NCOA Update Exceptions

Miki Martin

Hello to all. I have been in NXT now just shy of three years and it was only a handful of months ago that I learned the quarterly NCOA update provides a file for review of exceptions. How do you all handle these? I am looking at a list of just over 400 constituents who have addresses that have changed due to a move but NXT was unable to update them. They are all valid addresses and the ones I have already reviewed are legitimate; I even looked up some on the corresponding PVA site. So why did these error out? How do you all handle these? Do you just import the new address? Like everyone else, I really do not have time to manually open all 415 records to review and update, but I feel like I need to in order to have current addresses for our alumnae, as most of them are for alums that have moved.

I found a different thread reviewing NXT Address Finder Experiences but I could not quite find an answer to my question. Thank you all so much!

JoAnn Strommen

@Miki Martin Great question. I have the same frequent NCOA lists and honestly do not have the time to manually review and update hundreds of records either. Keep hoping to have the time but for now am just relying on mail house updating and alum updating their recorrds. (Alum updates are not the most reliable either. Last week 20% of the updated addresses did not validate. ? )

The last lists I received back after a mailing which ran NCOA had list of “Bad Addresses.” I decided to focus on these. I put our student worker on looking up these people in online db to find correct address. Some were typos, some wrong street vs. drive, some missing apt. #. We got a number of addresses corrected from that list.

Wendy Dann-Marcel

@JoAnn Strommen
Hi JoAnn,

Can you please share the online db that you use to look up correct addresses?

We have been using WhitePages but if there is a faster way to get this information, would be helpful.

Thanks so much.

JoAnn Strommen

@Wendy DannMarcel Don't know that it's any faster.

My go-to is fastpeoplesearch.com. Like the address history & info to confirm it's the right person.

Others I've used: zabasearch.com and thatsthem.com

Some folks use melissa.com

Those are my top ones for addresses.

Faith Murray

@Wendy DannMarcel, if you use Whitepages, I recommend WhitePages Pro. You pay a little, but it's so much better than regular (free) Whitepages because you get reliable past address info, more refined search results, and can double-check who the phone numbers are registered to. I haven't used this feature, but they've supposedly added a tool where you can upload bulk lists of names for looking up.

Miki Martin

@Wendy DannMarcel I also use fastpeoplesearch.com, as @JoAnn Strommen does. I tend to verify that information, as much as possible, with the corresponding county's PVA site. Now that we also have ResearchPoint I can use that to check their assets and whose name is on the deed, which helps.

Unfortunately, none of this helps with my issue of hundreds of exceptions from the NCOA that seem to be mostly valid changes that, for whatever reason, did not update.