Why a 90-Day Audit Beats a 90-Page Report

Big reports gather dust. Short sprints create movement. A well run 90-day donor data audit gives you cleaner records, sharper insights, and a plan your team can actually execute. No data scientist required. Just tight scopes, simple checklists, and a weekly rhythm.

This guide breaks the work into three sprints. Each sprint has clear goals, specific deliverables, and one outcome that changes how you operate next week. You will stop guessing. You will start measuring what matters. And you will act.

Your Ground Rules for the Next 90 Days

• People over platforms. Tools are fine. Habits win.
• Progress over perfection. Clean enough to act. You can refine later.
• Decisions over dashboards. If a metric will not change a choice this month, park it.

If you need a primer on the building blocks, skim Nonprofit Analytics 101. It will align your team on definitions and keep conversations from drifting into jargon.

Week 0: Set the Audit Spine

Create a simple backbone so the next 12 weeks move smoothly.

• Pick one owner. One person shepherds the process. They do not need to be a data expert. They do need a calendar and follow through.
• Decide your top five fields. Name, email, phone, preferred channel, last gift date. Everything else is a bonus during Sprint 1.
• Define the decision you want to make at Day 90. Examples: which donors to target for renewal, which channel to cut, which campaign to double.
• Set the weekly rhythm. One 30 minute audit standup. One 60 minute action workshop. Same time each week.

Sprint 1: Days 1–30 — Clean and Normalize

You cannot analyze chaos. This month is about hygiene. You will remove duplicates, standardize formats, and build a basic data dictionary so your future self does not suffer.

Step 1: Inventory Your Data Sources

List every place donor data lives. CRM, email platform, event ticketing, peer to peer pages, spreadsheets tucked on shared drives. Map the fields they each hold. Note overlaps and conflicts.

Deliverable: a one page system map that shows where data enters, where it is stored, and where it is exported.

Step 2: Fix the Top Five Fields

Clean only the fields that drive action this quarter. Do not wander.

• Names: Proper case. Split first and last. Remove emojis and rogue punctuation.
• Emails: Validate format. Suppress bounces. Collapse duplicates into one primary record.
• Phones: E.164 or one consistent pattern. Mark textable vs landline if possible.
• Preferred channel: Email, SMS, phone, mail, social. Default to last successful touch.
• Last gift date and amount: This powers retention, lapsed rules, and upgrade prompts.

Deliverable: a standardized export with those five fields at 95 percent completeness.

Step 3: Create a One Page Data Dictionary

Define each field in plain language. Write the source system, format, and owner. Include examples. This stops arguments later and speeds onboarding. Store it where everyone can see it.

Step 4: Quick Wins You Can Bank This Month

• De-dupe and merge. Collapse duplicate contacts to a single record with the most recent activity.
• Bounce purge. Remove hard bounces and obvious fakes. Your deliverability will thank you.
• Consent tags. If you have explicit SMS or email consent, tag it. If not, start gathering it.

Checkpoint: The 10 Minute Executive Readout

At Day 30 present three bullets: percent of records cleaned, number of duplicates removed, and one risk you found. Ask for one decision you need from leadership. Keep it tight.

Sprint 2: Days 31–60 — Diagnose and Prioritize

Now that your core fields behave, look for patterns that change action. This is not a fishing expedition. It is a focused review of engagement, conversion, and retention.

Step 5: Segment by Behavior, Not Demographics

Create four simple segments:

• New donors: first gift in the last 120 days.
• Second gift seekers: one gift on record, more than 120 days old.
• Recurring donors: active monthly givers.
• Lapsed: no gift for 12 months or more.

Deliverable: a one tab sheet with segment size, last gift median, and primary channel for each group.

Step 6: Build a Tiny Cohort View

Group first time donors by acquisition month for the past 12 months. Track what percent gave again within 90 days and within 12 months. You do not need fancy charts. A simple table with percentages tells the story.

Insight to watch: months tied to specific campaigns will often spike or sag. Those patterns guide next year’s calendar.

Step 7: Audit the Donation Experience

Open your own giving flow on mobile and desktop. Count taps. Note copy that causes friction. Test wallets and stored cards. If you need a structure for this review, use the lens from The Donation Flow Audit. Fix the obvious snags right away. Waiting for a perfect redesign drains momentum.

Step 8: Establish Nine Core KPIs

You only need nine numbers to manage this quarter:

• Conversion rate on donation page
• Average gift size
• Recurring donor percentage
• Time to second gift
• Retention rate 12 months
• Lapsed reactivation rate
• Email click to donate rate
• Mobile checkout completion rate
• Refund or dispute rate

If you want a reminder on why fewer metrics work better, align with the spirit of your KPI playbook by revisiting the framing in your analytics fundamentals at Nonprofit Analytics 101.

Step 9: Rank Problems by Impact and Effort

Make a two by two grid. High impact, low effort items move first. Examples include:

• Reduce fields on the donation form
• Turn on wallet payments and test them
• Add a clear monthly option with a sensible default
• Send a 48 hour first gift follow up with a soft second ask

Deliverable: a short backlog with owners and due dates. Put it on the wall or your team channel. Visibility drives action.

Checkpoint: The 15 Minute Decision Meeting

Share three charts or fewer. One surprise. One success. One stuck point that requires an executive decision. Leave with a yes or no, not a maybe.

Sprint 3: Days 61–90 — Operationalize and Scale

You cleaned. You diagnosed. Now you lock the wins into your weekly rhythm and test two or three high leverage plays. This sprint turns insight into habit.

Step 10: Ship Two Automations

Pick from these:

• Day 0 thank you refresh. Short, human, specific. Include an image or a 20 second video. Invite a reply.
• Day 2 impact note. Show the first outcome their gift touches. Make it feel real, not polished.
• Day 21 check in. Ask a one click question: what inspired you to give. Store the answer as a motivation tag.
• Lapsed 12 month reactivation. Three emails and one SMS over 10 days. Proof of impact, not pressure.

Make sure each automation logs outcomes so you can review them in your weekly standup.

Step 11: Launch One 30-Day A/B Test

Pick one variable that touches revenue every day. Suggested amounts. Monthly default on or off. Button copy. Only test one thing at a time. Stop early if a variant is clearly worse.

Step 12: Create a Player Scoreboard

Dashboards are useful for managers. Players need scoreboards they can influence this week. Put three numbers on a single screen everyone sees:

• Reactivations this week
• Second gifts this week
• New monthly signups this week

Update daily. Celebrate movement. Small wins compound.

Step 13: Forecast One Quarter Ahead

Use simple trendlines to project monthly revenue by segment. You do not need a complex model to be useful. A basic forecast roughs in reality. It also sharpens conversations with your board. If you want to go deeper later, queue up a future read on forecasting with the approach in Predictive Analytics for Nonprofits. For this audit, keep the math light and the decisions heavy.

Step 14: Bake Data Into Weekly Rituals

Your audit dies if it becomes a binder. Protect your gains with simple habits:

• Monday standup: review the three scoreboard numbers and one quick insight.
• Wednesday fix: ship one micro improvement to a form, email, or message.
• Friday win: share a donor note or story linked to a metric that moved.

Habit beats heroics.

What to Hand to Your Board at Day 90

Boards do not want a data dump. They want a story that connects to decisions. Give them this one page:

• Headline: one sentence on the lift you achieved or the risk you reduced.
• Three metrics that moved: before and after. Keep the decimals out of sight.
• Two decisions we made because of the audit: what you stopped and what you scaled.
• One ask: a clear resource or policy you need to lock in the gains.

If you want to prep your narrative voice, align it with the framing you use when you present data as story in board settings by applying the same techniques you use in your board storytelling work.

Common Pitfalls and How to Dodge Them

• Perfection paralysis: you do not need to fix every field before you act. Clean the five that matter, then move.
• Metric overload: nine KPIs are enough. If someone asks for 27, ask which decision the extra 18 will change.
• Private dashboards: put the player scoreboard where everyone sees it. Hidden numbers rarely move.
• One and done: audits that end at Day 90 fail at Day 120. Keep the Monday, Wednesday, Friday rhythm.

Your 90-Day Checklist

• Owner named, rhythm set, Day 90 decision defined
• System map and five core fields cleaned
• One page data dictionary published
• Behavior segments and 12 month cohorts built
• Nine KPIs calculated and reviewed weekly
• High impact backlog prioritized and assigned
• Two automations shipped and measured
• One A/B test launched and completed
• Player scoreboard live and visible
• One quarter forecast created and discussed
• Board one pager delivered with a single ask

Final Thought

A donor data audit is not a tech project. It is a culture project. You are building trust in numbers by showing they can make life easier and impact stronger. Start small. Act weekly. Keep your eyes on the few metrics that bend reality in your favor. When in doubt, return to the basics in Nonprofit Analytics 101 and anchor your next sprint to a single decision. That is how small teams punch above their weight and stay sane while they do it.