Being self-taught is something we have to embrace once we’re adults. There’s always something new to navigate, and even when we get some instruction, we still have to dive in and learn by doing. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, it’s often because we can’t see that it’s not working.
This week I saw an example of this – one I see regularly.
In Raiser’s Edge, there’s a tick box in the bottom right corner of Bio 1 called No valid address (many of you will be familiar with it). It has no audit trail or date stamp attached to it. And to say it causes problems is an understatement. It’s often used when post is returned as return to sender or gone away. But:
- The box has no date, so you don’t know when the return occurred
- You have nothing to link the tick and the returned mail
- And you don’t really know what return to sender actually means
Does it mean the address is incorrect? That the person has moved? That they no longer want to hear from you? I’ve also seen the tick box used to show:
- major donor status
- consent withdrawn
- no address available
- or just “something’s not right”
And this is where the self-taught issue comes in. Raiser’s Edge has been around for decades. A lot of people have used it at some point. But many have never had proper training or clear guidance on how things should be used. So people do what makes sense at the time. And if something appears to work, they keep doing it. That’s not a user problem, and it’s not really a Raiser’s Edge problem either. It’s just what happens when people are left to figure things out without clear guidance.
Most people want to do things properly. But if the process isn’t clear, they’ll create one, and when it comes to data, it’s where it starts to drift – slowly becoming harder to trust, harder to understand, and harder to fix.
I’ve got space over the coming months to help teams put simple, workable processes in place so things don’t unravel over time.
And if you know a team that’s a bit stuck with their data – whether that’s processes, their CRM, or just getting things to work as they should – I’d really appreciate an introduction.
