Finding a merged members donations

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ffrsqpilot
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Location: Montrose, Colorado

Finding a merged members donations

#1

Post by ffrsqpilot »

Up front I have to confess that I haven't really sat down and tried to figure out what is happening in the situation I am about to describe but I have pondered it a great deal. Before I sit down again at the unit's computer I thought I would ask for any insight any of you might have.

The situation is thus - a sister in one of the units paid her offerings under her maiden name. She then married and now the unit wants to merge her offerings (made under her maiden name) with her married name donations. But, they can't find her married name under the list of donors. Her married name is definitly in the membership list (I looked). I sat down and briefly looked at the donor list and membership lists but in just the few minutes available at the time I was unable to determine what the problem is.

My thoughts so far is that one of several items may be the problem:
1. She hasn't donated offerings since her marriage thus her married name wouldn't show as a donor
2. She donated but did it in her husbands name thinking they were combined donors
3. The unit already merged her but did it backwards (?) merging her married name to the maiden name rather then the other way around.

These are the only reasons I can come up with off hand that would cause the unit to be unable to find her married name donations. Before I sit down at their ward computer I thought perhaps someone may know of something else that I'm not seeing that may be causing the problem.

Willing to listen to any and all explanations before I tackle this.

Jim
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

As you research this matter, it's helpful to keep some basic principles in mind:
  1. Each donation is associated with a donor record.
  2. Each donor record is usually associated with a member record number.
  3. The existence of a donor record has nothing to do with whether that donor record is associated with any donations in the current year or any other year.
The first thing I would do is check the donor records (go to Finance > Add/Update Donors). Once you are there, look for any donor records that have her married or maiden name, and see what Record Number is associated with those records. Also, from the donor record list, click on the Record Number column header to sort by Record Number. Then scroll down to where her Record Number should be to see if any other donor name happens to be associated with her record number.

Note that the act of merging (if that has been done by the ward) doesn't actually delete a donor record. Rather it takes all of Donor 2's donations, reassigns them to Donor 1, and then sets Donor 2's record to be hidden. So you should be able to find a donor record for the merge source if that is what really happened.

Once you have identified all the possible donor names, I would run a YTD Donation Summary (Finance > Donor Statements) for each of those donors (and the husband's donor record, as well) to see if there are any donations for those donors (or if some donations were credited incorrectly to her husband).

For all of this, it would be helpful to know of a specific donation that she knows she made on a particular date. From your description, it sounds like you're not sure if she actually made any donations. That makes it a bit tricky. But I would think that the process above should identify all the possible donor records and their donations, which should enable you to sort it out and get the donations credited to the right donor records, and the donor records associated with the right member record numbers.
russellhltn
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#3

Post by russellhltn »

A slight variation of #2 is that it's donated under "Mr. and Mrs" and not her name alone.

I'd start by pulling up her maiden name and listing out her donations. If there's all there, then nothing is really missing. They just need to update her name on the finance side. (Assuming that she wants to stay separate from her husband.)
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crislapi
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#4

Post by crislapi »

Pilotfly wrote:The situation is thus - a sister in one of the units paid her offerings under her maiden name. She then married and now the unit wants to merge her offerings (made under her maiden name) with her married name donations. But, they can't find her married name under the list of donors. Her married name is definitly in the membership list (I looked).

My thoughts so far is that one of several items may be the problem:
1. She hasn't donated offerings since her marriage thus her married name wouldn't show as a donor
2. She donated but did it in her husbands name thinking they were combined donors
3. The unit already merged her but did it backwards (?) merging her married name to the maiden name rather then the other way around.
I'm guessing it's #1 or 2 - most likely 1. If that's the case, I would just go to add/update donors, find her maiden donor name, open it, and update her name there. This way, there is no need to merge records. You may even be able to use the browse feature to re-link it to her membership record, and therefore her married name.
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ffrsqpilot
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Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 8:51 am
Location: Montrose, Colorado

#5

Post by ffrsqpilot »

You all have given me a few more ideas, which I very much appreciate. I will sit down this Sunday with their ward clerk and work through this. Hopefully one of the ideas given above will help solve the problem.

Thanks
Jim
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