There are two primary reasons why you would copy a constituent record using the Copy button on the main constituent page:

• You have entered spouse #1 and you want to enter spouse #2 without having to retype all of the last name, contact, and address information.
• Organization records were imported as individual records. You want to convert a constituent record from an individual record to an organization record, or vice-versa.

Creating a Spouse Record From An Existing Individual Record

Copying a constituent record guarantees that the address is exactly the same. That's important if you want to generate mailing list queries that depend on having the same address or phone information for spouses. To copy a constituent record to a new record...

1. Open the constituent record you wish to copy.
2. Click the Edit link at the top of the screen.
   
3. Click the Copy link on the Edit menu. This creates a new constituent record with the same last name, contact, and address.
4. If this is to be an Organization record, please see the instructions below for Converting Individual Records to Organization Records.

The first name will not copy over from Spouse #1, so make sure to enter that first name before saving for the first time.

Converting Individual Records to Organization Records

You cannot directly convert an individual constituent record into an organization constituent record or vice-versa. Once the record is saved for the first time, the Constituent Type is locked in as an Individual or an Organization type record. Some data points on each constituent type are unique and not relevant to the other type, such as Birth Date for individuals or Contact Name for organizations. The recommended action to convert one constituent type to another is...

1. Open the constituent record you wish to copy.
2. Click the Edit link at the top of the screen.
3. Click the Copy link on the Edit menu. This creates a new constituent record with the same last name, contact, and address.
4. Individual is the default Constituent Type when creating a new constituent, and that is selected automatically when you Copy a constituent. If the Constituent that you are converting is an Organization select Organization at the top of the screen. You must do this BEFORE saving for the first time. Once saved, the constituent type is locked in.
5. On the new record, select the Merge button and merge data from the original record into the new record.
6. Once data fields are merged from the original record to the new record, the old record can, at that point, be deleted.