If you’re reading this, my guess is you’re someone who has been tasked with figuring out how to get fundraising data from one place to another or building a workflow.  It can be a daunting thing.  After all, you're talking about many points of information that need to consistently be accurate while getting places as quickly as your organization needs. 

So, where do you start when you need to build a workflow?

First, start with mapping out all the places the data will live.   It likely won’t be all the data moving from place to place.  This is just the beginning to a map that will show where and what you should be cognizant of when applying the specifics to your organization.  

Raiser’s Edge is represented here twice.  This is a helpful visualization to understand that data may need to go into and back out of certain systems, like what you might use for your email program.

Here’s another representation of Workflow Example 1.  You can see now that data exchanges with the email platform bi-directionally.   There’ll be information that the email platform requires to send a message, but also different demographics, giving and/or patient data that inform segmentation.  

And there will be pieces of information that’s important to take out of the email platform and record in your source of truth (i.e. Raiser’s Edge), such as: email solicitations, engagement and unsubscribes.  These pieces can help build a stronger pipeline of major gift prospects because you now have a measure of direct interaction with the organization.

Now that you know where the data will be stored, it’s time to determine how it’s going to get from place to place.  While leveraging each platform’s import/export features is possible, it’s much more effective to use a product like Omatic, which integrates with many Blackbaud products.  Your information will move faster and more accurately, while allowing for frequent updates, if needed.

You have your map.  Now the tougher and more complicated piece, identifying the “what.”  

Each time you’re moving data between systems or through a 3rd party platform, stop and consider:

• Constituent matching using IDs and/or demographics

• Duplicate management plan

• Field to field match-up and how that information will be translated

• If moving PI or PHI, ensure it’s compliant with legal and organization standards

• Maintain a standard level of security with who and how data gets moved

• Make a plan to keep the workflow up-to-date through regular data and process audits

It’s important to note that no matter how you’re moving the data, it will require more than one file.  Fields in platforms are not made equal, the same way they aren’t made equal between different platforms.  

In cases like Omatic, if you’re planning to move constituents, gifts, event info, emails, surveys, peer-to-peer fundraising - all of that requires separate processes.  Those processes each have field mapping and data translation requirements.

This is the most time-consuming part of building the workflow.  Building it should involve both the data managers and the people responsible for using the data in any of the affected systems.  

It will take time, testing and revisions, but ultimately getting it right will improve your ability to be strategic.