BUSINESS RULES VS. DATA STANDARDS. Why Have Business Rules?

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Agnes Owen
6 years ago
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1 BUSINESS RULES VS. DATA STANDARDS Presented by: Wayne Combs Associate Dean, Advancement Operations & Constituent Programs University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Why Have Business Rules? Impact on Operations Reports (VSE, CASE, US World & News) Stewardship / Donor Recognition Programs Honor Rolls / Annual Report of Gifts Acknowledgements (Receipts, letters, s) Telemarketing Calling Scripts Solicitations and Event Invitations 2

2 Common Business Rules Data Entry / Migration Constituent Hierarchy (alumni, parent, trustee, friend) Preferred addresses Preferred name/combined name Preferred salutation Solicitation Exclusions (mail, , phone, text) Gift designations assigned to fundraising initiatives Solicitation codes with department of origin Events: actual attendance, rsvp, invitation Donor participation counts Alumni Status (matriculated vs. course count) Corporate & Foundation Relationships More 3 Data Standards Methods: coding & format IRS Regulations CASE Reporting Guidelines USPS Requirements Data dictionary Formatting glossary Naming conventions Coding sequences 4

3 Data-Centric Strategy Continuous Process Improvement Testing & Feedback users must provide feedback for systems enhancements, new policy, and efficient procedures. Commitment users must ensure data is entered accurately and completely into system in accordance with business rules. Data Use users must take every opportunity to apply data for validation and updates from current sources, which will lead to better benchmarking, internal controls, and data usability. Evaluation users must understand that long term benefits will be determined by a process of continually evaluating the effectiveness of business rules, value of data derived from the system, and success in supporting fundraising and engagement. 5 Sustainable Information Tools of the Trade Data Enhancements services for appending, updating, and cleaning data Access data querying, pulling, and manipulation Desktop Reporting push/pull technology Business Analytics campaign dashboards, fundraising initiatives, ROI, and engagement strategies Data Mining targeted solicitations and segmentation strategies 6

4 System Infrastructure 1. Constituency Codes Primary & Additional 2. Addressee/Salutations 3. Primary & Additional Formal vs. Informal vs. Etiquette Internal Style Guide 4. Attributes, Interests, Affiliations How do we use them? 5. System rules required for your particular database 6. Be institution-specific know what is best for your own institution Data Security Identify Data Owners (parent, student, alumni, donor, gift planning, prospect research, corporate/foundation) Determine Security Settings Setup privileges by group (i.e. data entry; gift processing; development officers, etc.) Review group privileges on a routine basis! Who can we share our data with? Internally/Externally Third-party vendors

5 Policies & Documentation Document policies on who can and should update data. De-centralized data entry generally gets data into the system faster but requires additional training and data integrity checks. Single point data entry may be more accurate but could potentially create backlogs and discourages broad ownership. Promotethe development database and the data that makes it up as a valuable resource to the organization. Ensure that new staff are made aware of policies and procedures. Establish definitions and written procedures for updating data. Support the design, documentation and implementation of a training program. 9 Processes & Collaboration Identifycritical data, design projects to scrub existing and gather missing data, write an implementation plan with an approved budget and timeline, execute plan, evaluate and measure results, and announce good results. Establisha cross-functional team to approve policies and prioritize projects. This greatly enhances buy-in from areas outside of advancement services. It also provides feedback to advancement services staff on critical data needs. Partnerwith other offices that may collect data such as regional chapters, patient databases administrators, registrars, alumni clubs, and development staff to identify data sources and develop mechanisms for regular transfer of relevant information. 10

6 Address - Standards 1. Send good and bad addresses to a vendor that has the national change of address (NCOA) information or to other vendors who have data cleansing services. 2. Many mail houses will cleanse data before mailing. Establish a mechanism to feed that data back to the source database. 3. Use address correction requested on mailings. For a large database, do not overlap using a NCOA vendor and a large mailing with address correction requested. Similar information will be returned from either source, duplicating data entry. 4. Address updates should be scheduled and coordinated and include a review of the last update date of the addresses. 5. Standardize addresses to postal format. Vendors require postal format to review addresses and will return better addresses if the source data is in that format. 11 Addresses - Quality 1. Allow constituents to update through an online directory. 2. Track the sources of the address change to evaluate the quality of the data and source. 3. Avoid sending a solicitation as the first piece of mail received by a newly found constituent. Send a magazine or a tracer survey to confirm the newly received address. 4. Use on-line finder services on a case-by-case basis to find important constituents. 5. Use surveys/alumni census to update information. 6. Update information from constituent correspondence. 7. Record and use seasonal addresses as the system allows. 12

7 Phone Standards 1. Use a phone-lookup service. 2. Update information from telethons. 3. Cell phones should be carefully tracked, perhaps with the permission of the constituent. 4. Online services are unreliable for cell phones and are best obtained through self-reporting and/or vendor append services. 13 s Standards 1. Purchase addresses from vendors. Some vendors offer validations and opt-in options. 2. Carefully update responses from mass s. Sometimes an invalid is returned only because the recipient s inbox is full and not because it is an incorrect When an bounces, consider following up with a letter to request an updated address. 4. If your organization has the resources, consider offering lifetime addresses or aliases. 5. Mark addresses with constituent preferences as your system allows (e.g., newsletters\updates only, volunteer correspondence, solicitations, events, reunions, etc.) 14

8 Employment Information 1. Update business information. Gathering this information is crucial to enhancing a matching gift program and to discovering connections among constituents. 2. Record board membership information in addition to employment information. 3. Gather business cards at functions by using a give-away or door prize. 4. Link individuals to matching gift companies. 5. Subscribe to a matching gift database service to determine which companies match donations. 6. Research or corporate relations are to update corporate information on key donors through on-line resources. 15 Social Security Numbers Years ago, it was common practice to gather as many SSN s as possible because credit bureau services could be used to update addresses based on SSN s. Today, with the prevalence of identity theft, SSN s should be stored in databases only if there is a business need and the development system can provide adequate safeguards for this data. In some systems, only the last four digits are stored. SSN s are often necessary for accurate data scrubs. Be sure to check and acquire signed vendor accountability 16 and service level agreements.

9 Hard Credit vs. Soft Credit Legal/hard credit: The transaction which represents the amount that would be allowable for an IRS deduction (regardless of the donor intent to take the deduction). For higher education institutions, this amount is used in financial reporting under the CASE Management and Reporting Guidelines. Soft/recognition credit: The transaction which allows for recognition at a different amount than the legal/hard credit or on a different constituent record. Soft credits are not typically used in financial reporting, but are frequently used as the basis for honor rolls and gift club qualifications. Entities to consider include: donor advised funds, community foundations, personal estates, personal foundations, small individually owned businesses, etc. 17 Soft Credit Considerations 1. Gift officers/fundraising management Benefit from grateful constituents 2. Donor relations officers Ability to recognize appropriate donors in order to thank, steward, develop honor rolls and gift clubs, and invite constituents to events 3. Data/records/research supervisors Set policies for recording soft/recognition credits 4. Gift recording operators Apply consistent soft/recognition credits to constituents and allow for exceptions, if necessary. 5. Database/ IT supervisors Implement and manage computer and reporting processes. 18

10 Names Sample Standards 1. Use the word and rather than the ampersand (&). 2. The alum/friend name will be listed first, and male name trumps female name if record types are the same. 3. As a standard, use the order: alum/alum; alum/friend; if same-sex domestic partners, use alphabetical order. 4. Prefixes are always included. 5. Suffixes are included when applicable. 6. No comma will be inserted before Jr. or Sr. 7. Mrs. used either when a woman uses her husband s name (Mrs. Evered C. Dyer) or her own first name and middle name (Mrs. Lisa Staton Dyer). 8. Use first name in the informal salutation unless it differs 19 Benefits/Advantages 20 Consistency & Standardization Streamlined processes that result in increased efficiency and effectiveness Good internal audit controls Specialized skills Increased accountability Increased morale Cross-training Raises level of credibility

LGL Data Dictionary Printed on:

LGL Data Dictionary Printed on: 08-06-15 The following fields may be imported into LGL. Main Constituent Info Constituent type Prefix First name Middle name Last name Suffix Maiden name Salutation Addressee