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How do I decide what information belongs in Donor Management?
How do I decide what information belongs in Donor Management?
Updated over 3 months ago

The first step in the data import process is deciding what information you'd like to import into Donor Management. It may sound like a no-brainer, but there's a lot to consider!

Below, we outline which locations we recommend that you analyze, to see if you may want to include any relevant information from those sources in you import process.

Step 1: Consider any of your historic donor management systems.

If your organization is moving to Donor Management from a previous system, you will definitely want to review the information within that platform and determine what you may want to bring with you into your new platform.

Many of those platforms will have instructions available on how to export out your data, but we've also compiled a helpful guide here for you to review.

Step 2: Review any existing spreadsheets with historic donor or donation data.

Some organizations may not have previously used another donor management platform, and instead have been tracking their data in spreadsheets.

We recommend collecting and combining that data from your own spreadsheets - as well as the spreadsheets your colleagues may have been using - and including that information in your import. (We also recommend doing as much as you can to clean and prepare your data prior to the self-import process, to make the import process run more smoothly.)

Step 3: Check your existing financial management systems for historic financial records.

In addition to your historic donor management platforms, you may also be using financial management systems, such as QuickBooks. If so, you may want to consider transferring some of that historic transaction-related data to Donor Management as well, to make sure that Donor Management is as up-to-date as possible on your financial totals.

Step 4: Consider your existing email clients for existing contact records - for donors and beyond.

While your historic donor management platforms may have included contact information for your donors, you may also have used additional tools to communicate with those contacts - such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or even Gmail.

You may want to consider exporting out a list of those contacts, as they may be helpful in building a brand-new, updated mailing list through your Donor Management tool.

Step 5: Review any prior events you've run through existing event management software.

If you've used an existing platform to run events in the past, it's worth reviewing the data from those events to see if you'd like to include that in your new Donor Management records.

Since your fundraising tools include event-specific (and auction-specific!) page types, you might want that historic information to direct your former guests to your new, upcoming events.

Step 6 (optional): Start fresh with your data.

Whether you're just getting started and don't have any historic information in those locations, or the only data you have is more than a few years old, you also have the option to start fresh with your data.

You can always begin by manually adding contacts into Donor Management instead, such as your board members, your family, and your colleagues.

What else do you want to do?

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