So, you need a database. Everyone tells you, you do. You think you do and, in truth, if you are maintaining a number of contacts as part of a fundraising or communications programme, you probably do.

So, it’s easy eh? Chat to a few people, find out what does what, roughly, and then go and get one. You know you want to keep contacts, mail them, email them maybe, keep information on them. But, do you really know what you want to do, what information you want to keep?

Before embarking on the first few steps of the new database journey, it is essential you really think about what you want a database for, how you want to use it and why you want to do it.

The “why” is the key, because there is no point in gathering information unless you know what you are gathering it for. Over the years I have seen many information gathering exercises hit a brick wall as it suddenly dawns on people they don’t know what to do with the data they have. Either disseminating it is too complicated, or there simply aren’t the resources to do it.

Thinking about the lack of end game in some individual, information gathering exercises is enough of a problem in itself. I have seen several boxes, in my time, milling around under desks, full of bits of paper prettily and artfully covered text, pictures, tick boxes etc. Invariably the word “survey” comes up.

So, it’s been created, read, re-read, approved, printed, mailed, people – “contacts” – have filled them in and dutifully sent them back, they’ve been opened…. And then? Nothing. They sit in a box. A waste of money and time. Online surveys, whilst less resource intensive to create, often fair no better.

Aside from the whys and wherefores, defining how the data is returned is another sticking point. If you don’t have the resources to input it or you are unable to or did not specify a format for any electronic data, then getting it into the database is going to be a challenge. Again, this has been a sticking point I have witnessed many times.

There are two elements here. The first is, why was the information gathered in the first place? What was its purpose and how was it intended to be used? The outcome needs to lead to something else, some kind of revelation, such as information on donors, or understanding how your organisation is perceived etc. Any information gathered should help your processes in some way.
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Secondly, understanding the data is a challenge in itself and one key area which I have seen fail in time and again, is successfully analysing the data. Assuming it has made it into some kind of database, understanding it and how to use it is a different matter. Even if you know what you want to do with it, not understanding it effectively diminishes the whole exercise.

Magnify this and apply a similar approach to getting a product to store and manipulate your data and you can end up with one messy or not-fit-for-purpose database. Your database can’t be a box that sits under a desk not affecting anyone. It is a massive investment, both financially and in terms of peoples’ time and effort.

It is worth taking the time and making the effort to engage the key stakeholders and really thrash out what you need from a database, how it will best serve the organisation and users, as well as the contacts, be they donors, member, volunteers etc. Think about what data you want on it and what you will want to do with that data, both now and in the future.

Don’t be afraid to seek advice. It is perfectly understandable that you might not know what you want until you know what products might offer. However, whilst different products may appear to offer weird and wonderful solutions you hadn’t thought of, don’t get blinded by them. It is really important to establish what you can do with the features that will benefit the organisation. It’s no use having all the bells and whistles if you only use a few of the bells and the odd whistle.

Think too about where the organisation is going. If you only have 5,000 contacts now, is this expected to grow? What are the future plans? Do you want a solution to cover things as they are now or, thinking five, ten years ahead, how will that solution be serving you then? You don’t want to get caught short in a couple of years time and find that your database, for whatever reason, isn’t working for you.

Involve the people that will be using it, getting a database to serve an organisation is not a project that should be run in isolation. Not doing so may not only cause a degree of resentment or bewilderment, but can start users off on the wrong foot and under the impression it doesn’t do what they want. Buy-in is essential and the people best placed to judge a product’s suitability, are those who are going to be using it (and also gives them less scope to moan about it).

It is likely to be a fairly big and expensive project, but the chances are that the more effort that goes into it, the better system you will end up with.