Contact data decays faster than anyone expects. People change jobs and email addresses, families move, couples split a household, and the phone number someone gave at the ticket window five years ago now belongs to a stranger. A contact update campaign is a planned push to get constituents to confirm or correct what you have on file. It works best when you treat it as a small project with a defined list, a clear way for people to respond, and a plan for getting answers back into Altru cleanly.
Decide what “out of date” means before you send anything
The biggest mistake is emailing your whole database a generic “please update your info” message. Most people ignore it, and the people you most need to reach (those with bad email addresses) never see it. Start by defining the problem in terms you can query:
- Missing data: constituents with no email address, no phone, or no mailing address.
- Known bad data: returned mail, hard email bounces, or numbers staff have flagged as wrong. If your team hasn’t been recording these consistently, that is worth fixing as part of this project.
- Stale data: records with no transaction or interaction in a long stretch, where you simply have no recent signal that the information still works.
- Priority audiences: current members, recent donors, and lapsed members you want to win back. These are where accurate contact info pays off soonest.
Build a constituent query for each segment and save them. You will rerun them at the end to see whether the numbers moved.
Pick the channel that can actually reach each group
Match the ask to what you still have:
- Good email, missing address or phone: email works. Keep the message short and explain why you’re asking (renewal reminders, event notices, member benefits).
- Bad or missing email, good mailing address: a postcard or a line in an existing mailing, with a short URL or QR code to an update form.
- Visitors and members who come on site: the front desk and membership scanning point are your best collection point. A one-line prompt like “Is this still the best email for you?” during check-in catches a lot of corrections at almost no cost.
- Renewal and donation moments: people are already confirming details when they pay. Make sure your renewal and giving forms ask for current contact information rather than skipping it.
If you have an address correction service available through Blackbaud or a mail house, run your mailing list through it before printing anything. Ask Blackbaud support what is offered for your account; it varies, and it is cheaper than paying postage on undeliverable mail.
Give people one easy place to respond
Constituents need a form, not a reply-to-this-email instruction. Free-text replies end up in a shared inbox and get keyed in by hand weeks later, if at all. Options include:
- An Altru web form, if you can configure one that captures the fields you need. Test it end to end in a sandbox or with a staff record first, and confirm whether submissions update the existing constituent or create something new that needs review.
- An external form tool, with responses imported into Altru. This is flexible but puts the matching work on you.
- A logged-in experience where members see what you have and correct it directly against their record.
Whichever you choose, ask for the minimum: name, email, phone, mailing address, and possibly communication preferences. Every extra field lowers completion.
Getting the answers into Altru without creating a mess
This is where update campaigns quietly do damage. A response that comes in with a slightly different name spelling or a new email address can easily become a second constituent record instead of an update to the first one. A few habits help:
- Include a lookup key. If you send personalized links or print a constituent ID on the mailer, you can match responses with confidence instead of guessing by name.
- Review imports before committing them. If you bring responses in through an import, check the matching results and resolve likely duplicates rather than accepting everything as new.
- Decide how to handle old values. Keep a former address or email marked inactive rather than deleting it outright, so you have history if a question comes up later.
- Watch households. When one spouse updates an address, decide whether it applies to the whole household. Write the rule down so data entry staff handle it the same way every time.
- Stamp the record. Add an attribute, note, or interaction recording that the contact information was confirmed and when. That gives you a “last verified” date to query on, so your next campaign targets only records that actually need it.
Run it in waves and measure
Send to one segment first, maybe lapsed members, and watch what comes back. You will find form problems, matching issues, and confusing wording on a few hundred records instead of your entire file. Then expand.
When the campaign wraps, rerun the saved queries from the start. You want fewer records with missing or flagged data, and a growing count of records with a recent verification stamp. Look for duplicates created during the campaign too, and merge them while the context is fresh.
Make it ongoing, not annual
A one-time push decays like everything else. The organizations with the cleanest data build the ask into routine touchpoints: renewals, ticket purchases, event registration, and front desk check-in. A yearly campaign then only has to catch what slipped through.
Where Social Good fits
Altru can handle the queries, imports, and record updates above on its own. If you want members to check and correct their own details without staff keying anything in, our Membership Portal lets members view their status and update their profile online against live Altru data, which makes it a natural destination for the link in your campaign email or postcard.
