Why Data Hygiene Matters: Speeding Up Your Nonprofit

Nonprofits want the speed of automation and the promise of AI—but Alicia Eastvold, Department Leader for Client Technology Solutions at Your Part-Time Controller (YPTC), explains why many orgs stall at the starting line: messy, bloated, and fragmented data. Her central thesis is simple and powerful: “We can’t speed things up if it’s not organized, and we can’t write simple rules around it for where it belongs.” From the first minute, Alicia reframes “data hygiene” away from fear and toward usefulness—think Marie Kondo for systems: keep what serves the mission, archive the rest, and label everything so your “smart assistant” can actually find the hammer.

Alicia maps two common failure modes: too much information (endless, unreadable reports) and poor structure (the same concept scattered across donor CRM, accounting, and spreadsheets). Both grind automation to a halt and produce costly mistakes in grant allocations, budgets, and forecasts. Her practical fix: decide what you need going forward, set a cutoff, inactivate legacy categories, and build simple, durable rules that can run 1,000 times. As she puts it, “Think big about what would happen if I had to do this thing a thousand times and plan your process that way.”

A standout story: a client wanted a complex custom payroll allocation tool. After examining their cluttered chart and inconsistent rules, the team cleaned the system, documented clear rules, and discovered an off-the-shelf cost allocation tool that did the job at a fraction of the price. Takeaway: better structure often beats bespoke code.

The stakes are real. Misallocations can snowball into seven-figure problems, finger-pointing between development and finance, and restricted funds that can’t be used where they’re most needed. Clean, rule-based data unlocks credible budgeting, forecasting, and the ability to ask funders for the right dollars—including flexible, unrestricted support. It also fuels data storytelling that boosts trust and investment: when leaders visualize program costs, funding gaps, and outcomes with clarity, credibility skyrockets.

Bottom line: start today. Choose what matters for the next 12–24 months, archive the past, enforce naming and categorization rules, and think like an enterprise—no matter your size. Clean data returns time to your people, turns AI from buzz to utility, and powers decisions that move the mission!

 #TheNonprofitShow #DataHygiene #NonprofitAutomation

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