Articles

Some industry insights

LOVE IT or LIST IT – CRM EDITION  
Brennus Elmslie Brennus Elmslie

LOVE IT or LIST IT – CRM EDITION  

At Sentinel Consulting, we know that managing a nonprofit’s CRM can be a challenge. In our latest article, LOVE IT or LIST IT – CRM EDITION, we explore how to evaluate your current CRM, optimize its performance, and determine whether it’s time for an upgrade. From data cleanup and staff training to change management strategies, we provide practical insights to help your organization make the most of its CRM investment.

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Team Work Makes the Dream Work
Brennus Elmslie Brennus Elmslie

Team Work Makes the Dream Work

A recent experience with our partner, Red Arc, led to a swift resolution of a tax receipt numbering issue in the LetterBox plugin for Raiser's Edge NXT. This collaboration underscores the value of seeking assistance and working together to enhance solutions.

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Upcoming Webinars
Brennus Elmslie Brennus Elmslie

Upcoming Webinars

We highlight upcoming learning opportunities designed to enhance your organization's effectiveness.

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Migrating and Exporting/Importing Data
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Migrating and Exporting/Importing Data

As organizations add various tools to their technical ecosystem, the need to move data from one system to another becomes increasingly important. In this article learn the proper steps to take when exporting and importing data so that you can be set up for long term success!

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5 Tips on Building Data Integrity Queries!
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

5 Tips on Building Data Integrity Queries!

We all have New Year's resolutions we want to accomplish. One of the big ones for us fundraisers is cleaner data. Learn 5 helpful tips that will help you design the queries you need to keep your resolution!

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Getting Ready for Tax Receipt Season
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Getting Ready for Tax Receipt Season

Now that Giving Tuesday is behind us. All that's left is the final push of end-of-year asks. But wait, for data folks, the next big wave is tax receipt season. Learn and review some of the key things to look out for when preparing your end-of-year receipts.

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Fundraising to Finance Integration - A Case Study
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Fundraising to Finance Integration - A Case Study

This case study highlights how good things can happen when departments come together. Learn about how our client Wesley was able to streamline their gift entry process through training, trust, and developing automatic data files.

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Professional Development & Networking: AFP ICON
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Professional Development & Networking: AFP ICON

I am so excited to share that Sentinel Consulting will be participating as an Exhibit sponsor at this year’s AFP ICON! Being one of the largest fundraising conferences in the world it can be daunting. You might be asking yourself the question; How do I get the most out of ICON? Here are some of my tips on how to best prepare yourself for this amazing 3 days of learning, engagement, and networking!

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5 Tips on Building Data Integrity Queries!
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

5 Tips on Building Data Integrity Queries!

We all have New Year's resolutions we want to accomplish. One of the big ones for us fundraisers is cleaner data. Learn 5 helpful tips that will help you design the queries you need to keep your resolution!

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Taming Addresses: Making Mailings Easier
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Taming Addresses: Making Mailings Easier

If you have returned to the office, post-holidays, and you have piles (or boxes) of returned mail, does your heart sink? Mine does! Let’s talk about ways to tidy up your mailing data so your next mailing goes off with out a hitch!

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Finding the Right Tech for Your Non-Profit
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Finding the Right Tech for Your Non-Profit

An endless number of applications, databases, and services are available to non-profits. All these choices can only muddy the waters for many non-profit decision-makers. For many in the non-profit space, how do you make heads or tails about what service, application or training to take on? We want to teach you how the team at Sentinel Consulting develops solutions for our clients. Make decisions like a pro.

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Appreciation - Turning Gratitude into Partnership
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Appreciation - Turning Gratitude into Partnership

Let’s discuss some of the details on how to set up and review your stewardship plan, define useful donor profiles, and the contact points your stewardship plan needs to succeed. In this article learn more about categorizing your donors, leveraging stewardship and creating donor journeys that will lead to true partnership.

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Appreciating Generosity – Saying Thank You Matters
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Appreciating Generosity – Saying Thank You Matters

Something we often look past during this busy time of year is Appreciation. What are we doing to thank our donors who generously gave to our organizations this year? In this article learn about some of the important things to consider in a Stewardship Plan, the checklist method, and how to go one step beyond.

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Major Gifts - How Reports Can Help
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Major Gifts - How Reports Can Help

Reporting is an important tool for any Development Office. However, it is particularly important to those with a Major Gifts focus because of how many different things need to be actioned and tracked. This article will talk through some of the key reports to start with.

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Data - Collection, Retention, and Destruction
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Data - Collection, Retention, and Destruction

For a few years now, non-profit organizations have realized that data is integral to achieving our goals. As an industry, we must start entrenching the concepts of data collection, retention and destruction policies. That way we can truly leverage our data for the social good.

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Lagging Indicators – Looking back helps us to look forward 
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Lagging Indicators – Looking back helps us to look forward 

All non-profit leaders understand the importance of reports and metrics. In this article, we will discuss Lagging Indicators, an important part of iterative approaches. They couple with Leading Indicators and give you the information you need to succeed.

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Managing your Data: Data Policy 101
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Managing your Data: Data Policy 101

We all know that we are living in a data-driven world. If you know more about your donor base you can build more genuine connections. However, storing and managing data about donors leaves you open to the risks of data breaches and data audits from government entities. So how do we capture what we need in a responsible way?

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Leading Indicators for Fundraisers
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Leading Indicators for Fundraisers

All non-profit leaders understand the importance of reports and metrics. However, critically there are many types of reports and their purpose often gets lost in the messaging. Learn about Leading Indicators and how to set goals founded on what you know.

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Finding the Important Groups in your Donor Base - RFM 
Lucy Ruiz Lucy Ruiz

Finding the Important Groups in your Donor Base - RFM 

An industry standard tool for Analysis in both For-Profit and Not-for-Profit spaces is something called a Recency Frequency Monetary Analysis (RFM Analysis). This is a tool that leverages three common data points to show you how active your donors are at a glance.

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