When we connect a guest/nonconstituent to their actual constituent record, we lose the information that was used to register them (address/phone/email). It automatically fills in the information that was preexisting on the constituent record. The event may be the first thing they've done with us in years and their constituent record needs to be updated with the information they provided on the event registration. We have to screen shot the event info to then enter it into the constituent account - unfortunately the address they provided for the event is on a different screen than the other event info so that means opening a couple screens to get all the data we need.

Hi Daisy,

Thanks for sending along the info. I will tell you what I experienced. This
summer we have had a few in-person events. I am the person who matches
constituents in Online Data Review and generates name tags as well. This
summer I noticed that some spouses were missing nametags and after I did
some research it seemed that guests, such as spouses, were not showing up
in Online Data Review and I wasn't given the opportunity to match them.
Maybe I missed something? I don't know but I did research before I added
the idea to the idea bank. We don't have any current events coming up and I
don't have the capacity right now to test again.

Thanks,
Susan

*Susan Bosco, Development Assistant*
*she/her/hers*

*Friends of Casco Bay*
*75 West Commercial Street, Suite 301*
*Portland, ME 04101*
*Office: (207) 799-8574*
*sbosco@cascobay.org*

I think there is an important piece missing here. For example, if an alum brings a guest to an event, the guest may be given a non-constituent record, but there is currently nothing on that non-constituent record that identifies the alum who brought them, unless you happen to look at the event participation record.

This becomes even more of an issue when there is no event participation to reference. For example, if a relationship is linked to a non-constituent, there is no way to see from the non-constituent's record who they are related to. This can result in multiple non-constituent records being created for the same person because there is no clear connection back to the existing record.

Being able to link the guest to an existing constituent record and/or establish the appropriate relationship from the guest's record would give us a much more complete picture and help prevent duplicate non-constituent records.

Hi Susan Bosco, can you provide a bit more information, with an example of where this is not working as expected? Online data review for Event registrations will allow you to review and match both host and guest participants, as long as the guests entered at least name and one piece of contact information. Here's the help file that explains linking a bit better: https://webfiles-sc1.blackbaud.com/files/support/helpfiles/rex/content/on-data-review-link-records.html.

It would be great to add them as a relationship record on the constituent record without creating a new constituent record.

This would be super helpful for our reunion events. Many of our alumni are bringing the same person/people every year, so their guests are likely already constituents, but I can only link the host in ODR.

This is a great idea. We have events where people like to register as a group. For example, a professor wants to bring their students and pay for their students to attend. It would be a good way to track who the professor has paid to attend the event.