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Possible deletion of database records

  • 1.  Possible deletion of database records

    Posted 26 days ago

    Hello all!

     

    We have been approached by our database vendor (Blackbaud) that we have outgrown our current record band (up to 75,000 constituent records) and now we either need to update our contract to the next level (up to 100,000 records) or reduce the number of records we currently have.  We have never addressed the idea of constituent record deletion before and I'm more than a little uncomfortable in this process.  Is there an industry standard that any of you have used to delete records?  I understand that we would never want to delete alumni records or anyone who has made a gift to the institution.  However, I'm wondering what criteria others have used when approached by such a situation.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

     

    Scott

     

     

    Scott L. Billhartz '85

    Director of Donor and Prospect Management

    McKendree University

    701 College Road

    Lebanon, IL 62254

    (618) 537-6869

    slbillhartz@mckendree.edu

    www.mckendree.edu

     

     

     

     

    Forward_1_web

     

    Providing a high quality educational experience to outstanding students.

    Academic Excellence--Engagement--Responsible Citizenship--Lifelong Learning

     

    Description: Description: McKendree-Logo-for-email-si

     



  • 2.  RE: Possible deletion of database records

    Posted 26 days ago
    Scott,

    I have only been in my role for three years.  When we reached the 50,000 threshold a year ago, we opted to upgrade to the next level.  However, I understand that our institution has made the other choice several times in the past.

    Their priorities where to eliminate:
     - friends who had never given
     - deceased parents who have never given
     - deceased alumni who had never given
     - parents over age XX who have never given
     - anyone deceased who had only given 1 gift

    This time around it was perceived that we wished to grow our constituent pool rather than continue to trim.

    Joel



    Joel Clasemann (he, him, his)

    Director of Advancement Services


    jclasema@css.edu | 218-723-6479

    css.edu/campaign



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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Possible deletion of database records

    Posted 26 days ago
    The general approach to record deletion has shifted somewhat these days, as more organizations have become responsive to GDPR and more generally to data lifecycle and data privacy and minimization concerns. The guiding question is whether you have a business need for the data.

    A few additional points:
    1. Do you need the data in RE? You can certainly save backups to other repositories. This may allow you to offload data from RE that you want to store, but that you do not need access to in RE
    2. A quick analysis to compare your potential deletable records vs your rate of record growth is helpful. You may find that you're growing a lot faster than any reasonable deletion will make room for. This is a common outcome in our experience.
    3. The rate of record growth is generally higher as we have gotten better at integrating more systems and we're doing more registrations of various kinds electronically. A strong practice of purging not-so-useful records collected from webinars and the like, and of deduplicating is required to keep record growth under control.


    Thank you,
    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    Sage70, Inc.
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

    Schedule a 30-minute consultation now:




    Original Message