Tech Forum

I am the Finance Clerk for my ward and several couples in our ward have asked us to include both names on their donor statements (for both tax and year end statements). I seem to remember reading somewhere (I think in this forum) that we are not supposed to change the Donor Name to include both spouses as the donor record can only be connected to 1 membership record. I have found a way to update the donor record setting to include spouse on the donor statement; however, the spouse is listed on a separate line of the statement as follows:

Donor: J. Doe
Spouse: J. Doe

There is some concern that this solution may be a bit lacking for some couples as it could be interpreted that the spouse isn't included as an actual donor but rather as "just a spouse".

So I've thought of some ways to handle this but please help me with other ideas and let me know which options preferred:

1. Let these couples know that each donation slip should only be connected to one donor (They could even use the same check, but fill out two donation slips.)
2. Use the option to add spouse name on donation (as described above).
3. I'm still trying to think of some other ideas.....

Thanks in advance for any advice on the proper way to handle these donations.

couldge wrote:I seem to remember reading somewhere (I think in this forum) that we are not supposed to change the Donor Name to include both spouses as the donor record can only be connected to 1 membership record.

The record can only be connected to one membership record, and the name will revert back to what's on the membership record on the next send/receive, so changing it is rather pointless.

I favor #1, letting them know both name will appear on the end of year tax statement as described in your first post.

couldge wrote:I seem to remember reading somewhere (I think in this forum) that we are not supposed to change the Donor Name to include both spouses as the donor record can only be connected to 1 membership record.

Clerks were notified of this in an MLS message back in October 2010, which has been captured in the wiki. You are remembering the Donors section of that message. That provision has been discussed extensively on this forum as well.

Thanks guys -

I promise I performed a search of the forum to look for an applicable thread earlier, but wasn't able to find anything. I was able to find this link with some helpful stuff if anyone is interested

https://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?5980-CUBS-Donor-Names&highlight=donor+spouse

Thanks again!

If you have MLS 3.3 or greater, you go into the donor information and there is a box you can check to include the spouse's name on donor statements.