Just a reminder that MatchFinder was updated the week of November 6. In The Raiser's Edge, you can download the update to refresh your MatchFinder database files. Remember that your MatchFinder Online service is updated daily so you'll always see the most up to date details for matching gift corporations out there.
For more info on updating MatchFinder in The Raiser's Edge review Knowledgebase solution BB414650.
Just a reminder that MatchFinder was updated the week of September 14. In The Raiser's Edge, you can download the update to refresh your MatchFinder database files. Remember that your MatchFinder Online service is updated daily so you'll always see the most up to date details for matching gift corporations out there.
For more info on updating MatchFinder in The Raiser's Edge review Knowledgebase solution BB414650.
**Ring Ring**
“Hello, this is Jimmy”
“Good afternoon Mr Dyks…uh…Dyktrah…Dykestrahouser?”
“I’m sorry, he is not available at the moment because you can’t pronounce his last name.”
**Click**
How many of you have had a call like that from a telemarketer offering you a deal on the latest stock tip, a house in Orlando, or a vacation to Tahiti? If you have and dislike them as much as I do, there are ways to avoid them:
- Do not buy a Snuggie (They hounded me for 5 months, offering me 10 dollar gift cards for 15 dollars a month)
- Use the Do Not Call Registry…it works.
Here’s the National Do Not Call Registry's mission statement (italics mine):
“Pursuant to its authority under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the FCC established, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a national Do-Not-Call Registry. The registry is nationwide in scope, applies to all telemarketers (with the exception of certain non-profit organizations), and covers both interstate and intrastate telemarketing calls. Commercial telemarketers are not allowed to call you if your number is on the registry, subject to certain exceptions. As a result, consumers can, if they choose, reduce the number of unwanted phone calls to their homes.”
The exception applies to Tax-Exempt Non-Profits. This means you can still contact Constituents who are on the Do Not Call (DNC) list.
This isn’t a big deal with constituents you have a relationship with, who give regularly and attend events. They are on the DNC registry to prevent calls from Sham Wow not you.
A gray area exists for constituents you don’t have a close relationship with – somebody who gave a small donation at a booth or the child of an involved parent. Calling that person may result in a conversation like the one I started the post with. This does not mean you can’t (or shouldn’t) call these constituents, but you should take the DNC information into consideration. The more informed you are about your constituents, the more comfortable they’ll feel with your organization. If there’s another way to contact them (email, snail mail, etc.), start with that and work your way up to phone calls.
We can help you avoid a frustrating phone call with our PhoneFinder service, which will return DNC information on your records (remember, just because we do return the DNC information does not mean you are bound to it). If you would like you can still choose to exclude the DNC information, just tell us so in an email when you export your PhoneFinder data and we’ll take it out of the import file.
To read more about PhoneFinder, check out Knowledgebase solution BB56458.
If someone told you that you could have 1 week of vacation if you had your employer fill out just one form, would you pass that up? Of course not! Your donors feel the same way and will not pass up the opportunity to have their employer know how strongly they feel about your organization.
Matching gifts continue to grow as more nonprofit organizations (and donors) become aware of their availability, but matching gift services like Blackbaud's MatchFinder module are only as powerful as the data you track ... meaning you'll first need to know where they work. Our customers often ask "... how can we find out employer information? Who do our constituents work for?" There is no single answer for this question and there is no magic source to tell us which companies employ your donors. There are, however, several different ways to gather this information and many of the ideas listed below were suggested by other nonprofit organizations who once found themselves in a similar situation.
Request employer information in a thank you letter or annual newsletter, or on your web site
Simply adding a sentence that reads "Tell us your employer" with a fill-in-the-blank line won't work - you'll have to do better than that. Make sure you explain the efforts being taken to build a matching gift program, and include it in donor acknowledgement letters, appeal cards, and event registration forms (can anyone say ‘corporate sponsorships'!!!) If you are an educational institution, request and print employer information in your alumni giving reports (right next to the matching gift statistics section). On your web site, include a space on your giving page where donors can fill in their employer name.
"Who you gonna call? Your donors!"
Are you currently doing any telephone solicitation or personal thank you calls? If not, you should be. My husband recently received a call from his alma mater and proceeded to spend 20 minutes on the phone in a conversation that concluded with him writing a check. The caller should have asked where he worked, which would have impressed him to no end. Every communication with your donors creates an opportunity to gather more information about who they are and who they're connected to. If you need to gather employer information, just ask.
Tell your constituents what you're doing and how you feel!
Donors build relationships with your organization because they care. Your mission, goals, and impact on the community keep them engaged, and they want to know that you need their support and that their gifts are making a difference. As a good steward of those resources, share how and why you are focusing on a matching gift program. (Include how this will boost annual giving, create new relationships with local businesses, and take advantage of funds that are ready and waiting). By creating awareness you engage them in your mission and reach your goals more effectively.
Now it's your turn. Please post your own comments or questions about gathering employer information or starting a matching gift program within your organization. And for more information, read the whitepaper Jump-Start Your Matching Gift Program to get started today.
Over the last several months, we've been talking about our new Knowledgebase in our newsletters and on the Web Sitings blog. The new Knowledgebase has arrived! Read more about our new Knowledgebase and leave feedback about it on our Knowledgebase forum.
How often do you run AddressFinder? Every month? 3 months? What about DeceasedFinder, PhoneFinder or Emailfinder? Once or twice a year? With everything else you have on your plate each day the last thing you want to remember is what each checkbox and option means in your finder processes you run every few months. You probably know about the Knowledgebase solutions and maybe you’ve even watched the AddressFinder video. But do you know about our User Guides and Help guide? These are two additional options that are available as well.
The user guide on our website can be reached by clicking here or by browsing to www.blackbaud.com under Support and then User Guides. The Data Health Center is one of the many Raiser’s Edge support guides available on the page(You will need your website User Name and Password to access).
Don’t have your website information handy? You are still OK. Just log into Raiser’s Edge go to the Data Health Center and hit the F1 key. This will bring up the Raiser’s Edge help guide right to the Data Health Center page. From here you can choose the appropriate service and then the step you are on.
I hope you find the two options above helpful and as always you can access Knowledgebase solutions (to find answers to questions about the steps) and Case Central (to see what you did last time).
We hear a lot from Mail houses and the Post Office about CASS Certification. Why we need it, what happens if you don’t have it, and maybe even some ways to have your database CASS certified. What you may not hear so much about is what it actually is. What does this do to your records? I will touch on that in this blog post so you will know everything CASS certification does and does not do.
First some background info. CASS stands for Coding Accuracy Support System. It was started in the early 80’s to have a mailing standard to speed up the pace of mail and cut down on undeliverable pieces. This system is constantly tweeked and updated to become more specific so the Post Office has fewer and fewer undeliverable pieces of mail.
Ok, we know the Post Office requires it for discounts on bulk mailings but what does it do? CASS certification verifies your addresses have the following:
- A correctly spelled address (no Typos)
- A 9 digit zip code
- A Delivery Point Code (DPC)
Some CASS certification programs can add other things like Lot numbers or format Suites and Apartments but it is not required to. CASS certification only applies to the actual mailing address so things like city district, county, etc. are not updated with a typical CASS certification. Some products may add extra information but remember CASS certification does not automatically encompass anything more than Street Address, City, State, Zip, and DPC.
Hopefully this information give you a clearer picture of CASS certification. For a little extra reading material on it you can refer to the Post Office’s guide.
Have you ever been frustrated while updating AddressAccelerator? Have you ever seen "Error: The Serial Number for your PostalSaver is either out of date or corrupt. Please contact Blackbaud for assistance"? Since AddressAccelerator just updated to the June\July files I thought it might be helpful to go through the 2 most frequently seen error messages when updating.
Error: The Serial Number for your PostalSaver is either out of date or corrupt. Please contact Blackbaud for assistance
Why am I getting it? The error refers to the serial number in your computer's registry. Every two months (when you update) a new serial number is written to the registry key: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Satori Software, Inc.\MailRoom ToolKit\Registration\MailRoom Toolkit". If this key does not have the correct number after updating you will get the serial number error message.
What Causes it? After installing the AddressAccelerator update, the registry key with the serial number is not always carried down from the server to the workstation. This is because AddressAccelerator was not created to be a network installation. The size of the data files (over GB now) has forced many organizations to install on a shared network drive and this is a side affect of using AddressAccelerator on a network.
How do I Fix It? Go to the server or workstation where the latest AddressAccelerator updates were run and export the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Satori Software, Inc.\MailRoom ToolKit\Registration
- Copy this key to the workstation getting the error and open it (be sure to be logged in as a local administrator).
Error: Active X Component Cannot be Created
Why am I getting it? The Mailroom Toolkit components on the workstation have not been installed.
What Causes it? Once again we get a side affect of a network installation. This is something that would be installed when running the AddressAccelerator update locally but because the files are on a shared drive the local workstation did not the get the required components.
How do I Fix It? The Update.exe file was built to mimic a local install without actually installing GB worth of data. We need to browse to the location of your AddressAccelerator data files and copy the Update executable file. Paste this file to your desktop and install (accepting the defaults is OK).
I hope the explanations above make the updates a little easier and also give you more insight onto why the errors are appearing. We are always looking into improving the process but if you are in charge of updating AddressAccelerator I would keep this information handy. Thanks for stopping in!
Doesn't that statement get everyone's attention? Just the idea of free money being out there for the taking is an exciting prospect, especially with the current state of our economy.
In the past year or so we’ve seen multiple large organizations receive bail out money to continue functioning (we are looking at you General Motors). You may not realize it but there is a stimulus package out there for you and you don’t even need to go to the government to get it. What you need is already in your donor database.
If you would like a list of potential donors that are guaranteed to donate to your organization then all you need to do is open your database (if you do not want free donors then you can go ahead and stop reading now). Your database is full of records that are required to give to you. You read that correctly, they are required to donate to your organization.
This is true because there are tens of thousands of organizations out there that will match a gift given by their employees. The interesting thing is a lot of these organizations don’t actually end up matching the gifts and it isn’t because they are short on funds or because they don’t identify with a mission. The main reason many of the companies have not donated to your organization is because they have not been asked.
Ok, so a lot of matching gift organizations are out there. How many could possibly be in my database? The organizations that match gifts range from Fortune 500 landmarks like JP Morgan and Home Depot to local newspapers like The Newton Kansan or the Haines City Herald. So whether you are in New York City or Florence, SC your matching gift organization is just around the corner.
How do you know if an organization will match gifts? There are multiple online offerings (some free) that will allow you to search on an organization and other options that can look at every record in your database. There are even services available that will put a link on your online donation page asking a donor to see if their organization matches gifts (how great is that?! You get two gifts for the price of 1!).
If you’ve made it this far, take that next step and find those matching gifts. It’s about time you received some bailout money!
Editor's Note: MatchFinder just became available for Blackbaud OnDemand databases! Contact your Account Executive or Product Support for more information.
Additional Resources:
Matching Gift White Pages
MatchFinder User Guide
Steven had a great comment on my original blog entry about care of and attention lines on addresses and instead of responding only to him I think it is best to make my answer available to everybody. His question points to something everyone (Canada and US alike) can use for data entry with AddressFinder and most NCOA services. So what can we do to make sure our attention and care of information is not lost in an AddressFinder screening?
The root of this problem is the difference in what the Post Office sees as mailable and what we see as mailable. Post Offices do not need the extra contact information to deliver a piece of mail. The letter is considered successfully delivered once it is placed in the mailbox. You, as the sender, need to make sure the letter reaches the appropriate person at the organization and does not get lumped in with junk mail. In Raiser’s Edge we have two ways to handle this. I recommend the 1st one but the 2nd option can be used as well:
Option 1:
- Open the appropriate Organization Record.
- Go to Relationships and add an Individual Relationship.
- Enter your specific department\office\etc in the last name field, mark the relationship as a contact, and to print the organization name.
- On the General 2 tab make the Primary Addressee editable (mark the box) and enter Attn: Accounts Payable.
- Save and close the contact record.
The next time you run a mailing all you need to do is make sure to mail to contacts at organizations and to use the Primary Addressee as the recipient. This will put the attention information on line 1 and the organization on line 2 (If you do not want the organization to print just unmark the Print Organization Name checkbox on the contact relationship record). The finished address will look like:
Attn: Accounts Payable
Blackbaud, Inc.
2000 Daniel Island Drive
Charleston, SC 29492
Option 2:
- Open the appropriate Organization Record.
- Go to Relationships and add an Individual Relationship.
- Enter Attn: department\office\etc in the last name field, mark the relationship as a contact (Do not mark the option to Print Organization Name).
- Save the contact record.
The next time you run a mailing all you need to do is make sure to
mail to contacts at organizations and to use the
Individual Name as the recipient. This will put the attention information on line 1 but no organization name. The address would look like:
Attn: Accounts Payable
2000 Daniel Island Drive
Charleston, SC 29492
I recommend these options because it gives you the most flexibility with your mailings. If you have multiple departments at an organization you can just create one organization record with multiple contacts. This prevents needing multiple records for one organization to make sure you have the different c\o or Attn information on the addresses. Not losing the information when running AddressFinder is really just a positive side affect of having a cleaner database.
It's that time of the year again for the annual postage rate changes for the Post Office. All the post office changes went into effect on May 11th so make sure you are prepared for your next mailing whenever that may be (if you are a PostalSaver user and have not downloaded the May Patch the June\July updates will have the new rates).
All changes can be seen at the Post Office Website (
Post May 2009 Price List) and if you would like you can compare this to the previous rates (
Pre May 2009 Price List).
The prices that concern most Nonprofit Mailings are found on these pages on the new price list:
- Page 12 - Nonprofit Commercial Letters
- Page 13 - Nonprofit Commercial Flats
- Page 14 - Nonprofit Parcels
- Page 15 - Nonprofit Non Flat Machinables
This change is separate from the Move Update Standards that went into place in Nov '08 and will not change those requirements. Your local Post Office will be able to answer any questions you have about the rate changes. Happy mailings!
Welcome to Finders Keepers, the official blog of Blackbaud’s
Data Enrichment Services. My name is Jimmy and I will be the primary author here although my teammates may chime in periodically.
First a little background on me. I’m a born and bred Carolinian so I love sweet tea, porches, and the beach. After graduating from Wake Forest University I moved down to Charleston and started working at Blackbaud. I am a Senior Support Specialist on the Data Analytical and Enrichment Services (DAES) support team and if you are reading this blog we have probably talked on the phone at some point.
Second this blog is about you. My goal is to post a few times a month with things like; pointers on using our Finder products, updates on any laws or requirements (who loves the new
USPS Move Update Standard!) and anything else you, the user, would like more information on.
Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions and come back to see me again.