As fundraising software and database vendors, we periodically field questions about database cleanup and maintenance. Since Spring is right around the corner and “sprucing up” is appropriate at this time of year, we’d like to offer the following tips on Database “Spring Cleaning”. Query your database to see if you have records that have been inactive for a long time. If you have records for constituents who have never made a donation, never attended an event, haven’t responded to any of your efforts for 5 years (and are not tributes), perhaps it’s time to purge their records and free up some space.
Merge duplicate records. Most fundraising systems offer duplicate merge utilities. Run the utilities provided by your system to identify and merge duplicate records.
Deactivate unused codes. Over time, databases gather codes. Codes are an excellent way to provide data consistency but they can become a nuisance if they are no longer used. Deactivating unused appeal, campaign, and fund codes (and maybe others) will prevent them from being mistakenly selected on new records, may speed up data entry, and, in most systems, will improve performance.
Review shared files. If your database supports automated mail merge functions, there’s a good chance you have unused document templates lying around on your network. Check with your end-users to identify files that you can archive.
Clean up unused database queries. If the list of queries in your fundraising database is getting long, set aside a few minutes to review the list and remove or archive queries you suspect are no longer used.
Restore a backup. Okay, this isn’t really cleaning anything up … but if you haven’t restored a backup in awhile, you should do it just to ensure that your backups are working!
Have your records processed for changes of address. The USPS has changed the rules in the last few years. Addresses now have to be NCOA processed every 90 days or so. The change of seasons is a good marker to use as a reminder.
Need help? ResultsPlus customers can take advantage of our many data services including address standardization and validation, area code validation, data manipulation, data validation, and NCOA updates. Contact [email protected] for more information.
Happy cleaning!
Your ResultsPlus Donor Management Team
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