NCOA Processing

Anna Zimmerman · June 2020

Hey all! We are wondering what some of your experiences are with the NCOA process, if you use it through blackbaud. There are a couple flukes that we are noticing, and curious if anyone else deals with these.

Our newsletter mailer runs an NCOA process after we run ours before he prints addresses. His NCOA process picks up address changes that ours doesn't sometimes. Since NCOA is run through USPS (correct?), shouldn't they pick up the same things? I've compared our printer's January NCOA to May, and found that our process didn't pick up about the same 20 addresses (out of 10,000) that his did both times. What gives?
How well does your NCOA process do at handling seasonal addresses? We have some donors who snowbird, and instead of forwarding their address to their seasonal address, NCOA flagged them as invalid! A big deal for us as this happened with a $10,000 donor. Not cool. I recently received info on a seasonal address one of our major donors has and will be tracking that one each time we run this process from now on, but still want to know what your experiences are specifically with seasonal addresses and NCOA.

JoAnn Strommen · June 2020

Good question. I have same one. NCOA at beginning of month and AddressFinder mid-month. Differences in result lists.

Did you pull seasonal the address for your mailing? Based on my neighbors' experience after first year of forwarding mail to winter address with USPS they quit doing it. Lots of issues with different classes of mail and address changes with relationships. After that, they just left address as local here and we packaged and shipped box of their mail to them every two weeks. They said it caused much less headaches.

Judy Spigarelli · June 2020

Great question! I don't have an answer for you, but I'm very interested in the answers you do receive. One of my biggest challenges is that NCOA only keeps changes for 48 months. So when I submit an address for someone that moved 10 years ago, it doesn't note the change. I end up finding addresses via fastpeoplesearch.com or alumnifinder instead. I want one process that does this correctly.

Anna Zimmerman · June 2020

Judy Spigarelli:

Great question! I don't have an answer for you, but I'm very interested in the answers you do receive. One of my biggest challenges is that NCOA only keeps changes for 48 months. So when I submit an address for someone that moved 10 years ago, it doesn't note the change. I end up finding addresses via fastpeoplesearch.com or alumnifinder instead. I want one process that does this correctly.

Is fastpeoplesearch.com free?

Heidi Saperstein · June 2020

We run NCOA through Blackbaud once a quarter on our home and preferred addresses. We've seen very few anomalies that can't be explained and run a series of QC checks to fix/catch any ongoing issues. Any service like this will have flaws. I don't rely 100% on search engines, because they are not always accurate. I always look myself up first to see how accurate the information is before continuing. Appraisal district websites are beneficial when looking up one-offs to verify ownership on homes. Lexis Nexis can be helpful (though not always accurate). I just looked up myself in fast people search and 50% was not accurate.

You can always apply the NCOA changes that your mailhouse provided as well. The USPS is spotty and if there were changes between the time you did NCOA and your mailing, that could account for your 20 addresses being different/not updated. Perhaps they just weren't in the system at the time or maybe the time frame had lapsed and the USPS was no longer providing the update. Again, a lot of scenarios to consider.

JoAnn Strommen · June 2020

Heidi Saperstein‍, can you describe your QC checks/process?

I'm new to having AddressFinder run. It just did our quarterly run this week. Some of the businesses with a PO closed concern me. Can't imagine that they don't have a forward if they closed a PO Box.

I know there are always inaccuracies with any update service. Just trying to figure out how to ensure best possible data in our db.

Thanks

Heidi Saperstein · June 2020

We record the NCOA reasoning on each address record processed, so we can review it if we're questioning why an address has not been updated. Sometimes a business will close a PO Box, and return to receiving mail at their actual location. This would not prompt a forward.

After we run the update, we run a query of those that were changed to "last known" and mark them as no valid address. Then we run another query to look at no valid addresses (for that processing date only), but we might already have an alternate address already on file (seasonal, alternate business, etc.). We then manually update those to valid and switch preferred to the alternate address.

At the very end, after all of the QC queries (there are 7 of them) are run and the data reviewed and/or updated, we create a query of all updated addresses on that date and run it through AddressFinder to make sure the counties are updated. NCOA does not do that for you.

I do find it interesting that there are quite a few addresses where a change has been requested, but NCOA doesn't have the new address. That could have several indications (Not been processed yet, constituent doesn't want it public, etc.)

Hope this helps a little.

JoAnn Strommen · June 2020

Can I ask why you use the NCOA instead of AddressFinder as you said you also have that? I sort of like the automation of running AF thru NXT in adding as preferred, noting source, changing prior to previous address and date. Am I missing data by not also using NCOA reports?

Judy Spigarelli · June 2020

Anna Zimmerman:

Judy Spigarelli:

Great question! I don't have an answer for you, but I'm very interested in the answers you do receive. One of my biggest challenges is that NCOA only keeps changes for 48 months. So when I submit an address for someone that moved 10 years ago, it doesn't note the change. I end up finding addresses via fastpeoplesearch.com or alumnifinder instead. I want one process that does this correctly.

Is fastpeoplesearch.com free?

It is - and it's nearly frightening how much data they have available.

Judy Spigarelli · June 2020

Heidi Saperstein:

We run NCOA through Blackbaud once a quarter on our home and preferred addresses. We've seen very few anomalies that can't be explained and run a series of QC checks to fix/catch any ongoing issues. Any service like this will have flaws. I don't rely 100% on search engines, because they are not always accurate. I always look myself up first to see how accurate the information is before continuing. Appraisal district websites are beneficial when looking up one-offs to verify ownership on homes. Lexis Nexis can be helpful (though not always accurate). I just looked up myself in fast people search and 50% was not accurate.

You can always apply the NCOA changes that your mailhouse provided as well. The USPS is spotty and if there were changes between the time you did NCOA and your mailing, that could account for your 20 addresses being different/not updated. Perhaps they just weren't in the system at the time or maybe the time frame had lapsed and the USPS was no longer providing the update. Again, a lot of scenarios to consider.

I agree all the online versions can have accuracy challenges. I was told how great Melissa Data is - it states I live with my former husband and his wife! LOL

Linda Gatzow · June 2020

While NCOA information is all sourced from USPS (as long as people file a COA with them) the process itself is run from static software, not live. The timing of each software program varies, depending on the mailer...some weekly, monthly, or quarterly. That's why there might be differences when using two different sources.

NCOA Processing

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