Clean Your Data Before Your Migration

What stays and what goes?

It is recommended that all historical records, including donor data from deceased persons and lapsed donors, be migrated into NonprofitCore. Mark these records as inactive so that they are not included in relevant reports and dashboards. There is no harm in keeping records for deceased and lapsed donors. In fact, they may serve a purpose later on. However, some data tracked historically may no longer be needed, so conducting a field-by-field analysis can help determine the value of the data and where it should be stored in the new system.

Field-by-Field Analysis

To conduct a field-by-field analysis, create a list of all donor fields used in the legacy system. Next, review each field and ask the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the information stored in this field?
• Is the information required or will it be helpful moving forward? What is the value of the information?
• Will the information continue to be tracked for new records created in NonprofitCore?
  • If not, then the data will likely not be useful.
• Is there a default place for this field in NonprofitCore?
  • If yes, what field name will it map to in NonprofitCore?
  • If no, is there value in keeping the field?
• Do you want the field to align with the way the data was stored in the legacy system or start anew?
• Do you need to create a custom field for it?
• Will new donor records be expected to track this data?

Duplicate Profiles

Clean up duplicate profiles by combining or deleting profiles in the legacy system before exporting data to Excel.

Examples of how to clean up duplicate profiles may include the following: 

• If all information is the same for two profile records, you may delete one and keep the other.
• If the duplicates have variances (e.g. different addresses or emails), determine what information to keep, update one of the profiles with the correct information, and then delete the duplicate.

Profile Actions provides detailed guidance on how duplicate profiles are handled in NonprofitCore.

Data Formatting Standards

Consistency is key to streamlining the data entry process and will increase the likelihood that a user will understand system-generated reports.

Create and document a formatting rule for a specific field, or set of fields, that allows for free-form text entry. Not every field will need formatting, but many will. Evaluate which fields would benefit from a formatting rule, and then determine which formatting standards to use by considering the following questions:

• How is this field used?
• What reports use this field?
• What are some downstream effects of this field's formatting?
  • Do mailing labels use this field?
  • Do email newsletter merge tags use this field?
  • Do thank you letters, appeals, or other automatically generated mailed letters use this field?

For address fields, it is recommended to adhere to USPS address standardization.

• Correct any misspellings, including street names and cities.
• Verify all address information is correct.
• Correct any abbreviations.
• Correct grammatical casing and capitalization.
• Obtain the zip+4 (the extra four digits appended to the 5-digit zip code).

Standard Format Fields

Some fields in NonprofitCore are already formatted and cannot be changed. The following fields have standard formatting: 

• State - If a state field is provided, the appropriate country must also be provided.
• Email - Every email address must contain three parts: local-part, @ symbol, and domain name.
  • For example, johndoe@company.com.
• Phone number - A phone number must contain seven or ten digits, depending on if an area code is provided.

Incomplete or Missing Data

If time allows, work through records with incomplete or missing data. Determine if any records with incomplete or missing data in critical fields, that render the record useless, need to be removed. It is not mandatory to update all records, except for those that are required during migration. 

Required fields include the following:

• First and last name, organization name, or household name.
• Profile type: individual, organization, or household.

Analyze Records with Limited Data

Identifying the information that is essential to obtain and for whom, will vary by organization. Consider the following questions when determining what data your organization needs:

• What are your organization's methods of communication?
• Is one form of contact information more critical than another?
• What information do you need to build a relationship with someone?

Once a list of records has been created, look for other key indicators. Do you want to fill in the gaps for any of the records? This depends on how much value is in the records with incomplete or missing data. If very little information is available in the legacy system, you may choose to delete records with limited or no contact information and no donation history. It is recommended you define what situation warrants further investigation and what missing data warrants removing the record.

The following are some example questions to consider when identifying important donor records with limited contact information:

• Has the constituent donated in the last five years?
• What is the constituent's total lifetime giving?
• How often does the constituent make a gift?
• Are there any notes from previous conversations with this person in the system?
• How are they connected to the organization?

Incorporating data hygiene practices into data management processes on an ongoing basis will reduce the number of records that contain stale information and will improve the quality of your data overall.

Data Quality

Remove or update outdated mailing addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. It is recommended to review and update relationships and household records, check for deceased records, and update mailing lists or flags accordingly.

If time allows, review the following specific data items:

• Bounced Emails - Which emails have bounced from the email marketing service?
  • If the email marketing service is external to the current contact database, consider how to update the records by removing or flagging the old email addresses in the contact records.
• Missing Addresses - How many email addresses are missing?
  • If the number is too large to tackle at once, segment the list by focusing on major donors and other strategic individuals first.
  • This assumes an organization uses email communications as a primary contact method.
• Status Change Codes/Flags - Review mailing and other status change codes or flags to ensure that all are aligned with other contextual information available in the record.
  • What is the process for updating records when a person is flagged as deceased, changed addresses, or changed households?

Profile Status

Flag records as Inactive or Active so they can be segmented out of relevant reports and dashboards.

If the status field does not exist within exported data, add an additional column in Excel and mark each profile accordingly.

Statuses are defined as the following:

• Active - Profiles to focus your efforts on soon.
• Inactive - Profiles that aren't engaged with regularly, but you may want to re-engage with at some point in the future.

Accounts

Remove unused accounts from the chart of accounts prior to migrating data.

To reference historical accounts, import the accounts into NonprofitCore and then add them to the chart of accounts.

Programs

Remove unused programs from the program services prior to migrating data.

To reference historical programs, import the programs into NonprofitCore and then add them to the Program Services list.

• Add a "historical" description to programs that are not being actively used.

When considering what fundraising or grant opportunities to migrate over, conduct a similar field-level analysis for each fundraising or grant field in your legacy system.

• Refer to the CRM: What stays and what goes? section above for detailed guidance on how to conduct a field-level analysis.
• Asking, "What do you need to report on?" can help determine what fundraising or grant fields need to be migrated.

Fundraising: Standard Fields for Import provides detailed guidance on what fields and required and optional.