Part 1 in a multi-part series

Any organization with more than one source of supporter information has run into this problem: The same person volunteers at a client site, donates to your annual fund, and buys tickets to your gala. How is that a problem, you might ask? Isn’t that every nonprofit’s dream? It is… unless you don’t know that the same person did all three things. Without knowing that key bit of information, you can send a welcome letter to a long-term volunteer, ask someone who just paid $500 for a gala ticket for a $10 annual gift, or miss an opportunity to invite your highly-skilled gala attendee to use her unique gifts to directly serve your mission. Finding out about these connections too late isn’t a dream – it’s a nightmare.

Defining the Dream

Master Data Management (MDM) is the key to knowing. MDM refers to the collection of standards, policies, business processes and technologies that allows your organization not only to know who you interact with across multiple databases and services, but to define and manage a single source of truth for that person’s key data – like name, address, email and phone number. It is the methodology you use to know who people are and how they engage with your organization.

The central idea of Master Data Management is that in order to effectively reconcile key information across the organization, you must first define a “master record” for every shared data element. Master records are strictly controlled and managed. All similar records, regardless of which database or application they are related to, then refer to the master record as their source of truth when updating, formatting, adding, deleting or otherwise manipulating the data included on the master record. The result is an non-duplicated universe of records with consistent associated data (like name, address and phone number).

A Master Data Management plan can be broken into two sections:

1. Standards and Policies
2. Business Processes and Technologies.

Standards and Policies establish the rules for creating and managing master records for each type of information (ex. clients, customers, or products). This includes defining the data elements that will be included in each master record and shared across the organization. Business Processes and Technologies do the work of enforcing the rules. This includes reconciling duplicate records, managing changes to key data elements over time, and enforcing security – across all the applications and databases within the purview of MDM. Together they are your Master Data Management plan.

Defining Standards and Policies

When creating a Master Data Management plan, you must first establish the standards this plan will help you adhere to. The following questions can help you develop your standards:

• What defines a “matching” or duplicate record?
  • For example: are two records with the same first name, last name and email, but with different addresses, duplicate records? Is the answer different if one address is blank?
• What should happen when a duplicate record is identified?
  • For example: should incoming data be merged onto the master record? If so, what should happen if some of those data elements are conflicting, such as the incoming address doesn’t match the address on the existing master?
• What are the data elements that make up a “master record?”
  • For example: do these data elements include name, address, email, phone number and/or type of supporter?
• How should the data on the master record be standardized?
  • For example: should street names be standardized (“Street” vs. “St.”)?
• Who can create, read, update and/or delete master records?
  • For example: which department “owns” the master data? Are there special privacy concerns around viewing any subset of data (as would be the case if you stored information about minors, or protected health information)?
• What applications can create, read, update and/or delete master records?
  • For example: should a phone number from a record entered online directly by a supporter overwrite the phone number on the master record?
• How should data be shared across applications?
  • For example: do all applications under MDM’s purview receive a copy of all the master data elements, or just a subset?

Once established, these standards should be documented and owned by a single department or team tasked with overall data governance. Data governance policies determine who owns the standards, and how they can be changed over time. Data governance includes enforcing the data management standards, resolving conflicts, managing the strategy, and ensuring the quality of your organization’s data.

Summary & Conclusions

As you can see, some of the questions above may lead to larger conversations about organizational structure, overall governance policies, and how information is “owned” throughout your organization. These broader conversations and the resulting decisions are critical to the success of a Master Data Management plan. As an outcome of your efforts, you will be able to thank your volunteer for becoming a first-time donor, identify that gala participant as a potential major donor, and find new ways to engage people.