Whether you already use a donor database or not, somewhere, lurking on someone’s computer is a list (or many!) of donor information.
Mark & grandson Lennon our next Excel guru!
It could be event attendees, volunteer lists, your list of donors prior to having a database, OR information your volunteer is helping track from a specific campaign.
Those lists, unfortunately, get messy and rarely are they clean and organized in a way that makes them easy to import.
So what’s the answer to the question:
“How do we keep donor data ready for a database import?”
Enter my spouse, Mark, an Excel guru and donor data geek. Being passionate about data, I invited him to take on the challenge of creating a simple worksheet for people like you. We all need to have a “Mark” in our life!
He dove into the project and put together a few awesome worksheet tools for you. Please use these to keep track of your donor data so it stays organized, consistent and manageable.
Once you download the zip file,take some time to get familiar with the worksheets. Mark created them with simplicity in mind.
When you are ready to calculate donor retention, be sure to view this video before attempting to use that worksheet.
Please take care in using the worksheets exactly as each was created. Adding to them may change some of formulas and will make the worksheets less helpful and useful.
Feel free to let us know in the comments or via email what you find helpful about the worksheets.
If you don’t yet have a donor database and you have more than 100 records – it’s time to invest. Here are just a few excellent systems:
• Bloomerang
• Kindful
• Trailblazer Nonprofit Manager
Hi Lori ~ Excellent tools for donor management. What fun to see the pic of Mark in action. His instructional video is outstanding. Thanks for continuing your good work & passionate storytelling to help so many others reach their goals!
So good to hear from you, Pat! I’m delighted to hear you found Mark’s tools helpful. A warm hug to you!