Raiser's Edge Database clean-up

Mirna Gon · January 2018

Hello All,

I just started a new job as the Raiser's Edge Administrator. The database is in critical condition, to say the least. There are thousands of gift records that were entered incorrectly,(20 years) ie: matching gifts, gifts with no campaign, gifts and pledges entered in organization records instead of the constituent record, etc, etc.

So, producing reports are quite challenging. What is the best way to start cleaning up the data? I started with the trustee records, however, as you know, reports are needed from different departments and they are all due now...lol

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Mirna Gonzalez
Database Administrator

April Snow · January 2018

I went through something similar at my current job and I started with current major donors then moved onto current annual donors. For us a current donor was someone who had given in the last three years. We fixed those records by matching spouses and moving gifts to the head of household then fixing any soft credit issues. We were all over the place with soft credits with not one standard policy. So we came up with an SOP and fixed them to work that way. I then started in on the matching gifts. Mostly I had to pull reports on these, figure out what companies were matching, how the gifts were entered and then I pulled an import file of all these gifts. I adjust all of the gifts currently in RE that needed fixed to 0 and then imported them back in. First with the workplace giving gift (when the match was for this and not a donor gift), then imported the new matching gift pledges and finally the matching gift pay cash. It is a lot of work and I had a sponsored project with a team and a budget for three months. I was able to fix all the individual soft credits the major donor head of households as well as annual head of households and weird address formatting. I was only able to get Benevity fixed for the MG's and workplace portion of it but as most of our MG's come in this way it was a huge help! It is still a work in progress and will take a couple of years to get things where we want it but the truly hard things to report on are fixed and our reports and mailing lists no longer take hours to clean up.

Oh and we also changed our whole fund/appeal system to show how the gifts were asked for (appeal) and the funds to reflect the donor wish/program it was going to. It's crazyness and I wish you the best of luck! The most important piece of advice I can give you is to make sure you create new SOP's, know what you want for standards and have everyone's by in before you start. It makes your world so much smoother!

Mirna Gon · January 2018

Thank you April.

Importing of gifts is something I am not familiar with, something to look into.

I was advised to chech with Finance since many of the gifts have been posted to General Ledger.

Since major donor reports are due in a couple of weeks, I went to the organization record and I soft credited the constitutent record, this way I can still produce reports.

It's a huge project but it will get done.

Again, thank you.

Mirna Gon · January 2018

April,

Do you enter gifts and process acknowledgement letters along with cleaning the database?

Mirna

April Snow · January 2018

Mirna Gon:

April,

Do you enter gifts and process acknowledgement letters along with cleaning the database?

Mirna

I do not, except when it's busy and they need my help. I manage the system and the staff who do that. Are you asking because you do? As in trying to find the time to do it?

April Snow · January 2018

Mirna Gon:

Thank you April.

Importing of gifts is something I am not familiar with, something to look into.

I was advised to chech with Finance since many of the gifts have been posted to General Ledger.

Since major donor reports are due in a couple of weeks, I went to the organization record and I soft credited the constitutent record, this way I can still produce reports.

It's a huge project but it will get done.

Again, thank you.

When it comes to something like this importing can be your best friend! and can be a huge time saver. Learning the mapping and the required fields needed can be fun but blackbaud has all that in their knowledgebase and if you are importing gifts that were already in the database you can pull them out with a gift import file then re-import them back in.

Mirna Gon · January 2018

Yes April, I enter gifts for Fundraising, Events and I create new records along with marking records invalid mailing address as we get back returned mail.

I also answer phones and the front door bell along with creating spreadsheets for the Marketing/Communication, and Events department.

So, I am a bit overwhelmed and there is always something that comes up that takes up my time.

If I could just concentrated on just cleaning the database it would be a lot easier.

We have over 90k gift records that need attention, along with another 50k records with no constituent code.
I believe I need another me to help me out...lol

Lawrence Rush · January 2018

I would suggest solidifying the campaign, appeal, fund, and package structure. Set up defaults and match appropriate campaigns, appeals, and funds together. Once that is complete you could begin pulling queries to look for missing information and make global changes, etc...

Jen Claudy · January 2018

I agree with Lawrence. Determine what you want your data structure to look like and then devise a plan to scrub your database. And look at using Zeidman's Importacular if you are not altogether comfortable with Import. It is free for Constituent and Gift Imports and does a nice job of mapping fields.

Mirna Gon · January 2018

Thank you Jen.

Donna Mainord · January 2018

Mirna Gon:

Yes April, I enter gifts for Fundraising, Events and I create new records along with marking records invalid mailing address as we get back returned mail.

I also answer phones and the front door bell along with creating spreadsheets for the Marketing/Communication, and Events department.

So, I am a bit overwhelmed and there is always something that comes up that takes up my time.

If I could just concentrated on just cleaning the database it would be a lot easier.

We have over 90k gift records that need attention, along with another 50k records with no constituent code.
I believe I need another me to help me out...lol

You can fix the constitutent code issue quickly. Make sure everyone has signed out and exited from RE. Sign in as Supervisor and go to Plug-Ins. The first option is Add Constiuent ID's.

After your constituent codes have been generated, go into your Business Rules and have RE automaticly generate a constituent code when a new constituent record is added.

The other issues will take time. I can feel your pain. I'm still neck deep in cleaning up our database.

JoAnn Strommen · January 2018

Donna,

What plug in do you have? Constituent IDs and Constituent Codes are two different things. Yes, RE automatically generates ID's but if it can automaticaly do constituent codes, that is new to me? How does it know what code to use?

Heather MacKenzie · March 2018

Mirna Gon:
Hello All,

I just started a new job as the Raiser's Edge Administrator. The database is in critical condition, to say the least. There are thousands of gift records that were entered incorrectly,(20 years) ie: matching gifts, gifts with no campaign, gifts and pledges entered in organization records instead of the constituent record, etc, etc.

So, producing reports are quite challenging. What is the best way to start cleaning up the data? I started with the trustee records, however, as you know, reports are needed from different departments and they are all due now...lol

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Mirna Gonzalez
Database Administrator

Hope you are making progress! I would start with cleaning up your tables first, such as constituent code, campaigns, appeals, funds, etc., as so much of the rest of what you'll do can depend on those. Test anything you do globally with a small group first. Create your standards with your office, manager, or whomever appropriate, and then go from there. Best of luck!

Donna Mainord · April 2018

Mirna Gon:

Yes April, I enter gifts for Fundraising, Events and I create new records along with marking records invalid mailing address as we get back returned mail.

I also answer phones and the front door bell along with creating spreadsheets for the Marketing/Communication, and Events department.

So, I am a bit overwhelmed and there is always something that comes up that takes up my time.

If I could just concentrated on just cleaning the database it would be a lot easier.

We have over 90k gift records that need attention, along with another 50k records with no constituent code.
I believe I need another me to help me out...lol

You have my deepest sympathy. I am in a simular institution where I wear many hats for many people and when I walked in to my job, the database was a mess. I am still working on cleaning up records.

I have one tip for you on the Constituent Codes. RE will auto-generate codes for the records that are missing con codes. I had the same issue with missing Constituent Codes. That utility was so very helpful. I set up my Business Rules to always generate a new con code for new records; something that had not been done before I can to my job.

I hope this helps.

Michelle Geange · April 2018

Donna Mainord:

Mirna Gon:

Yes April, I enter gifts for Fundraising, Events and I create new records along with marking records invalid mailing address as we get back returned mail.

I also answer phones and the front door bell along with creating spreadsheets for the Marketing/Communication, and Events department.

So, I am a bit overwhelmed and there is always something that comes up that takes up my time.

If I could just concentrated on just cleaning the database it would be a lot easier.

We have over 90k gift records that need attention, along with another 50k records with no constituent code.
I believe I need another me to help me out...lol

You can fix the constitutent code issue quickly. Make sure everyone has signed out and exited from RE. Sign in as Supervisor and go to Plug-Ins. The first option is Add Constiuent ID's.

After your constituent codes have been generated, go into your Business Rules and have RE automaticly generate a constituent code when a new constituent record is added.

The other issues will take time. I can feel your pain. I'm still neck deep in cleaning up our database.

Mirna,

Once you finally have constituent codes (we call them ID Numbers, hopefully we're talking about the same thing...

), make sure you make the field non-editable so that people can't delete it. We had that issue when we first got R/Edge. Telefundraisers would accidentally delete the supporter ID number, which creates issues for us as its part of our invoiving and receipting.

Go to Admin, Security, and on each User Group open the "Records" options and on the bottom right hand side scroll down and untick Edit Constituent ID.

Best of luck with your clean up. I too wear multiple hats and get swamped.

Alan French · April 2018

Michelle Geange:

Mirna,

Once you finally have constituent codes (we call them ID Numbers, hopefully we're talking about the same thing... ), make sure you make the field non-editable so that people can't delete it.

Constituent IDs and constituent codes are different things - a constituent code is the label that described the constituent's relationship to your organisation: alumnus, donor, volunteer etc.

Raiser's Edge Database clean-up

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