Imagine this: Your annual fundraiser is coming up. You mail an invitation to one of your long-term supporters. Although she has always been willing to help in the past, you receive no response. You try sending an email, but again, there’s no response. You finally decide to call the donor, only to learn that she moved months ago and recently changed her email.
When you check your donor management system, you discover that although the donor had called to update her address, her new contact information had been saved under a duplicate record. Although you are able to delete the incorrect record, you wonder what other inaccurate data might be lurking in your system.
Unfortunately, this situation is common for many organizations. As new social media channels are developed, email addresses change, and people get new contact numbers, it can be difficult to keep your donor base current. As a result, you may find that your system has become full of dirty data.
So what is “Dirty Data”?
Dirty data is the information in your database that isn’t up to date and contains unnecessary or duplicated information. It also refers to data that might be incorrect or misspelled. While having dirty data in your system may not seem like a big deal, it can have negative consequences across all aspects of your organization, from marketing to donor management.
What are the Consequences?
Having dirty data in your system is the equivalent of adding vinegar to chocolate chip cookies — a small amount might not seem to make a difference, but a large amount can ruin the entire batch.
Even if you only have a little dirty data in your system, it can still result in mistakes, such as sending a thank-you note with a misspelled name, or sending an event invite to the wrong John Smith. However, these small mistakes not only make your organization seem unprofessional, it also sends the message that you don’t care about your donors. No donor wants to feel replaceable, and when your donor information is outdated or inaccurate, that’s exactly how they feel.
Dirty data doesn’t just affect your existing donors, it can also affect how you market to potential donors. Having incorrect information for a contact means that you’ll be unable to reach them with your mission. As a result, those leads you generated will be useless, and contacts who could have been donors will end up falling through the cracks.
Cleaning up your data
Good news! Decreasing the amount of dirty data in your system can be a challenge, but it is possible. Having clean data may seem like a minor factor in your organization’s success, but if you are willing to take the time to keep your system clean, it will be incredibly beneficial to your organization as you continue to grow. Not sure how to start cleaning your data? We’ve outlined a few tips!
Strategize
Before you start clearing records, it’s important to create a strategy for how you want to standardize your data. It may help to go through your existing records to see what kind of information is essential, and what information you’re storing that may not be necessary. You may realize that you only need a donor’s email, and not a detailed listing of his or her pets. Figuring out what information you actually need to best leverage your donor information can help you consolidate your records, as well as help you avoid collecting unnecessary data.
Standardize
Once you’ve determined what information you need, make sure that all your records reflect that essential information. Decide how you want to store your information, and standardize it across your database. When you and your team know exactly what kinds of data should be in the records, identifying mistakes will be much easier.
Synthesize
Once you’ve standardized your data, and decided which fields are most relevant for your organization, it can be helpful to have a process for removing duplicate entries. While you can go through your system manually and delete each duplicate entry, a great CRM (Client Relationship Manager) can help catch duplicate entries as they occur. For example, when we created the DonorLynk PowerPack, we gave it the capability to integrate duplicate records, which dramatically lowers the amount of dirty data in your system.
Most importantly, keeping your data clean requires effort. Make sure to consistently check for errors when entering information. The more you can reduce human error, the cleaner your data will be. You’ll be able to continue to get the most from your donor data.
Does cleaning your data seem like a daunting task? Not sure where to start? We’d love to help! Give us a call or send us an email— we are always available to answer questions or assist you with data cleanup. Let’s do good together.