BEST PRACTICE: Action Types

Alexandra Blasy

Hello community,

I am in a position to provide some recommendations of cleanup to our NXT database in preparation for our next multi million fundraising campaign. I am reaching out to you to see if you would be willing to share what you have in your action type table. I know that each organization may approach differently, but our current structure is a HOT mess with a laundry list of inherited types from a historical merge of two databases and never cleaned up. Sound familiar? I feel this would be an easy win in consolidating in the NXT environment.

Thank you in advance for any examples you would be willing to share!

Ally

Jenny Marquardt

Hi Ally,


As you know these can vary from organization to organization. There are various reasons for these types as well. There are different purposes. But I feel the fewer Action Types you have the better. Then branch out with the Action Notepad Types. And of course consistency is key to be able to pull reports. I have created some for the prospect researcher, annual giving, planned giving, etc. Keeping in mind if a type can be used universally the better. And then the Notepad type might be a little bit different for each role. If those groups can come up with what needs to be recorded and why it might be a good way to start. Once you get it up and rolling it pays off.


I have done cleanup at my current employer and started by inactivating some of the types then down the road cleanup with Table Cleanup.

A few ideas I have used for Action Types are as follows:

Qualification / Research

Identify

MG Strategy

AG Strategy

Campaign Strategy

Planned Giving Strategy

Cultivation

Proposal

Negotiation

Stewardship

General Report

Board

Correspondence

FollowUp/Update


For Notepad Types I have used the following:

Bio

Research

Strategy

Cultivation

Proposal / Negotiation

Stewardship

Acknowledgement

Recognition

Reporting

Meeting

Data Management

Email Contents

Event

Donor Correspondence

Donor Event

Action Required

Internal Correspondence


These ideas are not from the same organization but a compilation of a few of them. I feel it really depends on how you want to approach recording information.


I hope this helps in some small way!

Spring Velazquez

At each organization I've worked for I have had similar opportunities. Whathas worked for me is to start with the end game in mind, and that question has been- what are you doing with this information? Every time the answer has had to do with reporting. Whodo you report to and what do they want to know? Usually the final final (yes that was intentional ?) is the board report. By starting there, I devise the action type criteria. They're almost always going to be a high level Action- think of it as grouping. Then I can filter down to Action Notes and type for the direct reports needs.

All actions begin with a prefix that pertains to the department using those actions (Dev-xxx, ALM-xxx, etc) and finally I tweak the security for the roles using each specific type to only have access to “their” actions and no one has access to create new action types. That forces a discussion on why a new action type is needed and if it's really necessary.

One organization had 157 Actions! We brought that down to 22. Much easier and cleaner to manage on the long run and no more 1-off or cryptic actions to try and remember years down the road. Thank goodness too for the Table cleanup tool!!!