Ask an All-Star: Database Cleanup and Moving from Raiser's Edge to Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®!

Crystal Bruce

We are starting a new series in the Blackbaud Community called “Ask an All-Star." It's an AMA style discussion where an All-Star will answer your questions about a topic. For the next 48 hours All-Star Amy Barker will be answering any questions you have about database cleanup and making the move from Raiser's Edge to Raiser's Edge NXT. Thanks Amy! Community – Ask an All-Star!

Amy Barker 7

Thanks, Crystal! Hi everyone. It's great to “meet” you all. Some of you may already know me, but I'll introduce myself really quick.

My name is Amy. I'm the Database Administrator for Pine Street Inn, in Boston. I've been working with Raisers Edge since about 2000, when I got my first job out of grad school. I studied anthropology in undergrad and grad, and my first job out of college was at The Rainforest Foundation in New York City, an indigenous rights org who were moving from FileMaker Pro to Raisers Edge, And, well…24 years later here I am! Not an anthropologist! ?

I have worked at many different types of nonprofit orgs over the years and took a 5-year break to work at Omatic Software. But I am back in nonprofit land, and happily doing what I love best!

Pine Street Inn will be moving from self-hosted RE to NXT next year, and while I anxiously wait, I am devoting this year to cleaning things up in preparation for the move. People always tell me we don't have to do any clean up, but I want it to be pristine and seamless when we make the switch!

I'll be doing a presentation at BBCon that touches on some of this clean up, but I am excited to do this AMA. So, fire away!

Madeleine Holdsworth

@Amy Barker
Do you have any tips for coaching/empowering frontline fundraisers to be more self-sufficient using RENXT? I am a consultant and our clients often struggle with getting their fundraisers to get on board using web view for Portfolio Management and using the Work Center. Thanks!

Austen Brown

@Amy Barker - What are your tips/tricks for making sure data clean-up happens? How do you prioritize what needs to happen first?

Amy Barker 7

@Madeleine Holdsworth:

@Amy Barker
Do you have any tips for coaching/empowering frontline fundraisers to be more self-sufficient using RENXT? I am a consultant and our clients often struggle with getting their fundraisers to get on board using web view for Portfolio Management and using the Work Center. Thanks!

Hi Madeline!

Well, we aren't on NXT yet, but my fundraising team is chomping at the bit to get on it, which bodes well! Several of them have used WebView in the past and miss it, they find database view a bit clunky. So, they are eager to embrace it, thank goodness.

Every time I do a call with them, I stress how much easier it will make their lives. I also stress to them that they'll be able to access it from anywhere, so it saves them time and energy when they have to add actions after a visit with a donor. And when at events they'll be able to pull up a donor's whole history quickly, before they go say hi.

I am also a huge fan of getting people as trained as possible. We will have the all-access training pass and I'm already developing some plans for people so they can be more self sufficient.

Hope that helps!

Amy

Darlene LeVielle

@Amy Barker
Thank you for this fantastic way/opportunity for us to engage and learn more about this very specific topic. Your willingness to share your insights and answer our questions is greatly appreciated! Can you note here when the final move/cut over date to RE Web View is (knowing it may be dependent on Customer Hosting, etc.? How and who do I ask to be on the EAP list for the Web View Query feature as this will be a very large impact to an organization if they do not have an understanding of how/if this feature in WBV will fulfill the replacement of both DBV Query and DBV Export. How/when are they transitioning all the DBV canned reports to Web View and specifically how should DBV cleanup be approached for this part of the Transition?

Amy Barker 7

@Austen Brown well, I am doing all the clean-up myself so I can guarantee it gets done! But if I had a team who was helping, I'd have a series of checker queries so I could track progress. I've come up with a bunch of How-To guides on various clean up tasks, with screenshots and so on that I share if people want to help.

As far as prioritizing things, I started with the basics; making sure there are no duplicates and keeping it that way and getting a system in place to check pretty much daily, so things don't get out of control.

Then I moved onto things that will just be easier to manage now before we moved to NXT, like table and attribute clean up. Getting the table clean up done now, while we still can manage it in database view, will be super helpful in the future.

I also have been focusing on things that I know are unwieldy or just look gross in WebView. Addressees and Salutations, Actions, Spouse and Relationship Records. I used NXT while I was at Omatic and got trained and certified with it, so I have a lot of notes from that time, and as I do Blackbaud trainings I take screenshots so I can share them with my supervisors.

My supervisors and I meet weekly to talk through the priority list. There are always some things I need them to give input on, but it really has been nice to be able to take our list of Constituent Attributes from 42 options to only what is current, currently being used, or used for reports. There was a lot of ancient, historical junk which never had a defined purpose.

Finally, I'm also documenting and defining everything, so future people at the org will have clear guidelines on what Constituent Code to apply, for instance.

HTH,

Amy

Amy Barker 7

@Darlene LeVielle:

@Amy Barker
Thank you for this fantastic way/opportunity for us to engage and learn more about this very specific topic. Your willingness to share your insights and answer our questions is greatly appreciated! Can you note here when the final move/cut over date to RE Web View is (knowing it may be dependent on Customer Hosting, etc.? How and who do I ask to be on the EAP list for the Web View Query feature as this will be a very large impact to an organization if they do not have an understanding of how/if this feature in WBV will fulfill the replacement of both DBV Query and DBV Export. How/when are they transitioning all the DBV canned reports to Web View and specifically how should DBV cleanup be approached for this part of the Transition?

Hi Darlene,

I'm afraid I don't have any specific dates on the Blackbaud side of things. We are making the move next year so that we are not the last self-hosted clients in the universe and so my team has ample time to settle in and get trained up. There are a lot of rumors, but they are just that, rumors. We have our own date, but it is specific to us and our staffing.

Most of the EAPs and Discovery Projects I have gotten on have been from Blackbaud reaching out after I commented on Blackbaud blog articles about certain things. I would definitely let your account rep know that you are super interested. Read and comment on blogs and go to webinars as often as you can and express interest!

Are you going to BBCon? If you do, make sure you spend a LOT of time in the marketplace and new product showcases. You pick up a lot of information there, I've found!

Amy

Christine Robertson 4

@Amy Barker What cleanup project are you the most proud of?

Amy Barker 7

@Christine Robertson:

@Amy Barker What cleanup project are you the most proud of?

At this point definitely the Addressee and Salutation clean up. I got our list from 225 down to about 25. It took FOREVER but was a really fulfilling thing!

JoAnn Strommen

Any suggestions on cleaning up city field. It it not a table for our org.

In web view I can see multiple erroneous entries/spellings. When I filter on just that city name results are null. Country is required so I had selected US. You can't select more than one. Perhaps they are on a record with a different country. Don't have time to go through every country!!

So, I go to db and run a query Addresses > All addresses, city = one of the misspelled cities. Results are null.

Opened a case with support, one reply so far that didn't catch I said it's not a table field. Waiting to hear more.

Carlene Johnson

@Amy Barker what is you least favorite clean-up project? You know, the thing that you know needs to get done but keeps moving to the bottom of the list because it is such a drag to work on?

And how do you motivate yourself to work on those tasks/projects that you dislike?

Christine Robertson 4

@JoAnn Strommen I've done it via import for my local area. I queried on zip code for the region and then identified the misspelled options in Excel. Not perfect, but the best I've come up with!

JoAnn Strommen

@Christine Robertson That works for misspellings of “Rapid City”, thanks. Have done that type of clean up.
I have a very strange collection of entries for city name that pull zero when queried. Have to assume they are on a relationship somewhere.

Leah Trznadel

@Amy Barker thanks so much for doing this! It's great to hear from someone with your experience. Do you have suggestions for cleaning up event participant records? Specifically merging the nonconstituent participants for events that have many records from attending year after year and are now converting to constituents.

Christine Robertson 4

@JoAnn Strommen Several of those look like zip codes. Is the City somehow in another field?

If you run Address Finder or Address Accelerator, I wonder if that could update the Cities for you.

JoAnn Strommen

@Christine Robertson Yes, couple are definitely zip codes. But they are not on a constituent record in city field. I have not taken time to search participants and relationship records. Just very surprised to see them in web view city list.

We run AddressFinder every 3 months. Apparently it's not finding/correcting.

Christine Robertson 4

@JoAnn Strommen Ugh. I love forms where donors give you their information and it flows directly into RE. But when they type in the wrong fields, I don't love it so much.

JoAnn Strommen

I have this giant export running this afternoon so while it's generating I'm doing some attribute clean up. Found an old attribute on a few records. Moved data to correct attribute and deleted old attribute from those records.
My query: attribute description, date or comment are not blank pulls zero records. Go to config to delete attribute and get message that can't delete as present on record(s).
Added spouse attribute blank to query. Pulls zero.
Not an attribute option on individual relationships.

So where is this attribute on a record???? Yes, I'm the admin so no records should be hidden from me and all the boxes are checked at top of Q criteria tab.

So will try global delete of the attribute but being I don't have a query to work from it will run on entire db and take some time to process.

LOL Some days I just want to give up.
AGH! Now citrix connection interrupted. I think I should go home!

La Donna Borth

@JoAnn Strommen Maybe this will make you feel better (and maybe help you with the mystery)…

I found that the table for Action Status was used on one of the databases (merged a while back) as the table for multiple attributes, not just the Action Status. So, things that should not be an action status are in the status, but are also in a ton of constituent records as the description for a whole lot of attributes (many of which are no longer used).

I have to figure out what we might still use and move that information and just remove the data that has no meaning (and is therefore no longer data).

Good luck!

Alex Wong

@JoAnn Strommen
try Attributes > Category equals Name_of_Attribute

Kathryn Hall

@Amy Barker:

@Darlene LeVielle:

@Amy Barker
Thank you for this fantastic way/opportunity for us to engage and learn more about this very specific topic. Your willingness to share your insights and answer our questions is greatly appreciated! Can you note here when the final move/cut over date to RE Web View is (knowing it may be dependent on Customer Hosting, etc.? How and who do I ask to be on the EAP list for the Web View Query feature as this will be a very large impact to an organization if they do not have an understanding of how/if this feature in WBV will fulfill the replacement of both DBV Query and DBV Export. How/when are they transitioning all the DBV canned reports to Web View and specifically how should DBV cleanup be approached for this part of the Transition?

Hi Darlene,

I'm afraid I don't have any specific dates on the Blackbaud side of things. We are making the move next year so that we are not the last self-hosted clients in the universe and so my team has ample time to settle in and get trained up. There are a lot of rumors, but they are just that, rumors. We have our own date, but it is specific to us and our staffing.

Most of the EAPs and Discovery Projects I have gotten on have been from Blackbaud reaching out after I commented on Blackbaud blog articles about certain things. I would definitely let your account rep know that you are super interested. Read and comment on blogs and go to webinars as often as you can and express interest!

Are you going to BBCon? If you do, make sure you spend a LOT of time in the marketplace and new product showcases. You pick up a lot of information there, I've found!

Amy

@Darlene LeVielle - Blackbaud has stated that we intend to have all critical workflows operational in web view by the end of 2025 - what we're calling the “Total Web Solution” (TWS) - with no date given yet for when database view functions will be removed. Between now and the end of 2025, you'll see more and more features and functions become available in web view. We roll out features incrementally as we build them, so full functionality comes over a period of time.

I second what Amy's saying here about building a plan for getting trained up and used to working in web view well in advance of a “must move” date. You can express interest in joining EAPs by going to www.blackbaud.com/discovery. You can also check out these free Blackbaud University courses focused on getting up to speed on new features.

Amy Barker 7

@JoAnn Strommen:

I have this giant export running this afternoon so while it's generating I'm doing some attribute clean up. Found an old attribute on a few records. Moved data to correct attribute and deleted old attribute from those records.
My query: attribute description, date or comment are not blank pulls zero records. Go to config to delete attribute and get message that can't delete as present on record(s).
Added spouse attribute blank to query. Pulls zero.
Not an attribute option on individual relationships.

So where is this attribute on a record???? Yes, I'm the admin so no records should be hidden from me and all the boxes are checked at top of Q criteria tab.

So will try global delete of the attribute but being I don't have a query to work from it will run on entire db and take some time to process.

LOL Some days I just want to give up.
AGH! Now citrix connection interrupted. I think I should go home!

I would instead choose Specific Attribute Import ID not blank, and Spouse Specific Attribute Import ID not blank for that attribute. Because people could still have an attribute without having a date, description, or comment! Attributes are not fun, as they hide on you.

Amy Barker 7

@Leah Trznadel:

@Amy Barker thanks so much for doing this! It's great to hear from someone with your experience. Do you have suggestions for cleaning up event participant records? Specifically merging the nonconstituent participants for events that have many records from attending year after year and are now converting to constituents.

I'm afraid I don't have many great tips for Event Participant merging/linking to full constituents, it is just one of those things you have to grind through.

Hopefully someone else has some great tips!

Amy Barker 7

@JoAnn Strommen:

@Christine Robertson That works for misspellings of “Rapid City”, thanks. Have done that type of clean up.
I have a very strange collection of entries for city name that pull zero when queried. Have to assume they are on a relationship somewhere.

JoAnn,

Are you sure you haven't accidently had the City Table be used? There are two fields for City, NX City (which is table based) and City.

Oh gross…by looking at that table I can see someone at some point chose NZCity as the city field and mine is now full of junk too!!!!

I have a feeling that this maybe the case for you, in which case you'll need to manage those in the Table section.

PS Sorry for delay in responding… got taken out by a migraine yesterday.

Amy Barker 7

@Carlene Johnson:

@Amy Barker what is you least favorite clean-up project? You know, the thing that you know needs to get done but keeps moving to the bottom of the list because it is such a drag to work on?

And how do you motivate yourself to work on those tasks/projects that you dislike?

Deleting addresses on records that are blank. ?

We have 17,877 records that have a full address and an alternate that is completely blank. I've been going through and getting rid of those blank ones. There doesn't seem to be any easy way to do it except for one by one. I hate it.

The only way I can get through it is to pop in my earbuds and listen to electronic music and pretend I am a robot.

I have gotten rid of 5,000 of them this month, and it is a pretty low priority take. Just one of my pet peevses!

Amy Barker 7

@JoAnn Strommen:

@Christine Robertson That works for misspellings of “Rapid City”, thanks. Have done that type of clean up.
I have a very strange collection of entries for city name that pull zero when queried. Have to assume they are on a relationship somewhere.

This knowledgebase, and the file that you can download there, is SUPER helpful in tracking down specific fields like “City."
List of All Data Entry Fields Within Raiser’s Edge (blackbaud.com)

That might help you fine tune your query to find those ones that are hiding!!!

Joanne Felci 2

@Amy Barker - wonder if you, or anyone, has ever seen something like this - I keep noticing that an attribute keeps getting globally added to thousand of records multiple time on each record. I just cleaned it up yesterday and when I did an export file (from an import) there were almost 152,000 instances.

I did this clean up before and I do not know why this keeps happening. Never seen anything like it. I changed the attribute to only allowing one added on a record.

If I see this again I'll take a screen shot of a record as I'm not sure if what I'm trying to describe makes sense but all I can assume is it is some glitch in the system when I do other global adds for const attributes

Amy Barker 7

@Joanne Felci:

@Amy Barker - wonder if you, or anyone, has ever seen something like this - I keep noticing that an attribute keeps getting globally added to thousand of records multiple time on each record. I just cleaned it up yesterday and when I did an export file (from an import) there were almost 152,000 instances.

I did this clean up before and I do not know why this keeps happening. Never seen anything like it. I changed the attribute to only allowing one added on a record.

If I see this again I'll take a screen shot of a record as I'm not sure if what I'm trying to describe makes sense but all I can assume is it is some glitch in the system when I do other global adds for const attributes

YIKES! That's not good. What is the attribute? I wonder if it is somehow related to AddressFinder or AddressAccelerator or something that runs in the background.

Austen Brown

@Joanne Felci - Do you have the Queue module? or any Power Automate flows running? Is it possible the addition could be from an automated process?

JoAnn Strommen

@Amy Barker No City is not a table. Was a previous org so I understand the difference. NZ cities is a table and the entries are not in that table.

Need to work with results of 2½ hour export today so attribute clean up way down the list again.