Data Hygiene Services - recommended vendors

Joanne Felci

Hello!


One thing I want to do before the fall mailings is do a deceased append


Has anyone done this before?  Do you have a vendor you could recommend?


I am going to reach out to my Blackbaud rep about this as well but wondered what others have done


Thanks!

Joanne

Dariel Dixon

Deceased appends are tough.  The biggest thing in regards to any append is to establish a level of trust with the data.  I think its only natural for those of us in this industry.  Obviously, there's only a handful of places to search for this type of data, so you'll see many products using the same sources.  However, in regards to deceased data, I always like to know a level of confidence with the data.  This is generally different that NCOA searching, which is pretty cut and dry.  You obviously don't want to mail to a dead person, but you don't want to take people out of your mailing pool prematurely based off inaccurate data.  It's a delicate dance.  However, I find that Blackbaud's deceased tool came with a confidence rating.  That allowed me to trust the data a little more than normal.


The biggest issue is that most of these tools parse the Social Security database for this information.  However, from the way I understand it, this database doesn't necessarily index suffixes. 


I just had a list of deceased individuals that were taken off a recent mailing we did.  Imagine my surprise when I saw my co-worker's name on it.  I walked by his office just to make sure he wasn't floating or anything.  


With that said, I'm a big fan of diversifying your vendors.  How do you know how good your vendors are if you never test their results versus what you have.  Every vendor has blind spots, and sometimes it's worth using another vendor to get some coverage in those areas.  

Jenny Marquardt

I use Blackbaud's services as well and have been pleased with the results.  I agree you do have to check on some of them because it could be a suffix issue but it is worth the time.

JoAnn Strommen

I'm planning to run BB's DeceasedRecordFinder this summer for my first time. It doesn't look like it's been run for several years.


I noted issue mentioned with suffixes.  Any other tips, cautions?


Been reading KB, per info I read, it doesn't provide date of death for  those who died in last year years, just notation that they are deceased.


Any tips/cautions welcomed.

Jenny Marquardt

JoAnn Strommen the data is imported and added as an attribute.  Then I pull three queries based off of the codes imported 1) code 'A' which is relative verified, 2) code 'B' which is Death Certificate, 3) code 'C' which is unconfirmed.  I check the first two queries to see if any of the names are recent donors or have a gift officer assigned to them or check if I recognize any of the names.  If not I then do a global change to mark them deceased and whatever else my database needs when marking deceased.


For the 3rd query (C) I look those names up using Lexis Nexis to see if I can confirm that they are deceased or not.  Again, I check to see who they are and if there is anything to suggest to me that they are not deceased.


I run DeceasedFinder once a year so the number of records is pretty low for me and manageable.

JoAnn Strommen

Thanks you Jenny Stephens‍ for sharing your process. 


So those returned as Unconfirmed are possible matches to the John Smith in the database but they were not able to say with certainty it is the same John Smith?


Feeling a little more confident already.  

Joanne Felci‍ - what I've learned is that depending on you BB product level it may be included. Check out the data health center in db view to see what's listed. Mine also shows some annual costs even for the features included with our package.  

Joanne Felci

Thank you all for your responses and the great information!

JoAnn Strommen‍ - I will check out the Data Health Center as you mentioned.  And I also am setting up some time with our BB rep


Sounds like their product is pretty good and I'd rather just use that if the cost isn't outrageous - which from what the rep wrote me it is $1,500 for both DeceaseFinder and AddressFinder for a year, but I'll find out more when we talk

Dariel Dixon

JoAnn Strommen‍ I ran a similar process as Jenny Stephens‍ when running the DeceasedFinder.  However, we made a decision not to even deal with the (C) - Unconfirmed entries.  That gave us the results we were the most comfortable with being confirmed.  And as Jenny stated, since she runs the search yearly, it's a manageable set to research them all.  It might not be worth your time to research those unconfirmed results.  If you are running this process for the first time in a few years (or ever), that research might not prove to be super fruitful or more taxing than expected.

Joanne Felci‍ I'd consider taking a look at your BB contract.  Often times there are things bundled in there that you have no idea about.  I'm always in a process of negotiating/renegotiating services, and having an understanding of what you're getting will help you understand the value.  If you can't get that information from someone in your office, I'd reach out to the account manager if you're the account owner/primary on the account.

Joanne Felci

Dariel Dixon‍  - the buck stops with me when it comes to Blackbaud but I was not involved in the current contract.  When I went to the Data Health Center - DeceasedFinder was there and a link to submit data, which I tried to do but it froze my connection so I'm not sure if it went through or not.  I got as far as the preview of the control report.


I have our meeting with our account rep tomorrow and will find out more then.

Joanne Felci

Jenny Stephens‍ a couple questions:


I just got my results back - 4,542 records updated with the DeceasedRecordFinder attribute (goodness knows if/when we ever ran the service before)


Questions are: 


1.  How come the attribute is on the record multiple times with the same description

2. How come the attribute is on the record multiple times with different descriptions


I'm so grateful that you explained the process as the KB didn't make it sound like it would create the attribute, but thankfully it did and no one is marked deceased


I took your advice below and set up an export with the output you suggested - last gift date is especially helpful as many gave a gift years after what they say their death certificate date has - I'm going to rerun the export and add suffix to see if that sheds any light on the results


Now to wade through the data...but at least it is a start

Joanne Felci

JoAnn Strommen:

I'm planning to run BB's DeceasedRecordFinder this summer for my first time. It doesn't look like it's been run for several years.


I noted issue mentioned with suffixes.  Any other tips, cautions?


Been reading KB, per info I read, it doesn't provide date of death for  those who died in last year years, just notation that they are deceased.


Any tips/cautions welcomed.

JoAnn Strommen‍ - what was strange was there were some recent deceased dates - within the last three years, some this year, maybe it depends which source gives them the information.  I think it is the SS database that will not give you a date in the last three years. I have all my data back, now I just need to figure out the best way to tackle it after the first pass of last gift date vs death date.  I will say the process was quick - got the results back in a few hours...I believe we sent over 165,000 records

Jenny Marquardt

Joanne Felci:
Jenny Stephens‍ a couple questions:


I just got my results back - 4,542 records updated with the DeceasedRecordFinder attribute (goodness knows if/when we ever ran the service before)


Questions are: 


1.  How come the attribute is on the record multiple times with the same description

2. How come the attribute is on the record multiple times with different descriptions


I'm so grateful that you explained the process as the KB didn't make it sound like it would create the attribute, but thankfully it did and no one is marked deceased


I took your advice below and set up an export with the output you suggested - last gift date is especially helpful as many gave a gift years after what they say their death certificate date has - I'm going to rerun the export and add suffix to see if that sheds any light on the results


Now to wade through the data...but at least it is a start

Hi there,


In answer to your two questions: 

1.  How come the attribute is on the record multiple times with the same description - Is the date the same on all of these or is it possible that the dates are different?  Once I mark someone deceased or decide it is an incorrect possible duplicate I remove the attribute.


2. How come the attribute is on the record multiple times with different descriptions - I am guessing it is from previous DeceasedFinder results.  I have very recently run mine and I have only one entry on the records under Attributes.


Please let me know if you want to talk further about this.  I am happy to talk further.


Thanks,

Jenny


P.S. I do not know how to notify someone like you all are doing.  As you can see your name is not bolded or highlighted so I do apologize if you do not receive an email or some sort of notification.  I will figure it out though!

Joanne Felci

Thank you for the response Jenny Stephens‍ 


We have only run DeceasedRecordFinder once and not every record has multiple attributes on their record but many do.


Here is a screen shot of one that has two different descriptions:




Sounds like you have never had this happen so it is probably our own personal problem/issue  ;-)


and then start typing the name of the person.  Usually it is first name but for some reason I had to find you by last name. And depending on your settings it will send you an email.

Joanne Felci

Just chatted with Target Analytics support and they have never heard of this happen and our going to do some more research - how lovely to be 'unique'

Jenny Marquardt

Joanne Felci:
Joanne Felci‍ Thank you!  I did it  


and then start typing the name of the person.  Usually it is first name but for some reason I had to find you by last name. And depending on your settings it will send you an email.

 

Jenny Marquardt

Joanne Felci:

Just chatted with Target Analytics support and they have never heard of this happen and our going to do some more research - how lovely to be 'unique'

Joanne Felci‍ I'm glad you are having them look into it.  That was going to be my next suggestion.  Hope they are able to help quickly!

JoAnn Strommen

LOL - well we have dups too on a number of our records from when it was run in 2015 (pre my work here).  Not as many lines as Joanne Felci‍  that I've seen so far. Most I've seen has been 3.  Lots with 2 but I haven't been in all records by any means.. Just annoying clutter on the attribute tab. 

Joanne Felci

Support got back to me and the reason there are duplicates is when I sent off the data I picked 'all addresses' not just the preferred address


Live and learn...though I think doing all addresses would be best?!


It is easy enough to clean up once I figure out our protocol for who we will mark as deceased


Thanks again everyone for your input and best of luck on your use of DeceasedRecordFinder JoAnn Strommen‍ 

JoAnn Strommen

LOL - great to know. So I thought, when I send our data I'll only send preferred. Then I remembered prior practice here was to create a preferred blank address when mail was returned. Address used was marked as previous. Many records have many previous addresses with no from/to dates. I'll probably have to send all addresses. 

Joanne Felci‍, let me know your clean up process and how it works. I know I'll be in the same situation. 

Barbara Lezon

Related to the Deceased Record Finder - how often do you run this process for your organization? Annually? Bi-annually? More or less often?  We are looking at setting up a standard cycle for running this, as it's only been done once or twice before. I'm just not sure how often is reasonable since there is some manual work involved too.  Thanks!

JoAnn Strommen

I haven't been with this org a year yet, but I ran Deceased Record Finder this past summer. I anticipate running it again next summer. I'm under the impression that it's a once-a-year service.