How to Use Householding

Householding lets you link related records together under a single "head of household" so you can see how your relationships are connected, aggregate giving and spending totals, and manage communications more intentionally.

The most common use is grouping members of a family together, but householding is just as useful for organizational relationships. For example, you might household a foundation (as the parent record) with the individual program officers or grant managers who work there (as the child records). That way, when you're researching a grant opportunity, all the related people and entities are easy to find and work with together.

Tip! If you would like to show a connection between relationships, but without the formal association of a household, try MonkeyPod's connections feature.

How do I household relationships together?

Any number of records can be grouped into a household. To get started, open any relationship record that you want to include — you can set up or manage a household from either the parent or a child record.

Scroll to the bottom of the record and select the Household tab.

From here, you have a couple of options:

  • Add a record to this household: Search for the relationship you want to link, then click the checkmark to save.
  • Move this record to a different household: Search for the new primary household member's name and click the checkmark to save. Use this option when the record you're viewing needs to be reassigned to an existing household.

Tip! The Household Name and Household Primary fields can be included in exports from Advanced Search and other exports and reports. This comes in handy for mail merges when sending physical letters to your constituents, or when you want to group data by household.

How do I remove a relationship from a household?

When a relationship is a member of a household in your MonkeyPod, you'll see a button to Remove from Household in the Household tab. Simply click that to remove the relationship you're viewing from the household.

Tip! The relationship you're currently viewing appears in bold in the Household tab. If there are multiple child relationships, the bolding of the current relationship makes it easier to confirm which relationship will be removed.

What are my options for addresses and crediting?

When viewing any child entity of a household, you will see two checkboxes at the bottom of the Household tab:

  • Use household address: The child entity will use the same address as the parent record, even if the child entity has a different address on file. This can be helpful when doing a physical mailing to your constituents.
  • Credit household with financial activity: Any contributions, purchases, or spending associated with the child entity will be aggregated to the parent entity.

How can I change the household name?

To edit the household name, select the edit icon. The household name (along with the primary household member) can be included in various exports and reports throughout your MonkeyPod.

How can I view interactions for an entire household?

Yes! To view the interactions for an entire household, go to the parent relationship. Scroll to the bottom of the relationship record and view the Interactions tab. Click the checkbox for "Include all household".

You can customize interaction types as well as search and report on interactions. Interactions can be used to document activity and outcome metrics for your organization.

Frequently Asked Questions


What if I don't want to household someone, but rather, just track a connection between them in some way? Is that possible?

Yes! In addition to householding, MonkeyPod offers the ability to use Connections to connect different entities.


Can I use householding to connect different types of records? i.e. Individuals with Foundations or Organizations.

Yes, householding is a great feature for this purpose! For example, if you receive a grant from a foundation, the financial transaction is connected to the foundation entity record. However, you may also want to track the interactions that you have with the grant officers at the foundation. To do so, make the foundation the head of household / parent record, with the grant officers householded underneath (as child entities). Use the Interactions tab to view all of the interactions you have with the foundation.


Can I use householding to help me prepare a print mailing?

Absolutely! Edit the name of the household (see instructions above). When you export entities from MonkeyPod's Advanced Search, you can include Household Name or the Household Primary in your export file.