A Roadmap to Making Nonprofit Databases Work Better
By Margie Fleming Glennon
Chief Content Officer
July 20, 2016 | Read Time: 1 minute
Rose Dixon, development operations deputy at the Semper Fi Fund and a longtime database manager, shared with The Chronicle three charts she created when faced with databases that needed an overhaul.
The database fixes were for:
- Gift processing
- Lost constituents
- Individual records
For each area, Ms. Dixon created charts in which she outlined the problems, the actions to be taken to fix them, and policies and procedures to prevent them from recurring. Each chart also identifies larger implications for the nonprofit, such as functions that are hampered by unreliable data and changes needed for a lasting solution, such as ongoing staff training.
You can adapt these charts to your own database challenges so they can then serve as a roadmap to more reliable data and, ultimately, more effective fundraising.
Ms. Dixon also used these charts to persuade leaders to invest more resources in data management. At one organization, tools like these helped her secure new database software; at another, she got approval to hire a database manager.
