You may be using one database internal to process and track your donations but what about other donations such as online, telemarketing and face-to-face. Are these donations processed and kept different databases?

First you have to determine how many databases you have. Then ask yourself, are my online, telemarketing and face-to-face donations in my direct mail database? If your answer is yes, you are ahead of the game. If your answer is no, please keep reading. Having all of your donations even the ones that you may not have processed or deposited the funds, need to be in one database. The key benefits include donor relations and stewardship, reporting and financial reconciliation.

Your may have received phone calls or emails from your donors saying that they’ve changed their address months ago but are still getting mail to their old address. The new address may only be in one database and the one where the data is being pulled from for direct mail, may be in another. Having to remember to update donor information such as address in multiple databases is a long and tedious process which can be avoided by having one centralized database.

How do you get one centralized database? Now that you have reviewed your fundraising sources and know where that data is stored, you need to get it imported in your main database. If you outsource your donation processing and database management, your vendor will be able to help you with uploading the data. If you maintain your database management and processing internally, work with your staff on getting the files uploaded. If you get stuck, seek advice and help from experts and contacts. A great place to start is AFP.

Once all of your files are in one centralized location, your donor relations staff will only have to use one database to update addresses and other stewardship functions. Your donors will be communicated to more promptly; your staff will be able to refocus saved time on fundraising and save money but not having to pay to have updates be done in multiple databases.

For more information on the benefits of database management please click here.