Bad Data Will Ultimately Cost You Serious Money

This problem coumpounds over time

If you do nothing to manage your donor's mailing addresses, in five years time you've lost nearly half of the donor's in your database.

Given that change of address information is consumer reported, you will never totally eliminate returned mail or maintain a perfectly updated database. However, you can take simple and affordable steps to keep your database as up to date as possible.

1. Put someone in charge. Given the importance of data management it only makes sense that someone should be in charge of managing it.
2. Create standard procedures. Establish data entry procedures to maintain data quality from the start. If address data is entered incorrectly, it can prevent a match when trying to update it even if the original address was technically deliverable.
3. Perform regular NCOA updates. The USPS requires mailers update their mailing list 95 days before the mailing date to meet the Move Update Standard and qualify for non-profit and bulk mail discounts.
4. Perform regular manual updates. No update method is perfect. Even with the steps above you will still receive returned mail. Some percentage of donors will not file a change of address form once they move. The only way to update address information for these individuals is to...
5. Stay in regular touch with your donors. Even without valid address information, you will often have email, or phone contact information. When your receive a returned piece of mail you may need to reach out and verify their mailing address.