Deceased

, , , , , ,

Return to Sender and mail marked deceased do not self-process

Return to SenderIt fascinates me when I walk through many non-profit organisations and I see AUS Post bins overflowing with pieces marked Return to Sender (RTS) and deceased. Some of this mail has been in these bins for so long it is collecting dust. Bins of RTS and mail marked deceased do not self-process. Your team must take immediate action in CRM.

Take Action Now

Take action in the following order:

  1. Sort the mail into the broad categories of RTS and Deceased.  Further sort each into piles of your constituents or constituents from rental/exchanged lists.
  2. For your constituents, look up each constituent in your CRM. Mark the record as RTS or deceased and document any further information known.
  3. For constituents from rental or exchanged lists, enter those IDs and whether deceased or RTS into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
    • Return this list to your list broker to take further action from the list owner, including marking deceased on their database.
      • You will want to get financial credit from the broker for both the deceased and RTS records rented to your organisation. Why pay for names which were not deliverable?

Not taking the action, above, will mean you will continue to mail to the same bad addresses and the same deceased people. The net result is a waste of materials and postage. People who are not reachable and people who have died will continue to support your organisation at the same rate as they are at present = not at all.

You owe it to your constituents to manage your data properly and each non-profit organisation owes it to one another to maintain data before renting or exchanging names with other charitable organisation.

 

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Data cleansing is task #1 when preparing for your Christmas Appeal

Dirty DataThere has been a lot of talk about upcoming Christmas Appeal. It may be August, but non-profit organisations are already preparing their data files and copy for what becomes the second most important campaign of the year for most charities. As part of those tasks, it’s not too late for non-profits to conduct data cleansing. Data hygiene is task #1 when preparing your Christmas Appeal.

Some non-profit organisations take the important step to cleanse their data, while many others do not. Those non-profit organisations who perform data cleansing, perform this task at least one time per year.

Data cleansing includes, but is not limited to, high level activities such as:

  • National Change of Address (NCOA).
  • De-duplication of constituent records.
  • Data enrichment, including:
    • Deceasing flags for records
    • Do not mail flag.
    • Do not call flag.
  • Other important mass data management practices.

As suggested in prior FundraisingForce blog posts, dirty data gets you nowhere…except broke. Proper data cleaning prior to dropping the all-important tax and Christmas appeals is a non-negotiable. Do you put this in the “too hard” basket? Hire an expert like FundraisingForce who will guide you through the process, management of suppliers, and develop a process for you to follow for years to come.

Don’t assume someone else will do this task – whether you are assuming the mail house does it or someone else on your internal team. Develop a process to get this task done and to ensure the cleansed data makes it was back to your organisations CRM. To merely cleanse the file for the appeal and to not load the clean data back to the CRM (a common mistake made by charitable organisations) is like cleaning your child and putting them back on the playground.

, , , , , , , , , ,

Prepare your direct mail file for Christmas – tasks to complete…now

Christmas is ~200 days away.  Seem like a long time? It will be here before we know it. With the tax appeal now behind you (for the most part), it is time to prepare your direct mail file for Christmas.

Why so early?

You will need the end of year file in September/October. That is approximately 3-4 months away.  You likely have ample data hygiene to do prior.

Tasks to do before Christmas Appeal is ready

  1. Analyse 2018 Tax
    • Australian charitable organisations do not analyse their appeals results enough.
    • How can you make decisions about 2018 Christmas without first evaluating 2018 Tax.
    • Evaluate:
      • Overall appeal
      • Each segment
      • Compare 2018 Tax to the past three tax appeals.
    • Need help to analyse your 2018 Tax Appeal?
  2. Return to Sender (RTS)
    • Be certain to handle all return to sender.
    • Mark the address RTS.
    • Develop a plan to acquire the addresses for these lost constituents.
    • Encourage all staff to CEE every record.
  3. Deceased
    • Be certain to handle any mail that came back with the constituent marked as deceased.
    • Develop a plan to screen your entire database for deceased.
  4. NCOA/Deceased
    • Engage with one of the top data firms to conduct a national change of address (NCOA) process across your data file.
      • Consider: Acxiom, Experian, and Conexum.
    • Ensure you include any possible constituents who may be part of the data universe for 2018 Christmas.
    • Engage with The Australian Bereavement Register to screen your data for other deceased.
  5. Segmentation
    • Segment your data!
    • You’d be surprised the number of Australian charities that send the same package to all constituents without slicing and dicing their data file to monitor and measure results.
    • Need help to segment your file?
      • Hire an expert.
  6. Prepare a “kill file”/Suppression File
    • Prepare a last minute do not mail, do not contact, do not solicit, and deceased file to ensure any of these constituents are removed from the marketing effort as requested.
    • Your data will be delivered to the mail house weeks prior to the mail date.
      • You want to ensure anyone is removed who made such a request.

If you do the above thoroughly, it very well may take you 3 months. Get busy!

, , ,

Mailing to deceased – there’s no excuse

FundraisingForce recently conducted an acquisition mailing for an Australian charity. The charity rented lists via a list broker. The day after the appeal dropped, dozens of next of kin placed telephone calls informing the charity their loved one had died. In some cases, their loved one had died years prior. The impact of the deceased mail continued for the next two weeks as more calls were received by the nonproit organisation.

It is typical for some deceased and bad addresses to be included in a charity’s acquisition appeal. It happens whenever charities rent mailing lists and depends greatly on the quality of the data received.

In regards to deceased, these calls are, at best, uncomfortable for the next of kin to make and for the charity to receive. In some cases, these calls are embarrassing to the charity despite the fact the charity has simply rented the names via a reputable list broker. Finally, in most cases, these calls are not necessary and would not occur if charities banded together to manage their data lists. Here’s how:Snip20160606_2

  • Ensure your charitable organisation has systems in place to properly mark deceased constituent records.
  • Make certain all staff in the organisation understand the internal process to implement the established procedures.
  • Ensure deceased are not passed to list brokers when your charitable organisation rents or exchanges data with other charitable organisations – whether via a list broker or on your own.
  • Use one of the services available in Australia to pass data to remove any known deceased from the list to be mailed.
  • Add the deceased names to your database, along with their last known address, and code them “deceased”.
    • The above will allow for a procedure to remove any known deceased from rental lists in the future.
    • Track the source of the deceased knowledge.
  • Track and report all deceased back to your list broker.
    • This will ensure removal for future mailings and also gain credit for deceased names rented to your charity in the first place.
    • Too many charities do not report deceased rented to them back to the list broker.
    • Non-reporting simply continues the cycle for the next of kin and for other charities.

This is not merely a charity responsibility. Next of kin also have a responsibility to report deceased to the various Australian services to ensure their loved ones do not receive mail. Service include:

If each of us, charitable organisations and next of kin alike, do our fare share and create processes and procedures such as those mentioned above, we can greatly diminish the number of deceased who are mailed and the painful impact on the next of kin.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mailing to deceased? Your non profit organisation lacks best practices

Return to SenderThere is nothing worse than sending a deceased person mail. First, it stirs up emotions when a loved one receives a letter addressed to a person who has since passed. Second, it sends a message that your non-profit organisation lacks best practices. I recently posted, on LinkedIn, about the number of charities not taking the extra steps to remove deceased from their CRM/database – reactively or proactively. The post received a high number of comments. Perhaps it was a little too close to home for some.

This past month, I visited some people in the US in the state of Florida. The husband of the couple visited was the executor for an estate. Let’s call the deceased Mrs Bloggs. Mrs Bloggs has been deceased for more than five years. Yet, the household continues to receive charity mail in her name. Again, Mrs Bloggs has been deceased for more than five years.

IMG_0534What’s even worse is this household has notified the charities of her death. The couple have returned notices in the response envelopes with the response coupons. In some cases, charities have been notified 2-3 times. These same charities, and others, continue to mail to Mrs Bloggs.

The charities are risking offending the survivors, as well as their reputation through poor processes, wasted materials, and postage.

US charities have an even bigger advantage over Australian charities in that the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) exists, which is national register of deaths. When someone passes away in the US, it is a requirement the death is reported to the US government. The end result means all deaths are documented on the SSDI. US charities have access to this list to screen their database through a variety of suppliers.

In Australia, the Australian government does not yet have anything compared to the SSDI. Yet, Conexum has The Australian Bereavement Register (TABR), which is a strong product and increasing in capabilities each year. Additionally, suppliers will match your database against the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) list of deceased individuals. This list is developed via notifications sent to ADMA. Any person may document a death via the ADMA website or we may call or write ADMA direct.

Charities have a responsibility to do the following:

Reactive documentation:

  • Document notifications of death in their constituent relationship management (CRM)/database. When charities are notified of deaths from survivors:
    • Document date of notification, method of notification, and date of death.
  • Notify list brokers of deaths. Pass information to list brokers when charities are notified of deceased parties on various lists rented or received via exchange.
    • Notification to list brokers should include date charity notified by next of kin, method of notification, and date of death.

Proactive documentation:

  • Screen your non profit organisation’s CRM/database using SSDI, for US charities, or TABR, for Australian charities.
    • Screen at least one time per year. Better yet, screen prior to all major mailings.
      • Screen your CRM/database, plus any lists rented for acquisition purposes.

Acquisition Preparation

You would never rent thousands of names without deduping them against your database to ensure you were not marketing to existing donors. Take it a step further. Whenever your organisation rents or exchanges names via a list broker, ensure you de-duplicate all known deceased from your CRM/database. Save your organisation the embarrassment of mailing to known deceased people despite the fact the lists may be dirty from a broker or from a charity. Then, report deceased back to the broker to save your colleagues from embarrassment, as well.

Those of us who work for charities have been on the receiving end of the calls when people are upset because we have erroneously mailed to their deceased loved ones. If everyone takes an active role, in the New Year, in terms of deceased processing, we can vastly improve processes and ensure we decrease the number of times deceased persons are marketed.

Need help with your deceased processes? FundraisingForce assists charities globally to improve deceased processes and others. Contact us today.

, , , , , ,

Bar coding and scanning – not simply for consumer goods

Barcode scanningBar coding and scanning is not simply for consumer goods. Best practice charities in the not-for-profit sector use bar coding and scanning to process donations and for other tasks including:

  • Creating new supporter records.
  • Marking records as deceased.
  • Marking records return to sender (RTS).
  • Processing supporter survey results.

Bush Heritage Australia sent an appeal to me last week. The response device features a bar code for ease in processing.Bush Heritage

Bar codes save time and also reduce error ratios. Is your not-for-profit organisation using bar codes to create efficiencies in your organisation? Any supporter relationship management (SRM) system worth your investment ought to have facilities to produce and accept bar codes.