4 Steps To Give Your Data a Spring Cleaning

4 Essential Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Nonprofit’s Data

Spring isn’t just for dusty closets and forgotten storage bins — it’s the perfect time to freshen up your nonprofit’s most under-appreciated and under-leveraged asset: your data.

So if your reports feel clunky, your team is second-guessing numbers, or you're spending too much time hunting for answers, a little data spring cleaning can go a long way. Done right, it can give you clearer insights, faster reporting, and more confident decision-making heading into the second half of the year.

Here are 5 essential tips to help your nonprofit tidy up its data and turn chaos into clarity:

1. Clean Out Duplicates and Stale Records

Old records and duplicates clog up your system and skew your reporting. Whether it's contacts with outdated emails or events that never happened, now’s the time to clean house.

Run a data hygiene audit. Remove or archive records that are no longer relevant, standardize naming conventions, and merge duplicate entries — especially in your donor and volunteer lists.

2. Audit Your Dashboards and Reports

Not every report needs to live forever. If you’re still generating metrics no one uses or you’re missing key insights, your reporting stack needs a refresh.

Review all recurring reports and dashboards. Ask your team:

  • Which ones are still useful?

  • What’s missing?

  • Where are we guessing instead of knowing?

Refocus your reporting on decision-ready data — not just data for data’s sake.

3. Check Your User Permissions and Access Levels

Who has access to what — and why? Over time, team members change, roles evolve, and tools get handed off. Left unchecked, this creates security risks and data silos.

Review access permissions across all your tools. Remove outdated users, tighten admin rights, and make sure the right people have the right access to the right data — no more, no less.

4. Document Your Data Processes (Finally)

Does everyone on your team know how donor data flows from form to CRM? Or how to pull a report for your board? If not, you’re relying on memory — and that’s fragile.

Pick one process each week, for a month, and document it. Even a simple checklist or one-pager helps create clarity, reduce errors, and make onboarding easier when new staff or volunteers join.

When your data is messy, outdated, or unclear, it doesn’t just waste time — it weakens decisions, slows growth, and risks donor trust. A few hours of intentional cleanup can give your team a serious strategic edge.

So here’s to cleaner data and greater impact this spring!