Data Entry in Donor Perfect: PVSWiki

Table of Contents

Accurate data entry is vital to the existence of Vote Smart. It is through the membership department that Vote Smart's income flows. Much of the mail that goes out to members is sent as bulk mail which will not be returned to the office. Therefore, if we make one mistake (mix up numbers in the zip code, drop a number from the address, or enter the wrong state) we will lose contact with this member. If a member's name is misspelled, we are risking offending a member or losing them. If we ignore a request or question from a member, they may choose to no longer support our work because we came off as rude.

To encourage accuracy, we have a few policies intended to reduce mistakes:

Take your time. Your goal is not to maximize speed, but to minimize errors.
Take a 5 minute break away from your computer every hour of data-entry.
If you are unsure of how to handle a situation, ask your Supervisor.
Never delete a record. No one has authority to delete a record unless directed to do so by RK.
Make sure you are paying attention to detail and not leaving anything unfinished. DO NOT put unfinished things inside of your desk, in the safe, etc. Finish them and file them accordingly.

Entering Donations into Donor Perfect

Before you start the data entry, make sure there is a full name (as much as you can find) and a full address on the front of the envelope. Every envelope should have these pieces of information. Any extra information (email addresses, phone numbers) should also be written on on the front of the envelope, to make sure it is added into the record and 3rd checked.

IMPORTANT: Ensure that your default settings (if they are set) are appropriate for your particular gift. Failure to change default settings is one of the MOST common mistakes!

Entering donations into DonorPerfect is our “second check” after opening and recording the mail.

Finding the member's record

Log into donorperfect.net using your login information.
Search for the person using their address, using the top search bar.

This is to make sure their address is up to date. If you can’t find them by searching for the address, then their address has probably changed. We want to identify changes in address so that we don't lose those members.
Because abbreviations of streets are not consistent, avoid including these in your search. Search for 123 Anywhere, not 123 Anywhere Street.

If there is no record for the person you are looking for:

Click on “advanced search” and fill in different search parameters to try and find the person.

Keep in mind that a wife may be under her husband's name.

DP will return every record that contains the entered characters in order from left to right. Say you're searching by last name: if you enter "Smith", it will return all of the "Smith"s, "Smithies," "Smithers", etc.However, if you enter "Smithe", it will not return any of the "Smith"'s. This means that you want to enter as little in each of the fields as will return a unique result.

You would not want to enter a search query for:

Last Name: Smith
First Name: Joseph
City: Saint Louis
State: MO

Try Instead:

Last Name: Smith
First Name: J
City:
State: MO

Why? Imagine that in our records, Joseph is actually Joe Smith, and the city is entered as St. Louis -- the search described above would not return Mr. Smith's record.

You can also search by a User ID to find a member.
Note: you can search by phone # and email address. Most useful for when an unsigned email comes into membership@.
The person MUST be a member if we mailed them, unless it was a prospecting mailing. If they are returning a mailing to our current members, then they are in the database somewhere. You should open the mailing file for that mailing and try to search for them in there.

If you cannot find the donor after doing all of the steps above, you can create a new donor page.

Adding a new donor

Near the top of the page there is a button called “Add New”
Hover over it and click on the tab that says “Individual”
Fill in as much information as possible, ACCURATELY, including their gift, then click save.
MAKE SURE YOU ADD THE MEM FLAG - if they do not have the MEM flag they will not get mailed.

Before adding a gift

!!Check Correctness of Member Info!!

Adding a gift in Donor Perfect

At this point, you should have the envelope or spreadsheet with the gift in front of you, and be in the correct donor's record.
Select the top "gift" tab and then click "add gift"
Enter in the following pieces of information:

Date of gift - This is the date the gift was received by DevComm

Should be stamped on the envelopes as part of opening the mail procedures

Payment Type:

American Express
Bank Draft EFT

ACH payments, ie. an automatic transfer of funds into our bank account. See ACH Payments

Cash
Check
Discover
Freebie

Used when we give freebies. See Unusual gifts

MasterCard
Stock

We are notified of stock donations via an email to membership@ from our Stock Brokers. See Unusual gifts

Visa

Gift Amount
Reference / Check Number

Located in the top right hand corner of a check; also the last grouping of numbers at the bottom of a check
Checks deposited in Tucson will have an "AZ" added in front of the check. Ex: AZ1234

Solicitation

The cause of the donation- usually the number in the bottom left hand corner of a remit envelope. See Solicitation Codes for more info

Sub Solicitation

R - Existing members first gift of current calendar year
D - Second or more gift of current calendar year
N - New Members
API - API Payment

Thank you letter: Remember, no one should ever get the same thank you letter twice (except for 17).

01 - First gift/ renewal of the calendar year (current renewal date is 12/06/2017)
08 - New Member
17 - Second or more gift of current calendar year
19 - Memorial Giver
20 - Memorial gift family notification
API - API subscription thank you
DT- Do Not Thank
45 - Matching gift TY
16 - Gift Membership TY
RNXX - Thank you letter for most recent fundraiser

Press "save" or the gift will not be saved.
If you have questions, including which solicitation code, sub-solicitation code, or thank you letter to use, ALWAYS ask the DevComm Director.

Have a weird data entry/ donation situation? PLEASE visit Unusual Donations you may receive

After Adding the gift in Donor Perfect

Double check your work
Write your initials and the date entered on the envelope.
Place all contents except the check or cash back in the envelope and place in your finished pile.
Place checks in the black bag in the safe, place cash in the brown bag in the safe.
If you have a credit card donation, process it in CyberSource.

Print out a receipt when it is processed.
Make sure to black out all credit card info, including expiration date!!! It is a HUGE liability for us to keep this information. Previously, we had approximately a decade's worth of boxes containing people's credit card information. These old archives have been destroyed and thousands of donations had to be gone through to destroy the credit card info.

Place the data entered and donation processed envelope in the "To be 3rd checked box." All data entry needs to be 3rd checked. See 3rd Checks for more information

Contact Notes

Any notes that are in or on the envelope must be recorded in DonorPerfect under "Contacts"

Put positive notes into “Nice things that people say about VS” spreadsheet
We want to address virtually all notes, no matter how minor. Most of these will get a P.S on the thank you letter, some will get a response from RK or AK, others will get a special letter. Make sure to save any sort of special notes that you will need to respond to during the thank you mailing

To enter a note:

Click on the “Contacts” tab then click “Create New Contact”
Fill out the appropriate fields and enter the note
If the note is very long, you can paraphrase it
Click “Save” and make sure the note has been saved.

Notes from RK or AK must be data entered then given to either RK or AK See Unusual gifts
If a Major Donor sends us a note, forward it to Adelaide via both email and the weekly packet we send with her mail - she will write a PS with her MJD letters.

Things to Remember or Look for when Data Entering

Positive notes from Members

Put positive notes into “Nice things that people say about VS” spreadsheet
We want to address virtually all notes, no matter how minor. Most of these will get a ps on the thank you letter, others will get a special letter. Make sure to save any sort of special notes that you will need to respond to during the thank you mailing

Salutation Policy (see Correctness of Member Info for more details)

Use first names when you can, unless the donor requests otherwise. Nicknames belong in the salutation box, full names belong in the “first name” and “last name” boxes

Watch out for requests for VSDM, brochures, AIR, or VIR information - these need to be put onto the materials request spreadsheet and handled! See Material Requests
Please remember to sort, stamp and rubber band all mail that arrives. Keep the mail bound with rubber bands when you put it in safe so it does not get lost.

Setting Defaults in Donor Perfect

DonorPerfect gives us a great way to save time when doing data entry - setting defaults. DO NOT set defaults until you are trained in data entry and are entering 99.99% of your donations accurately.

You're choosing defaults that are going to be true for most contributions that you'll be entering. So, for example, not every contribution in the mail will be a check, but most will, so it's fine to set the default to check and change the default when something is not a check. Use your discretion for which defaults you should set- this will be based off of the current fundraiser you are most heavily receiving.

ALWAYS leave the following fields blank when setting a default: Gift Amount, Check Number, and Fair Market Value(we don't use fair market value anyway).

Not changing defaults is the most common cause for mistakes in Data Entry. Contributions are sorted by solicitation code, however, you need to make sure that your defaults still apply if you start data entering a different code.

PVSWiki : DataEntryManual