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How to Handle Deceased Patrons: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1555655
Sometimes, you'll find out that one of your patrons has passed away. When this happens, you'll want to update your records immediately to minimize the chances of an unfortunate misunderstanding.
In this article, we'll walk you through:
- How to handle the Contact record
- Other things to check and edit
- Some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Depending on the number of edits you need to make, this process should take about 5-20 minutes.
Handling the Contact
First, we'll update the Contact record to mark it as Deceased.
We do not recommend deleting the Contact, because that will erase historical data in your system, like Ticket Order history and Donation history.
1. Search for and select the Contact record
2. Click Edit
3. Check the Deceased? box and click Save
If the Deceased? box isn't on your Contact record, you'll need to add it to your Page Layouts.
4. The Contact will be marked as Deceased
Check to see if the Contact has any orders, for single tickets, subscriptions, or memberships; Benefits, or Recurring Donations currently active. You can check this from the Related List Quick Links or the Related tab.
If there are any active items, you'll have to decide if you'd like to move those to someone else in the household.
Other Considerations
There are some other fields you'll want to update when you mark a Contact as deceased.
Here's a checklist of fields to look at so that you can make any changes applicable:
- On the Contact record:
- Mark the "Do Not Mail" checkbox
- Mark the "Do Not Call" checkbox
- Mark any similar "Do Not Contact" / "Do Not Solicit" checkboxes
- Change the "Email Status" field to Opt-Out
- On the Account record (if the Account has other Contacts in it you'll still be communicating with):
- Update the Account Name (e.g. "Jamie and Amy Tillman" to "Amy Tillman")
- Update any Salutation Names
- Update any Address Names
- Update any Donor Recognition fields
- If you're using PatronPortal, and the deceased patron was a Portal user:
- Deactivate the patron's Portal user
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Be sure to add a filter to your reports for Deceased? equals False to your reports that you use for mailing lists, like the All Confirmed Opt-In Contacts report.
CRM Snapshots also have a handy checkbox that you can select that will automatically filter out Contacts marked as deceased from the results.
There are a few different ways that you can find out that a patron passed away. Sometimes their loved ones will contact you, and some of our clients even make a habit of checking local obituaries or subscribing to community newsletters with this kind of information.
For more ideas on how to find out about patrons who have passed away, we recommend reaching out in the PatronManager Client Community.
Some of our clients have used custom Salesforce automation to automatically update fields when they mark a Contact as Deceased using the "Deceased?" checkbox. To learn more about these kinds of customizations, we suggest hearing first-hand from your peers in the PatronManager Client Community!