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Does your organization suffer from data rot?

Posted January 15, 2014 by Hunter Williams

It’s no surprise that you will have better fundraising success the more you’re able to reach your intended audience. In fact, the data append company Updentity has seen up to 900% increases in year-over-year donations from improved contact information and better utilization of staff time. And one fundraising consultant recently told us that the single most important action a development team could take is to make sure they have a valid phone number for all of their prospects.

And of course this isn’t a one-time exercise. With about 12% of Americans moving per year (US Census, Nov. 2013), and people frequently changing phone numbers and email addresses, the problem of “data rot” is ongoing.

Fortunately there are companies that specialize in updating this data for you. I recently spoke with Brandy Coomer at Updentity to get a sense for what such a service would cost. They have a cool calculator that will help determine potential costs, and if you input certain assumptions for what kind of donation results you expect from your campaign, you can determine the expected return on investment as well.

Example scenarios, to give you a general sense of pricing:

  • 1,500 input records, requesting address, cell and landline phone updates: $550
  • 10,000 input records, requesting address, email and demographic updates: $1,300

Note that not every record will have a “hit,” so you won’t get back results on all records.

We believe strongly in the importance of having good data, and we’re delighted that Updentity is offering LGL customers a 20% discount on any work purchased through February 2014 (see sidebar). 

Data append services:

Updentity, a leading provider of data append services provides a free analysis of your data in advance, so you will know what to expect in terms of data improvements before you buy. Be sure to ask them how to estimate your possible return on investment (ROI). To learn more, email Brandy Coomer, Chief Interaction Manager, at brandy.coomer@updentity.com or 888-297-4694 x704.

Additional Resource

Written by two of the leaders of Updentity, “The Deep Clean” describes the how and why it’s important to improve your contact information.

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