Data Conversions R Us....

Over the last several months and with our new releases of Version 9 and DonorPerfect, we had something happened that I didn't predict- we sold too much software.

Why? Because most of our new clients needed data conversions, and though we have a full time department with dedicated data conversion specialists, it was clear that our backlog was getting too large. Yes, we hired 2 more people, but we also knew it would take some time to get them up to speed.

Enter in the old guys. Yep- us old timers that have been around since the beginning. For those scoring at home, that's myself and Mike Sernoff.

In the beginning of DonorPerfect, about 12 years ago, Mike and I did ALL of the conversions. Back then data had to be converted on old 486's (and even a few 386's), downloaded to Floppy 3.5 inch disk drives, and physically mailed via UPS to the client. Many nights were spent working until the magic time of 8:05pm, when it was absolutely, positively the last drop off time for our packages. I believe Mike even invited the UPS driver to his wedding.

Flash forward to today, and our immediate short term solution to our sales 'problem' was to assign several conversions to Mike and I to complete- we had to get them done one way or another.

One of my conversions ended up being a poster child for why it's so important to treat data conversions as a serious endeavor to finally clean up your data. What you want to avoid, at all costs , is GIEGO - Garbage In Equals Garbage Out. That's why it's almost never a good idea to use an import utility to load your data the first time- no matter how sophisticated the import module is, it will never catch the majority of problems inherent to all data conversions.

Here's a short list of all the problems I found with the data conversion I was working on:

1. Fields missing information- such as name, address, or email
2. Fields containing the wrong information - e.g. State in the zip code field or vice-versa.
3. Incorrect data entry - The Last Name field would contain the entire name, instead of being correctly split up by Title, First Name, and Last Name.
4. Inconsistant data entry - Some records had BOARD as a flag, others had BD, BRD, or even BORED. :)
5. Infrequently used codes. Some codes existed in only a few records- others not at all.
6. Orphaned Gifts - These are gifts that are tied to a donor that has been deleted from the master table.
7. Invalid dates and/or amounts. Some gifts were dated after the year 2047. One gift was for over 25 billion dollars.
8. UPPER/lower case problems - Some records were entirely in upper case, others all lower.
9. Duplicate codes - some codes were used year after year, though the meaning of the code changed.
10. Duplicate records - Many records were duplicated in the system.

Luckily, as part of our standard conversion process, I was able to correct all these problems so that the client was left with a very clean system, ready to work for them instead of against them.

That's why it's so important to treat the data conversion process as a golden opportunity to improve your fundraising results- it's an investment that pays off!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'd like to extend a warm "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone! Though we will be closed on Thanksgiving, our offices are open on Friday- we know from experience that many of our clients need help, even on the Friday after Thanksgiving, so we make sure we have enough staff to answer the phones and help out.

Mining for Gold- Retaining Donors Is the Key

It's that time of year again to mine what is perhaps your best opportunity for success- retaining your existing donors.

Donors that have given more than once deserve your special attention. Why? Because as soon as donors give more than once, the odds that they give a 3rd,4th,5th, etc. gift literally skyrockets- you want to retain these donors.

The effect is so unique that in an article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy earlier this year, it was mentioned that:

"A 10% improvement in donor retention can increase overall results by up to 200%"

Now that's powerful advice.

Within DonorPerfect, the easiest way to increase your retention rate is to target those people that are LYBUNT's. No, they don't have some disfiguring disease, but rather this is a list of all the people that gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not This year (On a side note: I'm not sure why the "Y" in year is not included in the acronym, I've just always seen it written that way.)

To run this report, simply click on Reports, Financial Reports, and Select one of the LYBUNT listings.

Once you've focused on retaining your LYBUNT's, you can also target your SYBUNT's (Some year but unfortunately not this year) donors. These are the people that gave in some other year besides last year. Typically, it's worth looking at those donors that have given in the last 3-4 years. If they have lapsed longer than that, it's typically not cost effective to try and retain them- the efforts cost more than the additional revenue.

While it's important to add new donors to your organization, don't forget your existing ones- in the end they provide the foundation for your organization and any increase in retaining donors is more effective than increasing new donors.

Blogging now for two years...

And is it worth it?

I think so- we get loads of traffic each month- and we're already into the thousands of visitors per month. While many of these are customers and prospects, there's also quite a few competitors that keep track of us - and we know who you are... ;)

I believe blogging can definitely help your organization as well- no matter what the type (non profit or for profit). There will always be a key segment of your audience that wants- even demands- as much information as you can provide. They appreciate more communication, and seek it out. Once they have the information, they become more enganged, and contribute more. Blogging is perfect for this type of audience, since it's much more up to date and typically more personal.

Ahhhh, the 'keep it personal' aspect of successful blog writing. I remember I had a rather long discussion (aka fight!) with a partner of mine at the company. He really felt that all communication from us, regardless or where or how it was posted, should represent the collective consciousness of the company. This also means that it should be approved by everyone, before anything is published. Spell checked. Correct Grammar. No sentence fragments allowed.

I definitely agree with spell checking- anything less and that's just sloppy. But good grammar aside, it's much more powerful to be personal. If you want your constituents or customers to be passionate about your mission, they have to be passionate about you, so it has to be personal.

So here are my tips about successful blogging:

1. Keep it regularly updated. The schedule doesn't matter, as long as it's regular. Nothing kills a blog faster than not updating it on schedule. Choose a schedule that's right for you (Once/month, once/week, or once/day) and stick to it.
2. Keep it personal. People like to form relationships with the writer. You're not covering the news, so your posts can be more opinion based than "just the facts mam..."
3. Keep it relevant. Yes, I do violate it from time to time, but for the most part, stick to your subject expertise.
4. Keep it fresh. It's easy to write about what people already know- really. Go out on a limb and provide some insider information. Something people can latch onto and think, "Wow! I didn't know that!"
5. Get started now. The sooner you start, the sooner you can see results.

I'd love to hear stories about any successful blogging you do and I'd also like to hear from the people who will finally make the jump and start blogging - it's lonely among us bloggers sometimes!