WIth today’s CRM options for your nonprofit, like Salesforce, you have the ability to collect as much data as you want about current and potential donors, volunteers, sponsors, and staff. Just because you CAN collect all that data, does that mean you should?
It is important to not get caught collecting or importing data that is irrelevant to your mission. First of all, it creates more work for your staff by having them enter information for data fields that don’t matter in the big picture. Second, it can muddy up profiles of individuals involved with your cause. On that individual’s screen, you really only want to see everything that is necessary about that person for your mission — and not garbage data that just muddies up the works.
Maybe you have a whole bunch of data scattered all over the place that you want to migrate to a CRM. What to do with it all?
It’s time for a data audit.
- Simply put, you need a plan and a structure. Sit down and define every last bit of information you have about your constituents. Determine which data points matter and which do not. This exercise is really healthy because you might discover NEW data points that you have not collected information for before. It is also a good time to think about what exactly you want to do with each data point.
- You also need to define which members of your staff need access to which data points. Some people might not need all of the information you are collecting, or should not have access to it. Build a tree of who needs to view what data.
- Determine data relationships. Some data is inextricably tied to other data, or should be. What would those relationships look like?
- Standardize your data. Some fields, like address, must be manually entered. Other fields may just require a yes or no, or a choice of several standardized answers. The cool thing is that with a system like Salesforce, these latter fields, called pick lists, provide a multiple-choice drop down menu that will save your staff serious time — and allow you to easily sort data without any typing mistakes that could result in inaccurate reports.
Of course, you do not have to go at it alone on this journey. You should call us. DonorLynk has worked with hundreds of nonprofits on projects just like this. We can help you sort through your existing data, upload the important stuff to Salesforce, program all the data fields and relationships and reports you need, create user permissions for different fields, and make everything pretty and super-easy to use.
Whether you choose to consult us or not, it’s time to do a data audit at your nonprofit. Don’t put it off. A well-crafted data collection plan can be turned into valuable information for your nonprofit… and information is power!