Data Enrichment Services

Deceased Record Finder Questions

DeDe Chaoui — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:48:13 GMT

We just received our records back after sending through the Deceased Record Finder for the first time and I am not sure how reliable the results are. Of course I closely reviewed the ones with suffixes (jr, sr, etc) and the Mrs. John Smiths vs Mr. John Smiths. However, I have many records that were indicated as deceased where the last gift date was after the indicated deceased date estimate. Therefore, we solicited them (in the case of Mr. and Mrs.) and received gifts listing them as Mr. and Mrs. during the period where he was supposed to be deceased. Does anyone have any suggestions? I really want to be able to mark the appropriate records as deceased and exclude them from mailings (hence purchasing the service), but there are so many suspect that I wonder if it is best to go back to combing the obits or waiting for our donors to notify us.

Addressfinder

Vicki Smith — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:06:24 GMT

Recently we ran our data through addressfinder and when we received it back some of the addresses that had data in the address box that was not recongnized by addressfinder was deleted. ex: Some of my donors don't give a home address and their prefered address is the business with the business name on the first line. Because it was not recongnized as part of the address it was deleted. Raiser's Edge has suggested moving that information to the second line and placing attention or c/o in front of it. Has anyone else had this problem and if so how did you solve it? If you used the c/o business name on the second line how did it work?

NCOA mail & deceased person clean up

Stephanie Roland — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:59:54 GMT

We need to clean up our database for current addresses & deceased people. I've checked with Blackbaud about their tools, but am wondering if anyone has an opinion about using their Data Health Services. They are a bit expensive, but my feeling is that it's seamless back into the Raiser's Edge and that might out weigh the costs. If you have had better luck using another organization or service for this, please point me in that direction so I can research them.

Thank you for any feedback.

AddressFinder

Julie Hiland — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:57:41 GMT

We are about to run our addresses through the AddressFinder (DHC). With the newer version of RE (7.82.1514), you can choose to have the addresses come back UN-abbreviated. So for example, instead of getting addresses back with Rd and Ave, you'll get Road and Avenue. I am told this also means that directional abbreviations, such as NW and NE, are also removed, so you get Northwest and Northeast.

I'm curious if anyone has tried using this option (going without the abbreviations) and whether or not you were happy with the results. I'm just wondering if the Northwest and Northeast is going to annoy me...

AddressFinder

Nicole McMorrow — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:08:47 GMT

We used Blackbaud's AddressFinder service for the first time about a month and a half before we did a mail drop. From that drop, we've gotten HUNDREDS, of pieces returned to us with bad addresses, including many of those that were updated by the AddressFinder. At the rate they are being returned, I expect we will approach 1,000 pieces of wasted postage and paper. For the price we paid for this service, I really expected better data.

Has anyone used this service and had similar results? Does anyone use a different NCOA service that is more accurate?

Grrr.

Nicole D. McMorrow
Database Administrator
Women's Foundation of California
340 Pine St., Ste. 302
San Francisco, CA 94104
www.womensfoundca.org
[Email Removed]

Data Enrichment Services

Judi Fellows — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:18:22 GMT

We are looking at purchase of Address Finder, Email Finder, with a 2x/year subscription to address finder for the NCOA updates for direct mail. Do you use address finder and find it easy to export and import data - ie. we want all spelled out when it is returned to us 123 North Common Street.

We are also interested in one-time age finder and deceased record finder. Any of you out there find that valuable and worth the price?

AddressAccelerator - we will be looking at a demo shortly. Is this something you have found useful for your data entry staff??

Thanks in advance for you input

Managing/updating Addresses

Beverly Lamberson — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:52:27 GMT

Seeking best practices/policies for all aspects of managing/updating addresses especially in light of using both Blackbaud’s Address Accelerator (ole Address Validation) and Address Finder (NCOA) updates. E.g., What are your steps for adding addresses when adding a new individual? If you are adding a Business tab address, how do you handle the defaulted blank home address? Policies for changing addresses? Do you have ‘business’ addresses that aren’t on ‘Business’ tab; if so, how do you find/fix problems this causes? What ‘address types’ do you use? What’s your process for handling a known bad address? If it’s the preferred? And if it isn’t? Do you leave the ‘type’ alone (e.g., home) or change it (‘previous home’); how does this impact how you process Address Finder results? (We prefer to keep prior addresses; most users don't have rights to delete addresses; we’ve had RE since it was on DOS version and are in midst of major clean-up of everything.) Any and all feedback greatly appreciated including extracts from user manuals sent to me at lambersonb@si.edu if you don’t want to send via forum. Thanks.

Address Accelerator

Cindy McNally — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:20:22 GMT

We are just adding this new module on and are coming up with more questions than answers. Is there someone who would be able to speak with me for a few moments regarding this module? Want to be sure we configure and utilize the most efficient way. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Cindy McNally
Central Maine Healthcare
[Email Removed]

Deceased Finder

Darrel Spacone — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:50:57 GMT

If anybody has used or is currently using the DeceasedFinder service provided by Blackbaud, would you share your experiences about this as we are currently pursuing it. Would love to hear from Hospice organizations. Thanks. Darrel C. Spacone Development Services Manager LifePath Hospice and Palliative Care 12973 Telecom Parkway, Suite 100 Temple Terrace, FL 33637 813-871-8413 813-871-8473 FAX 813-395-1199 CELL [Email Removed]

Obituary Postings

OBS07302007aMichelle OBS07302007aNaples — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:29:40 GMT

Has anyone used the Deceased Record Finder? We are looking to compare daily obit listings to our db so the constituents are properly marked deceased and relationships are confirmed. If anyone knows of a good way to compare obit listings to REdb please post a comment. Thanks, Michelle

AddressFinder

Patricia Laros — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:19:44 GMT

Does anyone out there use addressfinder and do you find it beneficial? Kingswood-Oxford School
Database Management
Gifts & Reporting
(860) 233-9631 x 2351

NOCA issues

Teresa Davis — Fri, 26 May 2006 12:31:23 GMT

Is anyone else having issues with NCOA? Do you export "Head of Households" or "both constituents separately" ?
Read the following that I have received from BB:

"results of your Address Finder Export Control Report.

I want to thank you for your patience as I researched this issue further for you. I was able to duplicate the difference in totals when I exported only the Head of Household as well. We have resolved that the processing is not functioning correctly and it will be under evaluation with our development team. After testing, I found that only people who were marked HoH were exported in the file, and this excluded single, non-married constituents.

We can create another test file together if you wish to do so. You ladies can create another export file, choosing to export both constituents separately, leaving all of the other options you had selected. This number will match the number of records processed in the report and will capture all of the records that are available to be updated."

I don't think we have been getting what we have been paying for when they tell me this - "the processing is not functioning correctly and it will be under evaluation with our development team."

It seems we have paid a rather high price for a product that we coninue to help them solve issues with. With Raisers Edge I can accept that I guess,[maybe not] but when we are paying extra for NCOA and it isnt' working correctly, does that mean for the past three years we have been paying for it and it has not been doing what it was suppose to be doing? I guess that is why we keep getting so much mail back after a large mailing. They told me it is because so many people move between the times we do our NCOA twice a year. Or people have not filled out their change of address correctly. But now I feel it is because the program has not been updating all of our preferred address.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Teresa Davis
Development Coordinator
Concordia Lutheran High School
Fort Wayne, IN

Automatically update county

Casey Hines — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 02:44:03 GMT

Does anyone know if it is possible to automatically populate the county on a constituent record once the ZIP code is entered? Will CountyFinder do this, or is that just a one time service? Thanks

Address Accelerator

Rupinder Kaur — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:21:10 GMT

Just recently i used bb services for NCOA, along with it they suggested that we should look into address accelerator. Can anyone tell me if the address accelerator really serves the purpose of validating addresses?

Address Accelerator

Harriet Farmer — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 20:39:50 GMT

I am wondering if anyone else has experienced problems with the April/May Address Accelerator (formerly known as Address Validation.) This is the second time I have had to practically turn the system inside out to get it to work. The Data Enrichment Services support seems nearly as frustrated as I am. The previous time period worked fine, but the one prior to that required manual changes to the registry. Oh how I hate when the end user becomes the tester.

Harriet Farmer
Ottawa Humane Society

April_May Address Validation aka AddressAccelerator update error 1607 on Windows 2003 Server

Andrew Gorczycki — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:35:52 GMT

error 1607:Unable to install InstallShield Scripting runtime

We overcome the install problem in simplest way possible.

This is the solution:

Install the Address Validation aka Address Accelerator update on any workstation or server. Doesn't matter if is XP or Server 2003 as long as it allows you to install.

Copy the resulting files on your server or wherever you serving the Address Validation to your users:

Address.cas
eLOT.cas
Update.exe

Then run update.exe on your server the one from which you distribute Address Validation database (you need your windows admin privileges on this server)

Problem is caused by packaging of BB install .msi for Address validation update. On Windows Server 2003 the installer ver 3.1 is an integral part of server installation and it can not be upgraded or changed by third party software.
Your install is trying to replace it with different version which causes the installation failure.

That is it.

thanks

Andrew Gorczycki
CRM Integration Analyst
Guggenheim Museum
New York
[Email Removed]
www.guggenheim.org

Data Health Center

Douglas Creek — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 20:12:07 GMT

I had some time to poke around in my test database today (which has 7.8 installed, production is still 7.71 until some more of the issues with 7.8 are resolved), and was looking at the data health center. Has anyone had the chance/time to submit their database to BB? Was it worth the time and effort, and was it pretty much you submit they see problems, and offer to let you pay for them to fix, or do they actual explain and go through the issues? Thanks! Doug Doug Creek University of Alaska Database Administrator [Email Removed]

Data Enrichment Services

Leslie Arrington — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 13:48:14 GMT

We are considering using subscribing to the AddressFinder, PhoneFinder and PeopleFinder services provided by Data Enrichment Services. Has anyone had any experience using these services? Have you found the service to be worth the cost? Have you seen a dramatic improvement in the accuracy of your database? Any comments would be helpful. Thanks.

Address Accelerator

Rupinder Kaur — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 17:39:46 GMT

i just got the NCOA updated data back from blackbaud, i used their DCASS service to get rid of all the abbreviations, but the cities still came back abbreviated. So blackbaud suggested to try their address accelerator to fix all the addresses. I was wondering if anyone has used this product, and would be able to give me their input.

--- Edited at 2/6/2006 1:39:28 PM by Rupinder Kaur

Blackbaud's Finder Products

Donna Lindauer — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 20:31:11 GMT

Does anyone currently use PhoneFinder, DeceasedRecord Finder or Email Finder? If so, what has been your experience with these products?