples where one spouse prefers a different title or no title.
- Households where the “primary” member is not the one who wants to be addressed first.
Reporting on household giving
Once gifts are entered consistently, you can answer the questions development staff ask most: total giving by household, who in a couple is lapsed, and which households give at a given level. Build a query on household or on the revenue constituent’s household, and compare it to a constituent-level query. If the numbers don’t line up the way you expect, that’s usually a sign of unlinked spouses or a duplicate record, not a reporting bug.
If the couple splits a year later, the decision you made earlier matters. Gifts stay on the revenue constituent. That’s another reason “name on the payment” is a safe default: the history follows the person who actually paid.
Quick answers
Should I create one constituent for a married couple?
No. Create two individuals, link them as spouses, and put them in one household. A combined record causes problems with duplicates, mailings, and any gift from just one person.
Can a single gift be split between two spouses?
The revenue itself belongs to one constituent. If you need both people credited, use household reporting or whatever recognition option your configuration supports, and confirm it in a sandbox first.
What if the couple asks for separate receipts?
Treat that as two gifts only if they actually paid separately. Otherwise, record one gift and talk with your finance team about how to word the receipt.
