How to rescue your fundraising data from a cycle of panic and neglect

A cycle of panic and neglect usually refers to public health crises or natural disasters. But those same patterns can pop up in other aspects of our lives. And when it comes to fundraising data, the cycle of panic and neglect is easy to fall into—especially when you’re constantly shifting from one priority to the next. That cycle can contribute to a fundraiser’s stress and burnout. And, it can negatively impact the success of your fundraising efforts. That’s why it’s important to recognize this pattern and take concrete steps to break the cycle.

How to rescue your fundraising data

Consider the following scenario

You’ve just printed your year-end appeal letters, and you notice that some constituents have more than one letter addressed to them. You determine that this happened because there are duplicate records in your database that need to be cleaned up. But you’re under a time crunch and can’t deal with that right now. So, feeling panicked, you rush to pull any duplicate letters out of the stack of printed letters. You manage to get the letters into the mail without delay, and feeling relieved, you move onto your next priority: a grant application that’s due this week. You immediately shift into grant mode, and you forget about those duplicate records.

Until the next time you’re generating appeal letters, and you find yourself in exactly the same position. You panicked over duplicates, but then neglected to actually solve the problem. The result? You’re back to panicking.

How might you break that cycle?

It’s true that you may not have time to resolve duplicate records and then re-print your letters before the deadline for mailing your appeal. And you may not have time to deal with those duplicates before you turn your attention to the grant proposal. But just because you can’t fix it immediately doesn’t mean it needs to be neglected.

Instead, make note of the issue and then reserve time in the next couple of weeks to figure out how you can resolve it. Then, block off time on your calendar to do so. (Learn how using Little Green Light can simplify the process of identifying and merging duplicate records in your donor management system.)

Finally, ask yourself how you can avoid landing back in that situation—for example, checking for duplicates on a weekly or monthly basis would help you maintain good data hygiene ongoing. If checking for duplicates this often isn’t feasible, you can at least take this experience into account when you plan your next appeal, and build in time to tackle duplicates before you even begin building your mailing list.

Key steps to rescue your data from the cycle of panic and neglect

Whatever panic you may encounter with your fundraising data, there are key steps you can take to avoid slipping into a pattern of panic and neglect:

1. Acknowledge those moments of panic, and recognize what led to that uncomfortable scenario
2. Plan time to revisit the scenario, figure out how to resolve it, and fix it
3. Ask yourself what it would take to avoid landing in that panicked situation again
4. Figure out a system to avoid that situation in the future, and put it into practice

Conclusion

Routinely maintaining your data takes time and effort, but the benefits to your own stress levels and to the effectiveness of your fundraising efforts are well worth it. When your data is maintained rather than neglected, you can avoid panic and instead focus your energy on raising funds for your organization