Cleaning up Database

Jennifer Rudder

About ten years ago, my organization had giant concerts. They were free, but we required everyone who went (about 10,000 at each) to give us their email addresses. We have never received a dime from these people and they usually don't respond to emails. Do you all keep email addresses like this or do you do a global delete? Also, for consitutents who haven't given for over 10 years, and you don't have an email or phone just a home address, do you keep them in the database or do you export their address and delete their record?


Thanks!

 

JoAnn Strommen

If they have no gift records and don't respond, I'd vote for removing them from database.  From my perspective you really don't have a relationship with them and that's what we look for. I'd look for new ways to build a relationship.


As to records with only a home address - have you corresponded with them in the last 10 years?  Do you update addresses?  If they gave in the past, we don't delete the record.  My suggestion would be to run addresses through a mailing house - be sure they look back far enough, get address updates and possibly send a 'we miss you - come see what's new' type of approach to get them reconnected. Just one possibility.

Faith Murray

I have a different take than JoAnn. It also depends on whether you are on NXT and have to pay per constituent record. If you are on NXT, by all means delete them - why waste money!


However, if you are not on NXT, then I would advise to keep them, but code them differently so you can easily exclude them from reports, mailings, etc. A fundamental tenet of donor acquisition programs is that it is always easier to re-activate a person who has had a previous connection with you, than somebody who receives your communications cold turkey. Run some reports and check your response rate. If you receive a response rate greater than 0.6% to 1% with these people, then your response rate is better than the standard direct mail donor acquisition program, and you should keep these individuals and work on better ways to attract their philanthropic interest.


We recently went through a similar discussion with our old event registrants, and decided the response rate, miniscule though it was, performed somewhat better than our acquisition mailings. However, I would note that lapsed event non-donors may be less responsive than lapsed event donors, so maybe your reporting will find something different than ours.

Christine Cooke 2

Kerry Ayres-Smith:

About ten years ago, my organization had giant concerts. They were free, but we required everyone who went (about 10,000 at each) to give us their email addresses. We have never received a dime from these people and they usually don't respond to emails. Do you all keep email addresses like this or do you do a global delete? Also, for consitutents who haven't given for over 10 years, and you don't have an email or phone just a home address, do you keep them in the database or do you export their address and delete their record?


Thanks!

 

I would agree with others that if there is absolutely no relationship and only an email that has gotten no response, then yes those could be deleted.  Though -- if they have any other history with you, correspondance, gifts, volunteering, they should be kept.


As for those with just an address and a history of giving -- even if it was 10 + years ago.  You have to keep it!  How else would you ever pull analytical reporting on giving history without it.  Any record, no matter how little contact info you have, should be kept if they have a giving history, no matter how old they are.


I say this as I am going back into our organization's 50 year history and entering info on giving from 40 years ago that is on mimeograph and carbon copies, 

so that we can tell the whole story.