Fundraising is the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations. Without successful fundraising, a nonprofit won’t be able to provide services and programs. Fundraising will always be a challenge, but targeting your ideal audience doesn’t have to be a roadblock.
Inaccurate and ill-formatted contact information can significantly reduce the success of your nonprofit fundraising initiatives. By applying data hygiene services to your donor lists on a regular basis, you’ll improve the chances of your message reaching your intended audience.
According to the Experian Data Quality’s 2015 Data Quality Benchmark Report, the most commonly reported data errors included:
Why Scrub Your Data?
Taking a more proactive approach with your data quality will ultimately benefit you by increasing efficiencies and decreasing costs in several ways:
- Reduce your returned mail volume and expenses
- Correct and standardize data for faster processing
- Identify spelling and data-input errors
- Remove costly duplicate records
- Reduce expenses on postage and shipping
- Improve response rates
- Increase conversions
Types of Hygiene Services
While running your files through a Change of Address process is a start, addresses first need to be standardized to obtain the highest possible match rate. Additionally, a variety of supplementary services go a long way toward reducing data quality issues:
NCOA Link®: Access 48 months of change of address data.
LACS Link® System: Update addresses that have been converted or renamed.
CASSTM System: Standardize addresses to meet USPS requirements.
DSF2: Correct, verify, and standardize postal addresses.
Suppression Services: Remove questionable records from your file with deceased and prison processing.
AccuValid: Identify problematic email addresses before deployment.
Email Reactivate: Find new email addresses for unresponsive customers.
Find Lost Donors
Identify “bad” addresses and find the latest best address for your donors. This service has been a staple for nonprofits for over 30 years and can find data that NCOA typically cannot find. This “lost address” process utilizes a database of multiple data sources to find addresses, landlines, cell phones, employment information, DOBs, deceased individuals, and name changes to name a few options. Here’s how it works: Our multi-source database checks if a donor still lives at the address listed in your records. Then, you can have AlumniFinder update your entire database (or just a portion of it) with the contact information most important to your campaign. (Our partnership with LexisNexis, the premier provider of data in the country, ensures the highest degree of reliability.)
How to Quickly Process Large Files
Quickly and easily keep track of name, address, and life changes with batch processing services. Update the names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, wealth indicators, and deceased flags in your databases by integrating data from multiple sources. To simplify this process, Batch Services from AlumniFinder use complex database applications and vast data warehouse and processing experience to merge different file layouts and disparate data types.
AlumniFinder couples the power of its multi-billion record data repository with deep data expertise. Ask us how we can clean and even append your data using our AlumniFinder Batch Services. Call 1-888-732-0581 or complete the form on this page and a representative will be in touch shortly!
