Change "head of household" reference to something more inclusive/less patronizing
I work for a college; we have many alumni couples. Many are spouses of the opposite sex. Some are in same-sex marriages. We are using the "head of household" convention and have made the decision to assign the male alumnus as head of household. While I reviewed the threads about why the "head of household" convention is important for pulling lists, when I see that term it feels like a throwback to the 1950's and "Father Knows Best". In a time when our students and alumni are including their pronouns in their correspondence to us, when more alumni are in same-sex marriages, having a gender-binary male/female and head of household designations are a problematic throwback to a different era. Every time I see it on the screen, I am reminded that despite our institutionally stated value of "equity and inclusion" one alum is categorized above his spouse in this way. And while I don't agree with the approach that our institution has taken of willy-nilly assigning the "male" as "head of household", I think Blackbaud will likely have to address in the future how one includes a gender non-binary person in a data base like this, and this "head of household" nomenclature could easily be changed to something else. Interestingly, I was in a training with a planned giving software provider today and there was mention of an addition of a "they" pronoun in their input fields coming soon. Thank you for considering this request/idea.
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Deborah Wales
- Jun 17 2020
Related ideas
I don't think it's just about the label I think it should be possible to recognise "households" / family groups that are connected other than by a spousal relationship. It can be very useful to understand wider family groups (more than 2 people) and also to be able to report on "household" giving
I agree with the suggestion to change the label for all the reasons already posted in this thread. But I don’t entirely agree with the suggested alternative of “primary contact.” I don’t see how that is any less condescending or elitist especially when you have two members of a household who are equally engaged and equally tied to the college or institution. If you’re going to change the label why don’t you just call it what it is; a Household flag?
Agree that re-labeling as "primary constituent" or "primary contact" is much more accurate and also abandons the archaic "head of household" language.
Please re-label to "Primary Constituent" instead of Head of Household.
Agreed!
Agreed
I agree wholeheartedly with the "primary contact" suggestion.
YES! Something like primary household contact (PHC). This should be an easy lable change. Or at least make it editable in terms of labeling. I'm shocked this hasn't already been done, honestly.
Absolutely would prefer a change of name of this flag, or the ability to remove it (ref idea: RENXT-I-3477).
In terms of Anthony Gallo's point about a dictionary of difference - there are already many differences of nomenclature between NXT and Database - Fundraisers v Solicitors, Opportunities v Proposals etc.
This should be nothing more than a field label change, surely?
My forward-facing fundraiser colleagues and I only use web view, so I can't speak to database view, but I would be very happy to see the "Head of Household" reference replaced with "Primary Contact" in web view. Thanks everyone for weighing in.
I'd like to expand on this a bit to see where folks land on this part of the equation. There are fields in web view that have been changed and now we have a dictionary of differences for NXT vs DB View. If we made this change but it was only in web view, would that change anyone's thinking here? Would having different terms in web view and database view out weigh the current perceived issue with calling the flag "Head of Household"?
I agree that "Primary Contact" is more clear and less problematic. I would hate for a donor to hear or see us talking about who is head of their household! They wouldn't understand how we meant it and could be quite offended.
Primary Contact FOR SURE!
Yes!! I would prefer Primary Contact
I couldn't agree more! Let's find a much more inclusive term than the sexist, retrograde "head of household."