Patient data is the cornerstone to a strategic, strong Grateful Patient Program.  Even more important is what you do with that data after you get it.  How will you store it? Does it line up with what you have now? How will you update it?  Do you need to move it anywhere else? 

The tools to move and store your data are crucial.  They control accuracy, timeliness and maneuverability.  You need to be able to rely on the information coming through, how long it takes to get it there and how easy it is to update when you need to.  

And at each point you need to assess your intention with the data.  What do you need and what don’t you?  Simplify your organization’s selected data points and assess where the prospect can instead more strongly self-identify, such as through engagement points.

You may also find that patient data is needed in more than one place.  More than likely your Principal and Major Gift Program can use patient data just like your Annual Fund Program can use it.  The data points may differ or be used differently, but their core value is the same.  The information helps determine who to ask and when, who to move through the pipeline and who to steward where they are, providing a stronger ROI for the overarching fundraising program. 

The What

Among Blackbaud users, there is a common list of tools that help the organization manage that data workflow.  Often that workflow is moving copious amounts of configured information from one system to the other and then back again.  It goes from system to system like this, encountering possible points of error or audit in between each move.  

It’s grueling and time intensive, even with the right tools.  But those tools can be leveraged and if leveraged in the right way, can make the process efficient, accurate and transparent.  

With cloud tools starting to replace databases of old, many products now offer two options to meet the needs of both formats.  Cloud options, being newer, often lack the same capacity and functionality of databases, or don’t connect to 3rd party systems in the same way.

Here are some common workflows that leverage the most used tools by Blackbaud users:

There are, of course, many workflow configurations and tools, all that need to meet the unique needs of the organizations. These are just a few examples.

The workflows might look complicated, or maybe they look straight-forward enough.  Either way the most important piece of each of these isn’t in the diagrams themselves, but in the detail and configuration placed in each transfer and how they align with the systems they’re going to. 

 Ultimately, the detail that controls what you see and how accurate it is.

The Who

Developing these workflows is not the work of one person or even two.  It takes a team of people composed of those responsible for maintaining or working with the data in the workflow.  This might include prospect research, gifts processing, data administration, annual giving, major gifts, communications and more.  

There are pieces that each arm of the fundraising program may appreciate the opportunity to leverage. Include them in the discussion, mapping review and testing.  That feedback is invaluable to how the workflow is effectively built.