Annual Database Clean Up

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Christopher Brancato
Christopher Brancato ✭
Eighth Anniversary
in Blackbaud eTapestry® General Discussion
Happy New Year Everyone!


Just wanted to get an opinion on how other NP's perform database cleanup. 


For our organization, each year we run a report of donors who have not given in the last 5 years.  We review this report and decide on who we want to retain, we delete all other donors from our system.  


Some issues with this are that it deletes past donation history and also compromises the integrity of past events and appeals in our system. I guess another option would be to delete donors addresses or mark them "no mail/solicitation" - but then the database will clutter over time, kind of defeating the purpose. 


So, i just wanted to get a few ideas for how you handle this.  Do you delete past donors from your system?  Or do you have another way of "cleaning up" your database?  


Thanks! 


 
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  • Philippa Comfort
    Philippa Comfort ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 1

    I
    would never delete an account. You could keep list “clean” by
    running a query on anyone who has not given in last 5 years and
    marking them Do Not Mail and then excluding in your query or just
    mail to anyone who has given in the last 5 years.

     





  • Mary Kern 2
    Mary Kern 2 ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic

    Christopher,


    I would never delete a record. It generally costs a lot more to acquire a donor than to reactivate them. There are lots of ways to not include them in a mailing. Just remember ... computers are really good at finding people but not very good at not including them. You can always make a drop query that selects the people you don't want and drop them from the people you DO want. 


    HTH,

    Best regards,

    Mary

    Christopher Brancato:

    Happy New Year Everyone!


    Just wanted to get an opinion on how other NP's perform database cleanup. 


    For our organization, each year we run a report of donors who have not given in the last 5 years.  We review this report and decide on who we want to retain, we delete all other donors from our system.  


    Some issues with this are that it deletes past donation history and also compromises the integrity of past events and appeals in our system. I guess another option would be to delete donors addresses or mark them "no mail/solicitation" - but then the database will clutter over time, kind of defeating the purpose. 


    So, i just wanted to get a few ideas for how you handle this.  Do you delete past donors from your system?  Or do you have another way of "cleaning up" your database?  


    Thanks! 


     

     

  • Jessica Lilley
    Jessica Lilley ✭
    Eighth Anniversary First Reply
    Hi! I know this post is from a few years ago but I'm a new E-tap user and attempting something similar. I was hoping to pull a report of those people that had signed up for our newsletter but never donated. Perhaps pulling the kind of report you mention (no donations in past 5 years) would be an easier way to get the the same end. 

    We are hoping to export any accounts that have no donation activity and delete them from E-tap for two reasons: 1) to keep our records under 1000 and not pay additional annual fees 2) prep for transition to a new CRM by the fall - it will be easiest to pull records that have contact only information first. 

    Could you talk me through generating the no donation activity in 5 years report? I have no e-Tapestry knowledge and it is the worst CRM I have ever attempted using... thus the desire to get away from it entirely. 


    Thanks for any help you can lend!

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