Make your transition to a new fundraising database as smooth as possible.
select new database system
Fundraising Nerd will guide your organization in choosing a new database system. To make sure your organization selects the best fit, we will discuss database “must-haves” and “nice to haves” (a.k.a. requirements). Depending on your preference, Fundraising Nerd will evaluate donor data systems against the requirements we define, or will provide you with tools and coaching for making your own evaluation. Fundraising Nerd will coach your organization in system review, including making the most of demonstrations, evaluating system capabilities, and checking references.
Review business process/work flow needs
We’ll review and document existing and desired critical business processes that impact data systems management. We’ll also identify how business processes will be accomplished in your new database system. Business processes to be reviewed include gift processing, biographical/engagement data tracking, event tracking, solicitation activity, prospect management tracking, grants management, and any other essential business processes specific to your organization. We’ll also review key systems integrations as well as analytical and operational reporting.
map and clean
To prepare for conversion, we’ll map your current donor database fields to new system and create a data cleanup plan. Fundraising Nerd will work with your organization’s staff and your new database vendor to map old donor data system fields to your new system’s fields. Fundraising Nerd and your organization will review and adjust the mapping as needed to ensure that data is transferred smoothly. During the mapping process, we will also create a data cleanup plan to identify fields or codes that have been used inconsistently. Manual data cleanup will be performed by your organization’s staff. Any data cleanup tasks that can be done more efficiently by Fundraising Nerd will be completed by Fundraising Nerd.
extract, transform and load
In this phase, we’ll extract all biographical and giving data, and other data from your old database system. Fundraising Nerd will transform data as needed to create import files. Your organization’s staff will review data files prior to import to your new database system. Fundraising Nerd will perform the data import, including pre-import testing and post-import quality assurance.
Alternatively, if your organization is working with your database vendor to perform this portion of the process, Fundraising Nerd can provide project management and best practices expertise to make sure that your data is entered in your new database the way you want it to be.
testing and support
Fundraising Nerd will create a testing plan for your organization’s staff to perform to ensure all data was transferred smoothly. Fundraising Nerd will assist your organization in using your new database system by providing coaching, training and troubleshooting as needed.