NCOA

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The Importance of National Change of Address (NCOA) Processes

NCOA

Charities play a vital role in addressing societal issues and providing support to those in need. To effectively carry out their missions, charities must stay connected with their donors, supporters, and beneficiaries. One often overlooked yet essential aspect of maintaining this connection is the National Change of Address (NCOA) process. In this blog post, we will explore the significance of NCOA processes for charities and why conducting them at least annually is essential for their success.

Understanding the National Change of Address (NCOA) Process

The NCOA process is a service offered by postal services (often via a supplier partner) that helps organisations keep their mailing lists up-to-date by identifying and updating addresses for individuals and businesses that have moved. This service is particularly relevant for charities that heavily rely on direct mail campaigns to reach their donors and supporters.

Benefits of NCOA Processes for Charities

  1. Maintaining Data Accuracy: Regularly updating donor and supporter addresses ensures the accuracy of the charity’s database. This, in turn, minimises the chances of mailing materials to incorrect or outdated addresses, reducing both waste and costs.
  2. Enhancing Communication Effectiveness: By having accurate and up-to-date addresses, charities can effectively communicate with their donors and supporters. This is crucial for maintaining strong relationships, updating stakeholders on the charity’s activities, and encouraging continued support.
  3. Cost-Efficiency: Sending mail to incorrect or outdated addresses can result in wasted resources and increased postage costs. By conducting NCOA processes, charities can optimise their mailing lists, saving money and allocating resources more efficiently.
  4. Compliance with Postal Regulations: Adhering to USPS regulations is essential for any organisation that relies on postal services. Regular NCOA processing ensures that charities comply with these regulations, preventing potential penalties and disruptions in their mail delivery services.
  5. Reducing Undeliverable Mail: Outdated addresses contribute to undeliverable mail, which can negatively impact a charity’s reputation. By staying proactive with NCOA processes, charities can minimise the number of undeliverable items, maintaining professionalism and credibility.
  6. Improving Donor Retention: A charity’s ability to maintain accurate contact information demonstrates professionalism and dedication to its supporters. This, in turn, fosters trust and loyalty among donors, increasing the likelihood of continued support.

In the dynamic landscape of charitable work, adapting to change is paramount. National Change of Address processes provide charities with a simple yet effective tool to stay ahead of address changes, ensuring that their communication channels remain open and effective. By investing in NCOA processes, charities can not only save costs but also foster stronger connections with their donors, ultimately driving the success of their mission-driven initiatives. Embracing this proactive approach to data management is a small but significant step towards creating a more efficient and sustainable charitable sector.

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

coding computer data depth of field
Photo by Kevin Ku on Pexels.com

There has been a lot of talk about upcoming Christmas Appeal. How will your supporters respond given the current pandemic and the economic environment? It may be August, but smart 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 activities include, but are not limited to:

  • 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.

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.

Get ready. Christmas will be here before you know it!

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Data cleansing – it’s now or never for your Tax Appeal

Data cleansingYou have just finished the Christmas Appeal and you are already thinking tax-time, right? There is no rest time for today’s active fundraising program. Preparations for the Tax Appeal mean more than just writing copy, designing creative, and thinking about data segmentation. You also need to be thinking about data cleansing – it’s now or never.

Data cleansing activities

An overwhelming majority of charities in Australia do not regularly perform national change of address on their data file prior to a major mail out such as the Christmas or Tax Appeal. In fact, some data administrators would rather have a root canal than think about data cleansing. Let’s take the pain out of data cleansing and list the tasks which out to be done:

National Change of Address (NCOA)

Taking your file and matching it against the Australia Post PAF file is easy. Extracting the data from your CRM and matching to the PAF file is, in fact, the easy part. It does require a relationship with a supplier who may access the PAF file. Gaining new contact details for donors and prospects who have moved is a key benefit of NCOA. Further, gaining a flag for anyone who has moved and who has not made their new contact details available in the commercial space is a further benefit. New addresses mean you are able to get the Tax Appeal delivered to those you’ve lost contact with and not mailing those who you’ve lost contact with and cannot gain their new details means you will not waste postage and materials.

Data Enhancement

While you are working with a supplier to perform NCOA, take the time to enhance your data. Think about additional data elements available in the market and action the following:

  • New telephone phone numbers.
  • Validation of email addresses.
  • Acquisition of deceased, do not mail, and do not call flags.
  • Addition of presence of children and grandchildren flags.
  • Enhancement of constituent records with wealth indicators, such as property values and other holdings available.

Acquiring these enhancements will help not just with Tax Appeal, but with other campaigns in the future.

Do not delay. Action data cleansing and data enhancement now before you commence preparation of the data file for the Tax Appeal. Data cleansing and data enhancement takes time and these activities deserve the same attention as preparation of the mail pack. The results of your Tax Appeal depend on good data.

 

 

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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.

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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!

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It’s not too late for non-profits to conduct data hygiene

DataEarlier this week, I wrote a blog post about the first Christmas Appeal received this year. It’s the only one received so far, which suggests others may still be navigating the many tasks they need to complete in order to drop their Christmas Appeal. As part of those tasks, it’s not too late for non-profits to conduct data hygiene!

Assuming some charitable organisations are behind with their Christmas appeal, perhaps the reason is data hygiene. One of the single most important steps prior to the Christmas appeal drop is the need to complete hygiene.

Some non-profit organisations take the important step to cleanse their data, while others do not. Those non-profit organisations who perform data hygiene, 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 of 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 not optional. 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.

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Data cleansing before tax appeals drop

Snip20160508_43Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post suggesting tax appeals are a bit tardy this year. This may or may not be right. It is simply my opinion as a donor to more than 200 Australian charities.

Assuming some charitable organisations are behind with their tax appeal, perhaps the reason is data hygiene. One of the single most important steps prior to the tax appeal drop is the need to complete data cleansing.

Some nonprofit organisations take the important step to cleanse their data, while others do not. 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 of 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 not optional. 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.

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Expired mail redirection service

Snip20150706_32You have seen me write many times about the importance of good data hygiene and the fact that most charities do not perform good data hygiene – even once per year.

In 2014 I moved from Sydney to Brisbane. One year later I moved from Brisbane to Sydney. I have a mail redirection with Australia Post for the old Brisbane to current Sydney address. However, I have recently allowed my address forwarding from Sydney to Brisbane to expire because the result was too many mail redirection orders in with Australia Post.

What does this matter to charities? My charity mail has virtually dried up, with the exception of a couple of charities who appear to have performed data hygiene and who have matched their file with the Australia Post PAF file. This matching allowed the charities to learn of various moves where the mover opted into commercial organisations (including charities) to learn about their new address.

How many people on your file are similar to me? How many donors have you lost touch with simply because they did not share their new address with you and because your organisation does not have a best practice data cleansing process in place? You may have a stellar donor acquisition program in place, but if you do not take the time to ensure those donors stick with you (or at least you keep current with their whereabouts), the acquisition program is not worth bragging about.

Read more about data hygiene here.

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New Year – time to cleanse your data

Data-Analytics-and-Dirty-DataAs someone who has mystery shopped hundreds of charities over the past five years, I find it frustrating (and inexcusable) that few charities in Asia Pacific appear to cleanse their data in any meaningful aspect.

In fact, none of the charities in my mystery shopping study appear to have performed national change of address (NCOA) on their data set over the last year since I moved from Sydney to Brisbane in April 2014. If it was not for the mail redirection service from the Australia Post (including a renewal of the service), I would not be receiving any of this charity mail. Instead. Australia Post includes the forwarding of charity mail in the mail redirection service. Nonetheless, charities cannot depend on mail redirection for people like me to receive their mail.

When I have mentioned this situation to many charities (including those in the mystery shopping study), staff ask “why don’t you tell each charity”? My response: It is up to the charity to find me and, especially, those in the study!

It’s the new year and it is time to get your data house in order and to prepare for upcoming appeals. What is stopping your organisation from performing NCOA and other data hygiene services on your data set? Often times I hear the following reasons (and I give the following responses!):

  • No budget/What’s the return on investment
    • Your organisation invests tens of thousands (or more) in donor acquisition. Why would you want to throw that money away by not keeping track of your donors when they move. The cost to acquire a new donor is expensive. Losing contact with that new donor after, or during, the first year is even more expensive than it costs to cleans the data and to acquire a new address for the donor.
  • I’m not sure it will have a big impact on our organisation.
    • Most services, including one FundraisingForce will provide to your organisation, offer a report to educate you about the health of your data file prior to launching into any actual changes. This allows you to learn, first-hand, the healthiness fo the data, learn about changes that should be made, and determine which changes to then engage the firm in the actual changes.
  • I do not understand how this works.
    • Most staff do not understand the process let alone the simplicity of how it works. That’s why you engage an outside professional to take you through the process and someone who has performed the process thousands of times.
  • No one in my organisation is responsible for data hygiene.
    • Why not let the owner be you? You have the opportunity to be a hero in your organisation by taking ownership of the data and helping those responsible for donor retention to increase their percentage.
  • We do not have the time to even take care of the Return to Sender (RTS) mail in-house.
    • Let’s perform data hygiene on your entire file and then the RTS mail will become far less.

It pains me when I see stacks (or bins) of RTS mail in an organisation. To visualise this, replace the stack of mail with stacks of money. Wasted material, postage and staff time = stacks of money. Invest a little of that money into some internal processes when RTS mail arrives and then in data hygiene at least one time per year to see this trend reverse for your next appeal. You will not look back in regret. It’s nearly the end of January. What are you waiting for? Someone else to do it?