Where do I Start?

Lauren Fardella

I am looking for advice on database clean up in Raiser's Edge. As we begin our new FY, things are quieting down a tad, so I want to tackle some clean up. I know we have a HUGE problem with duplicates and spouses not being linked.


What do you feel is the best place to start and how do you prioritize these daunting clean up tasks?

Heather MacKenzie

Best of luck and I admire your ambitions! Having clean data is the right goal.


For what to look at, I'd suggest starting with your tables and required fields in addition to your duplicates. Table Cleanup can help with de-duping, and you may have tables you want to sort differently then how they currently are. Query to find any records with current required fields that are blank and fill them in. Yes, de-dupe!!!


Here's how I prioritize my cleanup tasks. As I figure out things that need doing or reviewing - like duplicates - I decide how much cleaning them up influences other things going on right now and that helps to prioritize. Like right now, we're creating our annual report, and many donors had no annual report name (we do that as a separate addressee) on their record, so that jumped to the top to be able to pull it for the listing for our annual report.


Other times, when there's no particular project or event going on, I think about how it will impact the next list or data that I pull. I have spouses, from a prior software migration, that are still sitting as attributes in my database instead of being in the relationships area. This is a biggie for us, because it impacts thank you letters from gifts, reports, lists, mailing lists, event invitations, and even perhaps total giving data. But I also have over half my records that have no constituent codes on them, because that's never been a required field for us. Since we never use this to pull data (although I want to in the future, maybe), it's super low down on my list. If I see a record with one on it and it's incorrect, or needs updating, I fix it, but I haven't yet done any focused cleanup on filling them in.


Hope this helps!