From Donor Strategies, Inc.'s Barbara L. Ciconte, CFRE, Senior Vice President, Consulting Services

Building Your Database
Ten Tips for Fundraising Success

1. Determine what basic information you want to have on each donor or prospect.

• Name, home address, telephone number, office address, telephone number, Email address
• Spouse name, other family members’ names (dependent on the type of organization)
• Gift and pledge information – date and amount of gift/pledge, payment schedule
• Source of gift (specific mail appeal, special event, personal solicitation, on-line)
• Purpose of gift (unrestricted, program gift, capital campaign gift, scholarship gift)
• Attendance at events
• Newsletters, invitations and other organizational communications received
• Board and committee assignments
• Board member/volunteer assigned to donor (major gifts and capital campaigns)

2. Limit the number of staff and/or volunteers who enter data to insure consistency and accuracy of data.

3. Prepare a manual for entering data in your database for training staff in proper procedures of data entry. This is critical for reports, mail merges, labels and envelopes.

4. Have one or more mechanisms to capture the basic contact information you need such as on the reply card/envelope and required fields for making a gift on-line.

5. Code reply cards/envelopes so that you can easily track the source of the gift.

6. Provide opportunities on reply cards and on-line for donors to let you know what specific programs and areas are of greatest interest to them, such as a listing with boxes to check for more information or to direct their gift for future fundraising strategy development.

7. Train staff to carefully review response devices for additional information to record or update in addition to entering a gift.

8. Be certain you keep a record of all communications a donor or prospect receives (newsletters, brochure mailings, appeal letters, special event invitations, etc.).

9. Review your donors’ patterns of giving for developing fundraising strategies and plans.

• Single or multiple gifts
• Time of year gift is usually made
• Types of programs and projects supported
• Fundraising method they respond to (mail, event, , on-line, personal solicitation)

10. Focus on gathering and tracking information on major donors and prospects that you plan to use in developing personalized cultivation and solicitation strategies.

• reports of meetings and telephone calls
• attendance at events
• board members and senior staff they know
• their interests and activities with other organizations

Items to Consider When Converting Your Data

Converting from one database system to another is a major undertaking and, at times, an intimidating task. However, it is also an opportunity for the organization to get their data into "shape". Old information, duplicate and unused data can now be stripped out of your system so that you can start your new database with the most current and relevant information. Cleansing your data in this manner while converting to a new database system will allow your organization to make the best use of the new system.

Some items to consider when going through such a conversion are:

1. Identify the file or files containing your organization's primary donor/prospect data. Whether this information is coming from your old system, in some Excel or Access files, or spread about in a combination of paper and electronic media, you need to identify ALL the pertinent information that you may want to convert.
2. Review the content of these files and determine which data is worth placing in your new database. NOTE: Your new database vendor should either provide this as part of the conversion process or work with you to determine what data is to be converted and where it will be placed in the new system.
3. After determining what will actually transfer to the new system, decide whether you and/or your staff will do part of the conversion work (e.g., data cleanup, duplicate record reconciliation, etc.) or whether you will pay the vendor to do these tasks. HINT: Depending on the vendor's hourly conversion costs, it may be cheaper to have a temp do the editing and/or duplicate reconciliation work.
4. Once the conversion is complete at the vendor’s end and you have received the new software, review the data to insure that it is accurate and has been placed in the new system to your specifications. HINT: If necessary, have the vendor review each conversion step with you to help with this process.
5. Reconcile any remnants of erroneous or duplicate data and begin enjoying your new system.