Inheriting Donor Data? A Simple Guide to Getting Organized
In many small nonprofits, stepping into a new fundraising role means inheriting donor data from various sources and past team members. You might be handed spreadsheets, donation records, or a donor database, but no clear system. Some files are outdated, some are duplicated, and some are missing key details.
If that sounds familiar, you’re not the only one. Many small nonprofits work with systems that were built over time by different staff, volunteers, or board members. So when you inherit donor data, you don’t need to fix everything at once. Start by figuring out what you have and what you need based on your goals. And in this article, we’ll walk through simple steps to help you get organized using tools most teams already have.
Take Inventory Based on Your Goals
Before you clean or organize your data, you will need to see what is there. Depending on your fundraising goals, this will help you figure out what you actually need. For example, if your goal is to run a year-end campaign, you’ll want to know who gave last December, who hasn’t given yet this year, and who might be due for a follow-up. If your goal is to improve donor stewardship, you might consider looking at your donor retention rate or the number of repeat donors. Your data should match the kinds of questions you’ll need to answer.
Additionally, you should identify your data sources which means, where is your data coming from? Is it donations from your website, a third-party platform, spreadsheets, email lists, or a donor database? Knowing where your data comes from helps you understand how reliable it might be, and it’s the first step to getting it organized.
Prioritize Contact Information and Key Giving Data
You do not need a lot of information to get started, and you can begin by collecting a few key details. Contact information allows you to reach donors, volunteers, or supporters so you can communicate, share updates, and stay in touch. The date of a donation and the amount of the donation are also important, since they help you track giving history and identify patterns over time.
These fields including contact information, date, and amount are more useful than they might seem. You can personalize your communications with a donor’s name instead of using “Dear Donor.” And, with the date and amount of each donation, you can use simple statistics to calculate average gift size, identify seasonal giving patterns, and spot donors who give consistently over time.
If you are missing contact information, flag those records for follow-up. If you are missing donation dates or amounts, check your original records such as donation confirmations, emails, or exports. Even incomplete data can start to be useful once it’s all in one place.
Fix One Data Issue at a Time
Cleaning your data can be a large task, so do not try to fix everything at once. If you are working in Excel or Google Sheets, you can use filters and conditional formatting to help spot issues. You can begin with duplicate data, since that can skew your data and lead to communications being sent more than once, or generating inaccurate reports. Next, look for missing information to make sure you have your supporters’ contact details. Finally, check for formatting issues such as inconsistent date formats, province abbreviations, or donor names to keep things consistent and easier to work with.
Here are a few common cleanup tasks worth fixing:
Standardize date formats (e.g., YYYY-MM-DD).
Check for missing contact information such as email addresses.
Merge duplicate records carefully, preserving donation history.
Once you have fixed these basics, your data will be easier to manage.
Build a Master Spreadsheet with Donor History
If your data is currently split across multiple sources consider consolidating into one file. You can always keep the original sources as backups. Ideally, you’ll want a single place where you can see the full history of your donors. If you are using spreadsheets, this means creating a master spreadsheet that includes each donor’s giving history, communications, and activities. This helps you track giving over time, spot trends, and make more data-driven decisions.
Once your master spreadsheet is in place, you can start to look at each donor more closely by building a simple donor profile, which is a summary of key details about one of your donors, or an individual who supports your work in other ways. And, it makes it easier to understand how each person has interacted with your organization over time, and is pulled directly from your main spreadsheet. It might include:
Contact information: This helps you stay in touch with donors, volunteers, or supporters whether by email, phone, or mail.
Total number of donations: This shows how often someone has given, which can help you spot long-time supporters or those who give regularly.
Average donation amount: This gives you a sense of typical gift size and helps you plan future campaigns or set realistic fundraising goals
Notes: These details help you remember how someone has connected with your organization. For example, did they give to a specific campaign, attended an event, or volunteered. It’s a simple way to personalize your communication and build stronger relationships.
By having a master spreadsheet, it also becomes easier to onboard new staff or volunteers since all of the donor history is stored in one central location. That way, new team members can quickly find the information they need and understand how your donors have supported your work over time.
Once your donor history is consolidated, you can start using it to guide your fundraising decisions. In our video Using Data to Create an Effective Fundraising Strategy, we walk through how to spot loyal supporters, tailor outreach, and build campaigns based on the data you already have.
Use Data Validation to Stay Organized
Once your data is cleaned and organized, it helps to set a few basic rules to keep things uniform and this is often referred to as data validation. It is a way to keep entries consistent, and help prevent future errors, especially if multiple people are entering data. For example:
Set date fields to accept only one format. For example, your dates may be entered like YYYY-MM-DD.
Use dropdowns for certain fields such as gift type to keep entries uniform. This ensures that entries such as “one-time gift” or “in-kind gift” are always written the same way, which makes reporting and filtering much easier.
Limit number fields to accept only numbers. For example, donation amounts should only allow numeric entries, not text, to avoid calculation errors.
Data validation helps keep your spreadsheet accurate and easier to manage as your team grows. It also reduces the time spent fixing errors or tracking down missing details.
Inheriting donor data when you're new may be a little challenging, but with a clear system in place, it becomes much easier to manage your data. By taking inventory based on your fundraising goals, identifying where your data comes from, cleaning it up, centralizing it, and standardizing how new information is entered, you can build a system that works for your team. Start small, stay consistent, and even a few simple changes can make your data easier to manage and more useful over time.
Looking for a simpler way to manage donor data? Our software Chronicle is built for small nonprofits that use spreadsheets or informal systems to track donor and supporter information. It helps you stay organized, in a user-friendly format that doesn’t require a big team. If you’re ready to move beyond spreadsheets, explore how Chronicle can support your team and simplify your fundraising work.
