When It Comes to Migrating Donor Data, Leave it to the Experts

So you've decided to purchase new donor management software.

You're ready to go through the sales process, training and onboarding to make it happen.

But you're dreading the data conversion; putting all those constituents, interactions and transactions into the new system from your old system.

Most vendors will offer to handle this for you, or allow you to do it yourself, either manually or through an import tool.

But diving into your data can sound daunting, and you might want to resist having someone else take a peek.

Maybe you're cost-conscious (who isn't?) or mistrusting of someone else taking a peek under the hood. It would be my first gut reaction too. It's like inviting your neighbors into your home giving them the tour and then showing them your closet or the medicine cabinet. 

Your data is a direct reflection of your current processes. In order to properly migrate not just your data but the processes in which you operate, it's paramount that you take a conversion just as seriously as you take your mission. 

The point is, without a team of experts that's dedicated to partner with you throughout the journey, going it alone can be a potentially harmful undertaking. Having messy data can upset donors, which costs you money.

Going it alone also almost always takes longer than you originally expect it to. A guided data conversion not only accelerates your way into a donor database, but once the cleaning and revision process is completed, it's much easier to keep your data clean going forward. 

You basically have two choices:

You can spend hours fiddling with data, or procrastinating to the point where you aren't leveraging the data you have.

Or you can let the experts handle it, allowing you more time to cultivate and build relationships with your donors.

The choice is yours!