A client is migrating to new Association Management Software, which will entail changing their credit card processor. They asked for advice on how to handle their existing recurring donations, and whether it’s possible to migrate those transactions to the new processor. Some of the best advice I’ve … [Read more...]
An Eleven Step Program to Cure Shiny Object Syndrome
NTEN just published of mine called "An Eleven Step Program to Cure Shiny Object Syndrome" (technically, they reprinted an article that AFP will publish this summer). My co-conspirators were Dahna Goldstein, Marc Baizman, and Tracy Kronzak. The four of us, plus Vered Meir, will be leading a … [Read more...]
New book: “Advancement Services: Enhancing Fundraising Success”
CASE has just published the third edition of its guide to Advancement Services. The title of this edition is "Advancement Services: Enhancing Fundraising Success." The book was a labor of love for over 2 years by 25 of advancement services professionals, led and edited by the esteemed John … [Read more...]
Robert on the (Internet) radio
This Friday, October 16 at 1 pm Eastern time, Nonprofit Radio will be broadcasting a discussion with me, Tracy Kronzak of Bright Step Partners; Marc Baizman of the Salesforce Foundation; and Dahna Goldstein of Altum. We'll be talking about how people and processes can be the real culprits behind … [Read more...]
What to Do When Technology Isn’t Your Problem
Copyright P. S. Mueller http://www.psmueller.com/ Does it feel like you never find the right combination of technologies to just make things work? Do you lie awake at night and wonder how everything is going to get done, or why a new project was just dumped on your plate? If you technology … [Read more...]
Discussion of Donor Data Retention
A few months ago I wrote a post on the topic of whether nonprofits should delete old donor records. The same topic came up recently on the APRA's listserve, PRSPCT-L. The original question: My organization is working on a data retention policy and wondering if others have insights to share. There … [Read more...]
Should You Delete Donor Records?
I was recently contacted by the vendor behind a new cloud-based donor management system with this question: We have noticed that our clients have become much more conscious about archiving/deleting old donor/prospect records because our pricing model is based on the number of records. After … [Read more...]
Reigning in shadow databases
The following story, posted with permission, was sent to the FUNDSVCS list in response to a question about how to reign in schools and departments at a university that keep their own shadow databases of contacts. The response hit the nail on the head: We started working on folding shadow … [Read more...]
Training on your new database
A question was posted to a listserve for nonprofit techies looking for tips on training staff on a new database. I discussed training at a high level on page 13 of this chapter from CASE's Handbook of Institutional Advancement. Here are some more detailed rules of thumb: 90% of … [Read more...]
Best Practices for Managing a Database
"After people, data is your most important asset." -- John Kenyon Left unattended, databases will turn into piles of mush. Therefore, develop data entry policies and procedures, and train everyone who enters data. Excel is not a database, and is one of the leading causes of dirty data. … [Read more...]