Keep It Clean: 3 Ways to Keep Your Altru Data Clean From Stephanie Henke
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Guest Post from Stephanie Henke, Data Services Coordinator for Nantucket Historical Association and newly-named Altru Champion:
We here at the Nantucket Historical Association run a pretty tight (whale)ship. As far as our database goes, and the information in it, we are committed to keeping it correct, current and consistent. Lucky for us, we have a dedicated monitor to make this happen. Yep, that’s me! If there’s a spill in Aisle 3, it’s my name you hear over the loudspeaker. So I've got a few tricks up my sleeve to help keep it clean in Altru.
1. Queen of Questionable Queries
At the beginning of each week, I trot out my “New and Changed Constituent” Query. This grabs anyone who has had any information changed on their constituent record in the past week. It lets me know when the change was made and who made it.
This is handy because, among other reasons, we ask our Museum staff to enter only first and last name plus phone number when selling a membership at the front desk. Asking for so little keeps things moving on those Saturdays in July when the line is 8 people deep, three registers wide!
It’s easy for me on a Monday morning to add the remainder of the contact information (correctly) into Altru. The visitor only fills out a quick form, the VS staff enters limited info, and I get clean data in Altru. It’s a win, win, win situation!
Here’s that simple bad boy:
While the above query helps with new data, we do sometimes find that there are little pests from the past that occasionally rear their ugly heads. A few queries I’ve had to create in order to ferret out these issues have included:
How many of you have constituents who are married but have different last names? Try using the following query to find those constituents and then clean up their salutations. It’s a great way to honor their name preferences.
We also once needed to find all of our deceased constituents who somehow were still active members. (We didn't want them coming in and frightening the tourists. Yikes!) So I asked Altru for the following and then I cancelled their memberships.
2. You Touch it, You Clean it
Besides using query, (and I might be mocked or envied for admitting this, not sure which), I use every gift entry to check for incorrect primary contact data and salutations. That’s right. I don’t use batch. I know. . . I’m pretty spoiled. But it’s been a great way to slowly systematize how data is stored in Altru.
We also incorporate a place for constituents to correct any data right on their Membership Renewal / Donation Reply/Event Registration Cards. So while inputting their gift, renewing their membership or registering them for an event, I clean up their data. No one wants to live in a dirty constituent record!
3. Grounds Maintenance
Of course there are other great tools to help keep your database clean and current:
Speaking of which, if anyone is at the point of creating a Data Cleanliness Guidelines document, you can check out my draft here.
Happy cleaning!
We here at the Nantucket Historical Association run a pretty tight (whale)ship. As far as our database goes, and the information in it, we are committed to keeping it correct, current and consistent. Lucky for us, we have a dedicated monitor to make this happen. Yep, that’s me! If there’s a spill in Aisle 3, it’s my name you hear over the loudspeaker. So I've got a few tricks up my sleeve to help keep it clean in Altru.
1. Queen of Questionable Queries
At the beginning of each week, I trot out my “New and Changed Constituent” Query. This grabs anyone who has had any information changed on their constituent record in the past week. It lets me know when the change was made and who made it.
This is handy because, among other reasons, we ask our Museum staff to enter only first and last name plus phone number when selling a membership at the front desk. Asking for so little keeps things moving on those Saturdays in July when the line is 8 people deep, three registers wide!
It’s easy for me on a Monday morning to add the remainder of the contact information (correctly) into Altru. The visitor only fills out a quick form, the VS staff enters limited info, and I get clean data in Altru. It’s a win, win, win situation!
Here’s that simple bad boy:
While the above query helps with new data, we do sometimes find that there are little pests from the past that occasionally rear their ugly heads. A few queries I’ve had to create in order to ferret out these issues have included:
- “Constituent is not blank,” give me their title. Oops, no title. Show some respect! Add a title.
- “Deceased is equal to yes,” give me their status. Still active? Let them rest! Inactivate.
- “Record is equal to Household,” members equal to 1. Lonely! Add a spouse.
How many of you have constituents who are married but have different last names? Try using the following query to find those constituents and then clean up their salutations. It’s a great way to honor their name preferences.
We also once needed to find all of our deceased constituents who somehow were still active members. (We didn't want them coming in and frightening the tourists. Yikes!) So I asked Altru for the following and then I cancelled their memberships.
2. You Touch it, You Clean it
Besides using query, (and I might be mocked or envied for admitting this, not sure which), I use every gift entry to check for incorrect primary contact data and salutations. That’s right. I don’t use batch. I know. . . I’m pretty spoiled. But it’s been a great way to slowly systematize how data is stored in Altru.
We also incorporate a place for constituents to correct any data right on their Membership Renewal / Donation Reply/Event Registration Cards. So while inputting their gift, renewing their membership or registering them for an event, I clean up their data. No one wants to live in a dirty constituent record!
3. Grounds Maintenance
Of course there are other great tools to help keep your database clean and current:
- I do a full de-dupe monthly.
- We utilize NCOA twice a year.
- I analyze Constant Contact Bounce Reports to check for dead email addresses.
- I decease constituents regularly . . . and inactivate them as defined in our guidelines.
Speaking of which, if anyone is at the point of creating a Data Cleanliness Guidelines document, you can check out my draft here.
Happy cleaning!
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ARCHIVED | Blackbaud Altru® Tips and Tricks
05/20/2014 10:38am EDT
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