{"id":1486,"date":"2016-10-27T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T17:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/?p=1486"},"modified":"2018-06-26T16:31:19","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T21:31:19","slug":"best-practices-for-non-profit-database-administrators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/2016\/10\/best-practices-for-non-profit-database-administrators\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Practices for Non-profit Database Administrators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Non-profit database administration can be challenging due to a variety of factors, including multiple administrators and users, old records, disparate constituent groups, and shifting reporting needs. Now, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not easy to effectively evaluate and accumulate organizational data, competent database management can make you a priceless resource and even a \u00e2\u20ac\u201c wizard, to your colleagues.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Best Practices<\/h2>\n<p>Here are best practices for non-profit database administrators who want to make a difference:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make time to be strategic. If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a destination at the top of the priority list, you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get there. This applies to set up your framework, preparing your staff to utilize a database and adding refinements. This to processes and forms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>When building questionnaires or forms, ask only for the information you require. For funder\/stakeholder reports, quality of care, program management, etc. In general, the more you request users to enter, the lower response rates you will get from clients and client-facing staff.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep records \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ideally in your database \u00e2\u20ac\u201c about how the database is set up. This could incorporate what grant\/funder reporting needs are and where the data lives. Also, any data not tracked in the system along with why and planned future enhancements. Most database administrator jobs aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lifelong positions, so the ins and outs of your system should not live in one individual\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Data<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Collecting loads of data isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily a good thing, it can even distract you from seeing what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really vital to your mission. Keep in mind that sheer volume does not necessarily correlate with the usefulness and quality of data. The same is true for reporting \u00e2\u20ac\u201c simple information can be just as meaningful as information that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been via multiple manipulations and filters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>To gather the right information, begin with the results\/ performance measures you require and work your way backward. Decide how you would define mission success and how you could demonstrate that success to stakeholders. Be specific.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Use extreme caution when \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cleaning up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the forms and data. When in doubt, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hide\u00e2\u20ac\u009d instead of delete \u00e2\u20ac\u201c any formerly used forms and fields. Someone else may require the data that they hold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\">ServerPronto<\/a> offers the best affordable and secure hosting service in all dedicated server packages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Non-profit database administration can be challenging due to a variety of factors, including multiple administrators and users, old records, disparate constituent groups, and shifting reporting needs. Now, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not easy to effectively evaluate and accumulate organizational data, competent database management can make you a priceless resource and even a \u00e2\u20ac\u201c wizard, to your colleagues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[123,160,61,63,82,17,112,22],"class_list":["post-1486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","category-database-hosting","tag-cloud","tag-data-backup","tag-data-privacy","tag-data-security","tag-database","tag-dedicated-server","tag-hosting","tag-server","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1486"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2275,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions\/2275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}