Database hygiene means keeping your data clean and in good order. There are several things you and other users can do to maintain quality data.
Database Manager
One of the most important things your organization can do is identify one person to be the Database Manager. The Database Manager is responsible for making decisions about how data is entered, how it is maintained, and what the recommended workflows will be for entering new data. Having a single point of contact for your organization will allow you to have consistency, which is key to keeping your data in great shape.
Create Workflow Checklists
Every organization has their own way of doing things, which is why there is not a definitive step-by-step guide provided by the software for how you should do things. After the Database Manager and your team have completed training and gotten familiar with the software, you should create your own workflow checklist for how you want data to be entered.
For example, when entering new constituents, your organization wants to ensure:
- You don't skip the duplicate record check when entering new constituents
- You ensure the constituent is assigned to at least one constituent category
- You populate the appropriate custom fields
- Identify “How did you hear about us”
For entering new donations, your organization expects the user will enter:
- The correct For-Fund-Event-Appeal revenue categories for every gift
- The deposit date is always entered
- Donations are immediately acknowledged using the correct thank you letter
By establishing basic criteria for performing your typical daily activities, you will have mini-procedures you can share with new employees or volunteers. You will also help ensure that your data is consistent when you create reports.
Managing Picklists
There are hundreds of drop down “picklists” in the software. Because these fields are editable, if everyone on your team uses the lists in their own way, or creates their own options, you data can get messy fast. With the Database Manager and the team, plan how you want to use the picklists throughout the software and ensure everyone understands what they mean. If new options need to be added, be sure you have a process for how you want to decide when that is necessary and how it is communicated to your team.
For example, the Time Tracking feature has four different Service Category picklists. You should decide what the first category will be used for, like the department served, and what the second category will define, like the program or project, etc.
Managing Email Lists & Bounces
If you collect email addresses for email marketing, you may have a lot of constituent records that only have an email address, no name, address or phone number. You should regularly review your bounce lists and delete constituents who have an email address marked as "hard bounce" and no other information or transaction history. If the bounced constituent has transactions (like donations or event purchases in the past), you will want to keep that record to ensure financial data consistency. But a constituent with no transaction history and no other way to communicate with them, no address or phone number, is a ghost record and can be deleted.
Duplicate Record Checks
Duplicate records not only increase the number of constituents in your database, they can also cause a lot of confusion when running reports, they can result in extra cost for mailings, and they can impact your communications with your constituents. For example, a donor who has been contributing for years, makes a donation but uses a different email address with the same name and address. The software sees this constituents as a “new” person, but your organization knows this person as a long time supporter. Now you have two records for the same person, one who is a long-time major donor, the other is a first-time donor with no history.
Email address is the best field for matching to existing records. This is because two different people could have the same name, and address fields are notoriously hard to match due to the variety of way you could enter "21 West Main Street" depending on abbreviations and punctuation used.
Even if we use every tool at our disposal, duplicate records happen. Your team should establish a plan for how often you perform duplicate record checks.
You can also review any new constituents recently created. The CRM Dashboard includes numbers under the Constituents Added This Week and This Month boxes. These numbers are clickable links, so you can quickly see any new constituents in your database. We are often very familiar with our event invitees and donors, so when we see a new constituent we can often recognize if that is one of our existing constituents who should be merged with the new record.
You may see a flurry of new constituents created when you are:
Hosting a Big Event
Events where we are collecting Attendee Info names for guests will also often create many new constituents, so verifying if any of these guests already have a constituent record will help reduce duplicates.
Sending an Annual Appeal
Donors who click on a link or use your website to make a donation may not remember the email address they used previously, and inadvertently create a new record when making their donation.
Sending Membership Renewals
Again, even if we remind and ask our members to use the same email address, they may overlook the instructions, forget to log into the portal, or decide they want to use a different email address resulting in a duplicate record.
At a minimum it is recommended that you perform duplicate record checks monthly. This should keep the potential duplicates at a low and reasonable number to keep up with. You should also do a check after any big events or appeals.
