Managing Relationships: Migrating Household and Organizational Links
- Ohana Focus Team
- Jan 19
- 6 min read
By Ohana Focus | January 4, 2025 | 14 min read
In the rush to migrate constituent records and gift history from Raiser's Edge to Salesforce, many nonprofits overlook one of their most valuable assets: the web of relationships that connect donors, board members, volunteers, and organizational supporters. These relationships between spouses, family members, employers, and affiliated organizations provide critical context for engagement strategy and represent years of institutional knowledge.
Losing or corrupting relationship data during CRM migration has serious consequences. Major gift officers often lack visibility into family connections that inform their solicitation strategy. Corporate relations staff can't see which donors work at which companies, and board management becomes fragmented when trustee affiliations aren't properly tracked. Communication mistakes occur when household preferences aren't understood.
This comprehensive guide is designed to walk you through the crucial process of preserving and migrating constituent relationships from Raiser's Edge to Salesforce. You'll learn how relationship structures differ between the two systems, how to choose the right Salesforce household model for your organization, and how to ensure your relationship data arrives intact and usable in your new CRM.
Why Relationships Matter More Than You Think
Before diving into the technical details of relationship migration, let's understand why this data is so critical to your nonprofit's operations.
Strategic Fundraising Context
Relationships provide essential context for major gift cultivation — knowing that a prospect is married to a board member, works at a Fortune 500 company, or has children who attended your programs fundamentally shapes engagement strategy. Without this information, your development team operates with incomplete intelligence.
Consider a typical major gift scenario. A donor makes a significant gift, and your major gift officer wants to understand the full context. Are they married? Does their spouse also support your organization? Where do they work? Are they connected to other major donors through business or social relationships? All of this information—typically tracked through relationships in Raiser's Edge—informs cultivation strategy.
Household Giving Patterns
Many nonprofits track giving at the household level, combining gifts from spouses or partners to understand total household support. Losing household connections during migration may:
• Distort giving reports
• Create confusion about household capacity
• Complicate tax receipting for joint gifts
• Undermine household-based communication preferences
Organizational Connections
Organizational affiliations link individual supporters to the companies, foundations, and institutions they're associated with. These connections support:
• Corporate matching gift programs
• Prospect identification by the employer
• Board and trustee relationship tracking
• Vendor and supplier relationship management
Understanding Relationship Structures
The first step in successfully migrating relationships is understanding how each system structures relationship data.
How Raiser's Edge Handles Relationships
In Raiser's Edge, relationships are relatively straightforward. The system uses relationship codes to link constituents, including:
• Spouse/partner relationships
• Household members (parent/child, siblings)
• Organizational affiliations (employee, board member)
• Business relationships (vendor, trustee, advisor)
Raiser's Edge typically focuses on individual constituent records with relationships linking them. Most nonprofits designate one household member as the 'primary' constituent, with others linked through relationships.
How Salesforce NPC Handles Relationships
Salesforce NPC (Nonprofit Cloud) takes a more structured approach to relationships, offering two primary models for managing individuals and households.
Household Account Model
Creates a separate Account record for each household with individual contacts beneath it. This model treats the household as the primary entity, with individuals as members of that household.
Best for: Organizations that primarily engage with households rather than individuals, track household-level giving and communication preferences, and focus on family philanthropy.
One-to-One Model
Creates both an Account and a Contact for each individual. Relationships between individuals are tracked using the Relationships object. Households are managed through a separate household object when needed.
Best for: Organizations that focus on individual relationships, need to track individual career histories and affiliations, and engage donors in both personal and professional capacities.
Types of Relationships to Migrate
Let's examine the key relationship types you'll need to migrate and how they map to Salesforce structures.
1. Spouse and Partner Relationships
Spouse relationships are fundamental to household management. In Salesforce, these are handled differently depending on your model choice.
Household Account Model: Spouses are both Contacts under the same Household Account. The system automatically recognizes their household connection.
One-to-One Model: Uses the Relationships object to create a bidirectional connection between the two Contact records, with relationship types like 'Spouse' or 'Partner.'
2. Parent-Child and Family Relationships
Family relationships provide important context for multi-generational engagement. In Salesforce, these relationships use the Relationships object with specific relationship types such as:
• Parent/child
• Grandparent/grandchild
• Sibling relationships
3. Organizational Affiliations
Organizational affiliations link individuals to the organizations they're associated with. Salesforce NPC uses the Affiliation object to manage these connections. An Affiliation connects a Contact (individual) to an Account (organization) with specific details including:
• Affiliation type (employee, board member, founder, etc.)
• Role or title within the organization
• Status (current or former)
• Start and end dates
4. Board and Committee Relationships
Board memberships and committee assignments are specialized organizational affiliations that require careful tracking. These relationships need:
• Current status (active vs. former)
• Specific role (chair, treasurer, member)
• Committee assignments
• Term start and end dates
Step-by-Step: Preparing Relationships for Migration
Successfully migrating relationships requires systematic preparation before the actual data migration begins.
1: Audit Your Current Relationships
Begin with a comprehensive audit of relationship data in Raiser's Edge. Run reports to identify:
• All relationship types in use
• Count of relationships by type
• Constituents with multiple relationships
• Relationships that may be outdated or need verification
2: Clean Relationship Data
Like all data, relationships need cleaning before migration. Focus on:
• Verifying reciprocal relationships exist
• Removing outdated relationships
• Updating relationship status (current vs. former)
• Standardizing relationship types
• Validating organizational connections
3: Decide on Your Salesforce Model
Your choice between the Household Account Model and the One-to-One Model fundamentally affects how relationships migrate. Consider:
• Your primary constituent type (individuals vs. households)
• How you track giving (individual vs. household level)
• Communication preferences (individual vs. household)
• Reporting needs
• Planned engagement strategies
4: Create Relationship Mapping
Document exactly how each Raiser's Edge relationship type will map to Salesforce. For each relationship type, specify:
• Whether it becomes a Household connection
• Relationships object record
• Affiliation object record
• Custom object record (if applicable)
Migration Process for Relationships
Once preparation is complete, the actual migration of relationship data follows a specific sequence.
Phase 1: Migrate Core Records First
Relationships depend on the existence of the records they connect. Your migration sequence should be:
• Migrate individual constituent records first
• Migrate organizational records
• Then migrate relationships and affiliations
Phase 2: Migrate Household Structures
If using the Household Account Model, create Household Accounts and associate appropriate Contacts with each household. The NPC has automation that can create household accounts based on Contact relationships, or you can explicitly create them during migration.
Phase 3: Migrate Individual Relationships
Create records in the Relationships object for connections between individuals, including:
• Spouse/partner relationships
• Parent-child relationships
• Sibling relationships
• Other family connections
Phase 4: Migrate Organizational Affiliations
Create Affiliation records connecting individuals to organizations:
• Employment relationships
• Board memberships
• Committee assignments
• Volunteer roles
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Ignoring Reciprocal Relationships
In Raiser's Edge, it's possible to have one-way relationships. Salesforce expects reciprocal relationships. During cleanup, ensure all relationships are bidirectional.
Overlooking Former Relationships
Former relationships (ex-spouses, previous employers) may still be valuable for context. Don't automatically delete them—instead, mark them with appropriate status and dates.
Inadequate Testing
Relationship migration is complex. Plan for multiple test migrations to verify household structures are correct, relationships appear as expected, and organizational affiliations are properly linked.
Missing Organizational Records
If you're migrating employment affiliations but haven't properly migrated organizational Account records, the affiliations will fail. Ensure all referenced organizations exist in Salesforce before migrating affiliations.
Partner with Ohana Focus
Migrating constituent relationships is one of the most complex aspects of moving from Raiser's Edge to Salesforce. Get expert help to ensure success. Schedule your free consultation today.
Ohana Focus specializes in helping nonprofits navigate these critical decisions and execute flawless relationship migrations. Our team has successfully migrated relationship data for hundreds of organizations.
What We bring:
• Deep expertise in both Raiser's Edge and Salesforce relationship structures
• Proven methodologies for relationship auditing and mapping
• Hands-on experience with both Household Account and One-to-One models
• Strategic guidance on choosing the right approach for your organization
About Ohana Focus
Ohana Focus is a certified Salesforce consulting partner dedicated exclusively to serving nonprofit organizations. We specialize in complex CRM migrations that preserve the data integrity and institutional knowledge that nonprofits depend on.
Our relationship migration expertise comes from hundreds of successful Raiser's Edge to Salesforce projects across education, healthcare, arts and culture, social services, and advocacy organizations. We understand that relationships aren't just data—they're the foundation of your fundraising strategy.
Topics: CRM Migration, Constituent Relationships, Salesforce NPC, Raiser's Edge, Household Management, Organizational Affiliations, Nonprofit Technology, Data Migration
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