Data - Collection, Retention, and Destruction

Data – one of the most important assets for a non-profit. Besides Heart, Sweat, and Generosity of course.

For a few years now, non-profit organizations have realized that data is integral to achieving our goals. The realization of the importance of data is also high on the minds of many fundraisers. However, how we think about data is more significant than that. As an industry, we must start entrenching the concepts of data collection, retention and destruction policies. 

If you are a non-profit leader or advancement services individual reading this article, let's start by outlining what we mean. 

Data practices should consist of three key areas. 

Data Collection

WHAT kind of data is your organization collecting, and WHY is your organization collecting "this" particular piece of data?

For example, if you are an independent school collecting grandparent contact information. That's great. However, WHY do you need this data? How is it used? If it is not assisting you in general operations, then you are taking the risk of holding personal data without any of the benefits.

Therefore, we often recommend doing a Data Audit. Go through every piece of data in your database and critically ask, WHAT this data is and WHY you need it. Yes, this is a time-consuming task. Not a task that can be accomplished all at once. Eat the elephant one bite at a time, as I like to say.

However, if you go back to your mission, vision, and strategic plan to find the WHY and WHAT it can lead to a more streamlined data base with what you actually care about. Something else that will come out of this process are data points that you are not collecting but should be collecting. 

Data Retention

HOW long should you hold on to each piece of data and HOW should this data be stored?

Each of us needs a Data Security policy where we outline HOW we care for the data we possess. This policy will also cover questions like; Is your current database the right place for all the data in it? Does your data sit in a temporary holding tank? Is that secure enough? How do you track the age of your data? Depending on where you live and the type of data it might be, there may be some industry regulations your organization should adhere to.

For example, if you are in Canada, the main regulation your organization will fall under is CASL compliance or anti-spam laws. This regulation was created for the for-profit space, but the non-profit space is also governed by CASL guidelines.

CASL has a strong focus on communications and when you have the right to communicate with your constituents. Thus, it is important to work with your communications department to create robust unsubscribe tools and to ensure that you stay up to standard with how you store contact data and use it.

You can find further discussions of this topic here.

Data Destruction

HOW will you destroy or remove data you no longer need?

You may ask yourself why you would destroy any data. Record bands can be a reason since the size of your database can change how much you have to pay for it. But the bigger one is what we mentioned before, if there is no benefit to the data there is only risk. Thus, while Data Destruction is relatively new to the non-profit industry it is important to understand and discuss.

So, this is the big question for you, when is it time to delete a record? First, begin by defining the guidelines of when data should be removed from your system(s). For example, deceased records without any endowment or bequest information associated with it. Suppose the deceased record is over 7 years old. Is it time to remove this record? If your donor has not given to your organization in over 5 years and has no giving history. As you go through this process, your organization will likely come up with other examples.  

Once you have defined deletion criteria your organization will need to think about who can do this, what kind of safety protocols will be implemented to ensure accuracy, and how you will remove this data. 

Conclusion 

These tasks sound daunting, but they are essential to embark on if we want to be good stewards of our donor data. Break down the task into small amounts of time. Take the time to size up the project and who should be involved. These are not tasks to tackle individually. Many of these questions will require in-house and external professionals to help walk you through these questions and other scenarios.

We would be happy to discuss what these processes often look like and how best to structure them to be successful! Reach out to us here.

If you would like us to tackle a topic or problem of interest to you, in these articles, please let us know here.

Sentinel Consulting is a consulting firm that focuses on helping non-profits strengthen their operational efficiency. We speak the same language as our clients because we were all fundraisers at some point in our careers.