Data Integrity - Why Do I Care?
Data Integrity Affects Your Bottom Line

If you are like most nonprofits, the records you keep about your donors are your organization's greatest financial asset. Why? Because most of your donations come from the people who have given before, and the expected future flow of those donations is highly dependent on how well you do at retaining the relationship. Imagine raising next year's budget without your donor list.

Over time you can expect the list to become more valuable, with a higher return, but only if you pay attention to its care and feeding.

Data Integrity - It Takes A Village
Data Neighborhood Watch

• Consistency
  We've all heard countless times the standard "garbage in, garbage out" message: you cannot produce a nice looking letter or a useful analytical gift report if the information is not there in the expected places. A set of rules, written down, is the best way to ensure consistent data entry. Most importantly, this communicates to everyone, especially new staff, the importance you place on having information you can rely on.
• Relevancy
  Understanding how you wish to use the data in your records is key to designing data entry rules. Applying the right codes in the right circumstances, filing in critical fields, entering and following up on reminders - these are just a few of the many details that require attention. Use restraint; don't track data that you can't maintain or have no direct need for. Our favorite example of needless data collection: a Humane Society created a field to capture the number of pets owned by each constituent. Not only is this unlikely to be useful, it is virtually impossible to keep up-to-date, given how often we acquire and lose our pets.
• Accuracy
  It's easy enough to create a set of rules for data entry and maintenance, but not so easy to ensure that staff, especially new ones, understand and adhere to the rules. Take advantage of Exceed! in-product tools to assist your staff. For example, use Application Setup to set defaults for some fields so they are automatically filled in for new entries. You can also mark critical fields to require data entry before they can be saved. Automatic duplicate checking should be on when you're entering new names. The phone mask feature and email valid check will both help you spot typing errors. These are just a few of the available features in Exceed! to assist in keeping your data clean and accurate. More are listed below. In addition, Telosa offers many data services; read on for lots of additional ideas.

Data Integrity - Take My Hand, Everything Will Be OK
How Telosa Can Help You

You already have a lot of tools in Exceed! Premier to help:

• On the Utilities Menu
  • Duplicate checking - Find and purge or merge duplicate names.
  • Global code replacement - Consolidate, eliminate and streamline your codes.
  • Reindex - Keep your data optimized for speed and error-free.
  • Global pledge write-off - Write-off pledges that have been sitting in Exceed! too long.
  • Check email addresses - Reduce bounced and undeliverable emails by checking that all your emails are in the proper format.
• In Application Setup
  • Phone input mask and formatting - Put all your phones into a consistent format.
  • Required fields - Reduce data errors and set critical fields to be required on data entry.
  • Codes inactivation - Make data entry easier and more accurate by de-activating codes that are no longer valid.
  • Duplicate check - Reduce the chance of entering duplicate records by checking for duplicates during record entry.
• On the Tasks Menu
  • Archive lapsed donors - Keep your data streamlined by removing long-inactive names to the archive.
  • Delete prospects - This feature is very useful for acquisition mailings to remove records that have never donated.
• Procedures Manual
  • A sample procedures manual, ready to be customized for your organization, is in your Exceed! folder.* This document contains sample processes and procedures for many of the typical tasks organizations accomplish with Exceed!.
    
    For more information about how to access and use any of the above features, please call or email Telosa Technical Support at 800-750-6418, support@telosa.com.**

Telosa offers many services to assist in your clean-up:

• Data Services
  • Data Tune-up - Have you inherited a database that has been neglected or can't give you the information you need? Let us do an audit on your data, advise you on how to clean things up, and then help make it happen.
  • Data Enhancement - Improve the accuracy of your data with address updates, Phone/Email append, and record suppression.
  • Data conversion - Do you have data in spreadsheets or another database that needs to be added to Exceed!? Save your precious time and let our Data Conversion Specialists do this for you.
  • Advanced Importer - Do you have data from another source, such as a web form, that needs to be imported into Exceed! Premier on a regular basis? Our new Advanced Importer was specifically designed to handle recurring data imports.
  • Prospect Research - Perform wealth screening on your Exceed! Premier data to find and add information about your important prospects.
• Education
  • New! Exceed! Premier Group Web Trainings - Go through the fundamentals to understand what Exceed! Premier can do for you with our new, affordable 101 Training series. We also now offer individual sessions.
  • Exceed phone/web or on-site trainings - Get training that is customized to your organization's specific needs with on-site and phone/web training.
    
    For more information on any of the above services, please call or email Telosa at 800-676-5831 x103, services@telosa.com.

News

Exceed! Basic Wins User Satisfaction Award
Exceed! Basic was one of the top three recommended products for fundraising and donor management, based on a 2010 study of 2,866 U.S. not-for-profit customers by the independent research firm Campbell Rinker.

Get A Free Notebook Computer for Referring Telosa!
Get a FREE HP Notebook Computer for each successful referral that purchases Exceed! Premier through December 31, 2012.

Watch our video
Check out the story behind Telosa Software.

Telosa Raises over $40K for the Stanford Ronald McDonald House
Telosa Software employees participated in the Big Sur Half Marathon to support the Stanford Ronald McDonald House and raised over $40K!

Join Telosa Software on Facebook
Keep up with what's happening at Telosa Software and become a Facebook Fan.

Telosa CEO elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Susan Orr, founder and CEO of Telosa Software, joins one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies and a center for independent policy research.

Telosa & Sustainability
Telosa Software, Inc. headquarters in Palo Alto, California runs entirely on 100% clean energy, and is certified "green".

Telosa Receives Gold Partner Status from Intuit
Intuit has certified Telosa Software as a Gold Developer Partner because of our Exceed! product suite's powerful integration with Quickbooks.