Maintaining Data Accuracy

Accurate data is necessary to maintain meaningful contact with your constituents. Unfortunately, ensuring up to date data is difficult for several reasons:

• Data decays at 25% a year as people move, change jobs, and more.
• Reminding an alma mater of their changing information is last on someone’s mind as they go through these major life changes.
• Constituents aren’t inclined to give you their data if they don’t see a reason behind it. Your alumni don’t want to just be considered for donations. What are you doing for them?

Understanding the challenges to accurate data helps you to address the issue head on.

An “update your information” tab on your alumni site will have limited success because your alumni will not actively navigate to your site to update you on their life changes. They also don’t know what information you do or do not have on file.

Wavelength’s Solution: “Confirm Your Data.” Send personalized emails to your users with the information you do have on file for them. Provide a unique URL to the constituent to click in and make changes easily. (Wavelength’s convenient mail merge does this all for you!)

You may face push back when requesting accurate data from your constituents if you do not have a reason behind needing this information. Why should an alum update you? What will you do with this information and is their data privacy maintained?

Wavelength’s Solution: Data forward features. Foster constituent engagement by showing them the perks of information. Provide your community with map based search prompting networking opportunities, reconnections with classmates, and the ability for you as a school to better target your outreach to your users.

Retaining alumni engagement takes a concerted effort and a diverse feature offering is required to be relevant to a wide range of alumni ages and interests. Data updates should be linked with other alumni engagement initiatives so you continue to have your alumni return over time.

Wavelength’s Solution: Be there when and where your alumni need you. Offer opportunities for local gatherings, classmate reunions, career opportunities, and volunteering so that a wide variety of alumni feel like you are there for them. Wavelength isn’t a replacement for social media or a content zone for your alumni. Our platform is here for when your constituents want to actively engage with your community.

So, when you think about your data, how are you maintaining up to date information? Do you have a strategy moving forward?