[Melissa Siobhan]

I didn't merge databases but started here in March and inherited a mess from a database with no manager for 2 years. I would start with an audit of the known problems and figure out where you stand.

Then prioritize which issues to tackle first, estimate the time it will take and so forth. Create a timeline which may be from 6-12 months depending on number of records, number of problems, staff dedicated to cleanup projects.

I would start with tightening security first. If you do not want duplicate records added allow only 1-2 people to create records for now until the dupe record issue is completed (or forever). I would tighten up delete rights and gift editing rights if they are not tight right now.

As you tackle an issue on your plan write your policy of what will stop the issue from recurring in the future and put that policy in place before you start cleanup (or before you finish at least) or else the cleanup will be ongoing forever.

Don't panic and don't rush. These things take time. Where you can you may need to centralize the cleanup on current donors (0-36 months from last gift) if you can not tackle them all at once. Tackle the rest to the end of your cleanup (don't just forget about them).

As you get further into using the database you will find new issues - revise your timeline and add them in as needed. I am still finding issues. After a few months you may feel comfortable enough to have a set of queries looking for known issues you can monitor in a monthly audit. Typically these are important gift issues (gifts not acknowledged, gifts with missing info, etc) or data integrity issues (not following policy you've previously set)

I've attached one version of my timeline for my cleanup and my monthly audit report. I eventually stopped maintaining the timeline and added cleanup issues to my audit report. You can see I still have issues...

Do not expect to be able to completely follow your timeline. Some things may take more time and others may take less time but do your best to guess. If you have one person you think can deal with duplicate records for 5 hours a week and can deal with 20 records an hour (just a guess) how many weeks will it take to deal with the number of dupes you have? Having a timeline can help prioritize things but it will also show the "powers that be" that this will take time and to not expect miracles from the database for some time.