Coach Cat's Content Corner: Decluttering Your Donor List
Published by
Cat Clements
on
I love my apartment. The way the light hits the floors in the afternoon, the birds that sing outside my windows, and how I live just a 10 minute walk away from some of my favorite people and coffee shops. It’s amazing! However, the apartment comes with one downside – my closet is tiny. Without regular organization, it’s impossible to find what I’m looking for, let alone assemble outfits or even remember what clothes I have to begin with. Sound familiar? A disorganized closet is a lot like a disorganized donor list. Without the space or time to make sense of the valuable information you have, it’s hard to know how to effectively use your donor list. Summer, with its natural lull, is the perfect time to treat your donor data like my tiny closet – clean it out, organize, and make sure you’re ready for whatever comes next.
Here’s how to tackle your donor data summer refresh:
- Compile everything. Map out where your data lives and consolidate as needed: Just like you might have shoes stored under the bed and coats in a hallway closet, your donor data might be scattered across spreadsheets, systems, and as mental notes in your brain. Bring it all together for a clean, accessible setup. Make sure all your updates and insights make it into a central database or spreadsheet.
- Tidy up. Now that everything is in one place, go through your records to merge duplicate contacts, update incorrect information, and fix those typos you’ve been ignoring. This is just like making your wardrobe functional – hemming ripped jeans and deciding if you really need 6 of the same button-down shirt (in my case, I will absolutely be keeping all 6).
- Ask for help. My closet door squeaks every time I open it. Rather than googling how to fix this, I just ignore the noise and foolishly hope that one day it’ll go away on its own. Are there features of your database that you don’t understand or software bugs you’ve noticed when pulling reports? Take a few minutes to reach out to customer support -- for GiveMN, that’s help@givemn.org -- your future self will thank you!
By dedicating some time to data hygiene now, you’ll head into fall fundraising season with a “closet” full of neatly organized, accurate donor data – no surprises, no clutter, and no missed opportunities.
Cat Clements is GiveMN's Senior Fundraising Coach. She is committed to reframing fundraising as an avenue for deeply fulfilling relationships, and helping organizations approach fundraising from a place of joy, sustainability, and abundance. For more of Cat's tips and tricks, read last month's Content Corner.