When the death of a contributor happens, the criteria that affects the process going forward depends on whether or not there is a surviving spouse.
If there is a surviving spouse, we will want to set the envelope up so that the surviving spouse keeps all the current offering records and still receives envelopes the next year. If there is no surviving spouse, we will want to make sure that the contributor record does not receive envelopes the next year.
Regardless of which situation you find yourself in, there are two things you will want to do prior to starting. You need to make a backup of your database as well as print a contribution statement for this envelope.
Important: We recommend not deleting any records until after the year has ended.
» Surviving Spouse
- In the Contributions module, click on Giving and then choose "Contributors"
- Highlight the record you need to update and click "Edit"
- In the Contributor information section, click into the "Joint contributor" field and then press the Delete key on your keyboard. This will remove the joint contributor from the envelope.
- If the surviving spouse was the joint contributor, in the "Contributor" field, make sure they are selected.
- Click "Save" at the bottom right-hand corner of the grid to save your changes.
» No Surviving Spouse
- In the Contributions module, click on Giving and then choose "Contributors"
- Highlight the record you need to update and click "Edit"
- Check the "Does not use physical envelopes." box. This will change the Upcoming envelope number for the person to a number in the six-digit range, and keep them from getting a new number in a future renumbering. If your church doesn't do an envelope renumbering at the end of the year, you'll also want to update this contributor's Current Envelope to match the Upcoming envelope field.
- Click "Save" at the bottom right-hand corner of the grid to save your changes.