Do you ever want to break up with your database? Sit it down and give it the "It's not you, it's me," speech? Ever thought that it might actually be you? I've been working in the nonprofit technology world since 2004 and I've met many organizations who want to break up with their databases. Sometimes it's the database's fault, but sometimes the organization is doing things that makes the database suck. In this series I've talked about what could happen if you don't have any standards or if you keep secret stashes. In this third installment I'm going to talk about... [More]

Since you clicked on the link to this blog post, chances are you are having trouble with your database, or maybe you know someone who does. Well you aren't alone. In this series we're looking at three things that can make your database suck be less than ideal. Last time we looked at what happens to your database when you have no standards. Today we're going to look at...

Part Two: Secret Stashes [More]

Some people hate their databases. If you are one of those people, it's OK to admit it. This post is a safe space. Having worked in the nonprofit technology world since 2004, I've met a lot of people who, for one reason or another, hate their database.

I want you to love your database.
In this three-part series, I'll be looking at three of the most common things that cause problems with nonprofit databases and CRMs - and how you can fix them. [More]

The Center for Youth Development (CYD), an organization housed within the University of Minnesota and consisting of many smaller units, had a lot of contacts and relationship data to manage. They tracked program participants, event registrations across many types of events, professional colleagues, and committees, to name a few. The problem was, every unit - and in some cases each staff member within a unit - had their own way to track the data. While they may have stopped short of labeling these files rogue databases, the Center's fragmented data management system was not as systematic as they wanted it to be. According to Dale Blyth, who was Associate Dean at the time, "As the programs and technology evolved, everyone found a solution. But they were all different and idiosynchratic, based on the staff member's expertise and history. We wanted to do it in a more unified way." [More]

What's the big deal about rogue databases? This is the second post in a short series I'm writing on Rogue Databases: those spreadsheets and contact files that exist outside of your "official" database. Last time, we listed some of the reasons rogue databases keep cropping up. In this post, we'll cover a few ways they can hurt you, and benefits of controlling them.

How rogue databases hurt you

In general, rogue databases can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities. Here are a few ways this can take shape: [More]