Troubleshooting and fixing data mistakes

Thank-you letters mailed to the wrong people; donors thanked twice for the same gift; no responses to an expensive package; donors receiving mulitple mailings.

These are mistakes that occur all too often in fundraising, resulting in wasted time and effort as well as bad donor relations.

At a recent national nonprofit conference, executives learned of ways to address these and other problems in such a way as to prevent them before they happen.

The preventive measures involve six phases:

• Know your data-management system; understand your coding structure; review your current source code structure; restructure your source code logic if needed.
• Know your data transfer protocols.
• Document your caging and data entry process/procedures; ensure name and address formats are entered correctly; use a check digit on your printed pieces to ensure accuracy; make sure all your source codes are accurate.
• Practice effective data hygiene, with an NCOA of the database twice a year or request and upload changes after each mailing; flag undesirables, regularly scan the database for duplicates.
• Understand and document merge/purge procedures, so that when mailing to outside lists, suppress house files; de-dupe at the household level; if you use “finder numbers,” understand how they work.
• Document and monitor the acknowledgement process: understand your process, monitor your file transfers and visually check printed pieces before mailing.

12 data security standards to follow

Data security is a huge concern nowadays, and it is one that nonprofits must be aware of if they hope to use the Internet as a fundraising tool.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has reported that colleges and universities have accounted for nearly half of computer data thefts since February 2005. Security and identity management was at the top of the list in a recent EDUCAUSE Current IT Issues survey report. In addition, the issue of data security is expected to become even more significant.

One means of ensuring protection is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the result of a collaboration between Visa and MasterCard to create common industry standards.

The PCI Data Security Standard consists of 12 basic requirements.

• Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect data.
• Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security measures.
• Protect stored data.
• Encrypt transmission of cardholder data and sensitive information across public networks.
• Use and regularly update anti-virus software.
• Develop and maintain security systems and applications.
• Restrict access to data by business need-to-know.
• Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access.
• Restrict physical access to cardholder data.
• Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data.
• Regularly test security systems and procedures.
• Maintain a policy that addresses information security.

Guidebook defines terms you need to know

Nonprofit mailing has become so sophisticated and high-tech that nonprofit mailers often find themselves floating in a sea of jargon and concepts.

Frontline Data Group Inc., a mailing and data consultant, has published a brochure with a variety of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and computer terms and acronyms that have become routine in bulk mailing.

Among those terms:

• CASS. Coding Accuracy Support System. A USPS program for testing and certifying address correction software as capable of achieving a certain level of success at certain benchmarks for mail delivery. CASS-Certified Address Correction Software is software that meets or exceeds the USPS standard for CASS information.
• POSTNET. POSTal Numeric Encoding Technique. A USPS-developed barcode method to encode ZIP Code information on mail that can be read for sorting by automated machines.
• Destination Entry Discount. Discounted mailings transported by the mailer to the final destination postal facility.
• Delivery Point Code. The two digits following the ZIP+4 in a POSTNET barcode. Typically the last two digits of the primary address.
• FASTforward. A USPS-licensed automated system that updates addresses by matching names and addresses with current change-of-address orders.
• FTP/FTP Site. File Transfer Protocol. A set of rules and commands that define a standard for sending and receiving files over the Internet.
• MERLIN. Mailing Evaluation Readability Lookup Instrument. An automated system for verifying that bulk mail is eligible for postage discounts.
  

MANAGING PROSPECT INFORMATION

Prospecting is a necessary part of fundraising, but as with any necessity it usually benefits from a good system of keeping and managing information. Mass prospecting is not worth much if it does not produce a certain amount of results.

In their book Essential Principles for Fundraising Success, G. Douglas Alexander and Kristina J. Carlson maintain that for prospect research to be as productive as possible, it needs to built upon the following practices:

• A solid system for recording all donor gifts, contacts and activities.
• A good database system for managing donor records, prospect information, contact information and more.
• Annual goals and objectives for the research (such as finding a certain number of new prospects, identifying a certain number of major donor prospects for solicitation and so on). These goals and objectives need to be tied to the development program's overall goals. For example, an organization that is adding a major gifts program for a certain year should consider how many cultivation visits it will have with a potential major gifts donor. This should be the number of major gifts prospects the organization's research should attempt to identify for that year.
• A consistent set of resources used to conduct research. (Researchers should narrow the list down to the ones most helpful for their particular needs.)

UNDERSTANDING HOW DATA WORKS TOGETHER

Many nonprofits, for budgetary or a variety of other reasons, do not work to ascertain a full analysis of its fundraising figures. Do you just accept what the various parts tell you or do you work to understand the whole and relate back to the parts?

Mary Beth McIntyre, vice president of relationship management at Target Analysis Group offered some clarifying rules during a recent conference in New York City.

Rule #1: Make annual analysis relevant. If you are hiring a consultant to implement a file audit or working with your marketing agency on a file audit…spend time at the beginning discussing how you segment and group your donors. Collaborate to make the views relevant to help you with both internal education and to drive strategies throughout the year.

Rule #2: Gain clarity for key metrics and review quarterly. Make sure that you are given a clear understanding of metrics and how to interpret them. Quarterly results can be a bellwether for year-end performance. This view can prompt you to revise campaign strategy to compensate for trends.

Rule #3: Benchmark for context, perspective and to help prioritize goals and educate management. Attend conferences and utilize industry-wide resources (Giving USA, Target Analysis Group National Index, Paradyz Matera Performance Watch, Campbell Rinker and Industry publication studies). Participate in peer benchmarking groups where available.

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