Cleaning up constituents who were added 4+ years ago and have not given

Kristen Jaoui

Hello everyone! I hope you're doing well. We have so much BAD DATA in our database. Emails, bad salutations, etc. We're hoping to clean them up. I pulled query out of RE of those who were added in 2017 or earlier and have not given. The list is 15,000 profiles. I know it's controversial, but my Director of Development and I decided it's time to clean house and delete the records.


Has anyone done this before? If so, how did you do it? I was thinking of the import/export function, but I'm very unfamiliar with it. The document kind of stinks too.


Thanks for your thoughts!

JoAnn Strommen

Oh, clean up can be so tricky. As you said it's controversial. Many will say never delete any records. I have done a mass delete on a much smaller scale than you're looking at of records that were added prior to a campaign, no gifts, never updated and no relationship established to our org. It was after a number of years where even getting address updates through NCOA would have been a challenge.


You said these records have no gifts. Some of the other things I would consider:

• Why were they added to the db? Do they have significant constituency codes? (Board member who never donated?) Were they a list purchase or added for a special project due to their interests?
• Have you maintained updates to address/phone/etc. for these records? If you've kept them updated, what is harm in keeping them and what is likelihood that you may want them a some point in the future?
• You said they have no gifts. Do they have soft credits? Are they event participants?
• Are they coded/consent recorded for 'do not contact/do not solicit? If so, you don't want to delete and then have them added back next month without that consent info.
• Are they tied to any other records as individual relationships?

Probably other things too. I can't access my db to look at other fields.

Yes, records with gifts should not be deleted. We also keep records for all alumni and faculty: donors/non-donors/living/deceased.


If I were really certain there was not a reason to keep, I personally would still look at longer period than 4 years. Maybe start with those 8-10 years old or more.


As to actual process, import/export is not going to get rid of any records. There is an admin global delete function which requires user rights so it may or may not be visible to you. Ensure you have back up of db first. You would need a specific query of records to delete. I'd break it down into smaller than 14K groups.


If you search the forums on deleting records you should find a bunch of posts for / against and considerations.

Sunshine Reinken Watson

I query these every which way to make sure they aren't connecting with us another way (email newsletters, events, on a gift officer's prospect list, etc.). After I am certain they are 100% unconnected, I will export as much information as possible to keep as a file just in case. Then I will globally delete.

Christine Cooke 2

https://billconnors.com/wp-content/uploads/Raisers-Edge-NXT-Pricing-To-Delete-or-Not-Delete-Constituents.pdf

Dariel Dixon 2

The biggest question is why were these people entered in the database to begin with. I don't think a lack of gifts is reason enough for them to be deleted. You have to find the root cause as for why were they entered. Was it for a project that has come and gone? Maybe for some other reason. Keep in mind that many organizations use RE not just for donors, but for alumni records as well.


I don't think deleting records is controversial at all. This is YOUR database, and no one will know it better than you. Once you have determined that this data needs to be deleted, go for it. Create your query, check it thrice, and globally delete.

Mark Guncheon 2

Would it be worth a mailing to those with addresses or an email blast to those with emails just to find out if any could be donors? In all likelihood, they came from an outside mail list or an event list that may not have been one of your events. You work for an education foundation so it's possible they are alums, parents of alums, former students who may or may not be alums or maybe former employees.


One last thought, find ten with email addresses and send them an email, asking them about their connection with your foundation.


Hope this helps.

Steven Cianciarulo

This is one I've really come around on in recent years and I say go forth and delete. I'm not a fan of "just in case" database management. If it's nothing but a name and maybe an address, you will get that information again if they decide to get involved with the organization. Also consider that if you're on NXT you're paying for those records that probably aren't doing anything for you.


To accomplish this, it's as simple as making a query of the records and then using that in Globally Delete Records. You'll definitely want to make sure you have a back up first, though.

Faith Murray

Kristen, I'm a "just-in-caser" mostly due to the fact that our org is somewhat selective in who we add to the db anyway - they usually have some relational connection with us such as alumni parent or membership, in order to be added in the first place.


Before deleting, I would consider doing an "acquisition mailing" to the group to see if any respond - it's much cheaper and easier to use your existing address lists that presumably have some established qualification, when doing acquisition, than to have to rent all new names.


That being said, some orgs do add names willy-nilly, who have no contribution history or affinity. If none respond or have any other connection as suggested in the excellent posts before mine, then the process would be best prepared through an import. This will output the data fields in a format where you can easily archive and/or re-import them again should the need arise. Then you can delete the grouped records through Global Delete, as others suggested.


Tips for your import file:

• Use a Constituent Import.
• On General 1, click "create import file". This will create your data file with all applicable data.
• Use the Constituent ID for identifying records. After you Global Delete, there won't be any Import IDs remaining, and the Constituent ID will allow you to better cross-compare with other historical data files.
• Output as a csv file, for best compatibility with multiple software solutions.
• The Constituent import will not output Action or Gift info. (This would require a separate Action or Gift Import.) Hypothetically, if these donors have no gifts and are not on any major gift portfolios, you shouldn't have any Actions or Gifts to worry about anyway.

Good luck!

Miki Martin

I can completely sympathize with bad data. Sometimes I just want to scrub our entire database and start from scratch! However, that's not really feasible.


I work at a single gender private high school so we have all our alumnae, parents, faculty/staff and donors listed. Sometimes we do get one donation from someone in memory of an alumna and that's all we hear from them. Many times, though, the people we have are connected somehow, even if we might be missing that bit of information (I just came across a past parent yesterday that we didn't have marked).


Because of this, I always hesitate in deleting information. You never know if some of those non-donors could become donors if you just ask. I'm thinking, like JoAnn Strommen‍ mentioned, of maybe doing a date further back. I would certainly back up any information and have record of anyone you do end up deleting, just so you have record of who you deleted, when it happened and why. I thought Mark Guncheon‍ and Faith Murray‍ had a great idea of choosing a handful to email or mail to see how they're connected. That could start a dialogue with some possible donors.


Good luck!

Kristen Jaoui

Hi Miki! Good points here. Thank you!

Kristen Jaoui

Hi Faith! Thanks for your thoughtful response. Our organization was one that has added willy nilly in the past The ones we would be deleting have no gifts, no notes, no anything. So we have no idea what their relationship to the Foundation is. I did find out about Global Delete through a fellow database person in our community college system! I am going to use this function and start very small. Thank you again!

Kristen Jaoui

Thanks so much Steven! This is exactly what I'm going to do. We're in the middle of the "just in case"- at least for now. What I'll be cleaning up is records that have zero info in them- gifts, notes, etc. As I mentioned to Faith, our org used to add records in willy nilly so many of these records are pretty useless at this time And as you say, we're paying for them.

Kristen Jaoui

Hi Mark, that's an interesting thought. I will bring it up to our DOD before we clean house.

Kristen Jaoui

Hi Dariel, thanks for your response! I honestly have no idea why some of these records were added. As I mentioned to Faith, we used to be pretty willy nilly (this makes me laugh every time I type it, thanks Faith ?) on what we entered and there's no documentation. So, this is the beginning of trying to right size our database and actually build out an RE manual. I'm pretty excited about it, and perplexed at how we've gone this long without.

Kristen Jaoui

Good idea Sunshine! Thank you!

Kristen Jaoui

Hi JoAnn, thanks for your thoughtful response! The records we'll be cleaning up have zero gifts, zero actions, zero notes.... you get the drift. I won't be deleting anyone who has a board/other connection to the college. Everyone has had great information on this thread so I'm going to digest and see how I might change my approach. Sunshine mentioned doing a query in every which way to make sure they aren't connected in some manner, and I think it's always good to double/triple check Thanks again!

Jenny Norton

Hi Kristen,

I'm working on a similar project. I am trying to remove friends that have nothing else on their records and we're not sure why they were added. I've been building several queries to determine which ones I can remove but it's a very scary and overwhelming project. I would love to see some of your query control reports if you'd be willing to share. If you'd like to contact me directly, my email is jnorton@edinboro.edu


Thank you, Jenny

Manager of Advancement Data, Systems & Analytics

Edinboro University

Jennifer Krueger

This is a big topic in my organization, a membership. We have records (over 2,000 out of 80,000 total) which were loaded in our inital RE migration in 2015 that do not have full names without useable contact information, no current activity: subscriptions, membership, survey repsonses, gifts, or notes, and no real way to even figure out if there are records with a full name elsewhere in the db for the individual.Add to that the fact that our membership is older, average 71, and there is a high likely hood many of these records represent people who are no longer alive.


I am all for deletion as we can have a more accurate count of our contacts. Otherwise our CEO talks about the total number of records as though that repsented real people with whom we can connect and it does not!


Hoping to use all the post here to write a persuasive proposal to delete.these records. Wish me luck! Thanks BB community!


Jenn

Adam Branston

Hi,


Really interesting post and we are looking at enacting our Data Retention Policy. Firstly, a couple of thoughts on the post in general:

1) Expand your criteria to 7+ years. Any financial records need to be kept for 7 years for tax purposes. Also if you are like us, you might have data all over the place and it is easier to take a blanket approach rather than 4 years for x type of records, and 7 for financial information.


2) Don't delete, once deleted it is gone forever with no way of getting it back, therefore possibly look to anonymise the data instead. That also gives you historic analysis. Otherwise you can't see any historical analysis.


3) Legacy - don't touch as you are most likely going to need this information if the legacy is disputed down the line.


My question to the group is are there any tools for anonymising the data? Apart from doing this manually? How do other organisations do this?


Many thanks

Adam Branston