It’s time to take your lists out of excel and BACK into your database

Excel is a great tool. It is versatile, powerful and does “magical” tricks that make our jobs of list-keeping a bit easier. I can absolutely see its appeal. But it’s time to take your lists out of excel and put them back into your database. Those lists are your life blood, I understand! They are how you reach your constituents to tell them about your programs. It’s how you ask for an annual contribution. It’s how you keep track of who is coming to your event, and who should be invited to your event. 

Here’s the thing. All of those things that your lists provide for you are data-points that help to form a better picture of donor and constituent behavior.  And those data-points aren’t doing you any good setting on hundreds of individual excel spreadsheets.  If you send an annual appeal in November to 2500 people on your “list” and you get 100 donations back from that mailing, you can pat yourself on the back and consider it a job well-done. You got 100 donations! But you also got 50 returned pieces of mail that had outdated addresses or forwarding instructions. If you’re so inclined you go into your database and make those changes to the best of your knowledge. But to have an accurate “list” you need to also make those changes on your excel spreadsheet. And sometimes the people who are on your annual appeal list also get included on your Gala invite list. So you better go make that change over on THAT list, too. And when you are out at an event and learn that the Smiths got divorced, and Frank’s wife passed away, and the Gadget’s daughter is getting married next June, you better update those things on all of your lists, too!  

A LOT can change in a year, and if you are using the same excel list to do the same job year after year, you are going to have a lot of mistakes and missed opportunities to share information.

Your database can do all of this for you! And if you are diligent about making updates (I recommended making them as soon as you know or setting aside some time weekly to go through each of your edits). Then your list-keeping activities turn into list-generating activities, which will give you much quicker and more reliable lists. Not to mention that you can track every detail of communication that you have with your constituents and use that data to get to know them better.

Here are a few steps to make the process a little less daunting:

1.      Take the time to get a REALLY clean list, and then import it into your database, making sure to use database ID numbers match for the import. 

There are tools in excel like “Fuzzy Look-up” that can help you add ID numbers from your database into your excel list so that you can ensure a good match when you do an import. (One of these days I’ll write a post about Fuzzy Look-up to help clarify). This takes TIME! I feel for you. I just did it for a client and spend a good 16 hours cleaning up their list – looking up property records on the county website – Linkedin for latest job titles and companies – new address, etc. But it will be worth it when they have accurate information in their database from which to pull.

2.      PULL AND KEEP ID NUMBERS ON EVERY LIST YOU MAKE AND USE! 

This way you can match records and keep the data points flowing. If you make a targeted list for you event, use the ID numbers to create a record in your database that those people received your invitation. When you look up a record in your database you should be able to see every letter, email, or phone call they received, donations they’ve given, events attended, conversations, asks, thank-you’s…. Everything!

3.      Always pull a new list from the database for every project. 

Flag records for you Gala invite list. Keep separate records for businesses and individuals. When it’s time to send your Gala invite, pull your list using the flags. When it’s time to invite parents to your talent show, use a parent flag to pull your list. Etc. Always pull a fresh list!

4.      Call the support people for your Database and ask them to help you customize your system for your project.

All organizations have different needs. You are paying for this database and the service that comes with it, and there are solutions that can be created if you ask! Have a detailed plan about what you need the system to achieve for you, and work with the support people to have them create a custom report or a module that helps you to better track a specific project.