Clean data isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about trust, insight, and impact.
By: Melissa Kwilosz, EVP of Advancement Strategy
After implementing Advancement CRMs at dozens of universities and academic medical centers, I’ve learned that one challenge transcends size, budget, and mission: advancement data management. Whether it’s student records, alumni engagement data, or complex donor histories, institutions are battling duplicate entries, outdated information, and disconnected CRM systems.
This is why I’m genuinely excited about the summer launch of CleanData+—a transformative solution for managing constituent data in Advancement RM. Leveraging Affinaquest’s decades of experience in data cleansing, Golden Record Management, and CRM optimization, CleanData+ is the culmination of leading practices and proven methodologies that solve real-world higher education advancement challenges.
CleanData+ will be available to all Affinaquest Advancement RM users in our upcoming summer release #32.
What Is CleanData+?
CleanData+ is your institution’s digital data steward—working behind the scenes to ensure constituent records are accurate, complete, and connected. Embedded within Advancement RM, Affinaquest’s Salesforce-based CRM for higher education and healthcare, this powerful new tool imports data, syncs with external systems, and cleans up legacy records. What used to take months is now automated. CleanData+:
- Matches and merges duplicate records
- Automates new record creation
- Enriches existing records with data from other sources
- Maintains critical relationship links (like parent-student, donor-alumni, or faculty-affiliate connections)
It does all this ensuring every constiuent in your CRM system is represented by a single, authoritative, accurate profile.
Real-World Impact: From Errors to Insight
Every major university I’ve worked with has had the same story: a donor receives two separate thank-you letters—one addressed to “Dr. Emily Chen” and another to “E. Chen.” It’s the same donor, split between two records.
With CleanData+, those kinds of issues become preventable. It automatically merges and enriches profiles, ensuring one cohesive voice in donor communications. (And with AQ Intelligence Correspondence, we can even generate the perfect message for them.)
This kind of accuracy doesn’t just reduce mistakes—it builds trust and drives stronger relationships.
How CleanData+ Simplifies Advancement Workflows
Detect and Resolve Duplicates with Confidence
I know we have all seen duplicate records lead to miscommunication, inaccurate reporting, and lost opportunities. Personally, I’ve seen institutions spend months attempting to manually de-dup their data. With CleanData+ data deduplication is implemented at the start—without compromising accuracy.
By using advanced match identification, CleanData+ is customizable providing teams the flexibility to:
- Preserve important information across both records
- Avoid overwriting critical data
Streamlined Data Import and Seamless Integration
Flexibility is crucial for advancement teams juggling multiple platforms and workflows.
With CleanData+ you can:
- Upload CSV or Excel files manually
- Automate imports from connected systems
- Map fields and customize rules based on your institution’s CRM structure
And when onboarding new students, importing alumni data, or syncing your Student Information System (SIS), HR, or finance systems, CleanData+ ensures data flows are accurate and repeatable.
Accelerate Record Matching and Creation
As advancement professionals, our team understands that accuracy is essential especially during high-volume data events like academic year start, giving days, or major campaigns—when both speed and precision matter.
As constituent records are entered into your CRM CleanData+ checks for existing matches and updates records accordingly. If no match is found, it creates a new, clean profile, maintaining all necessary relationship links and data objects.
Maintain CRM Data Integrity Across Multiple Objects
Rather than loading data one object at a time, CleanData+ allows users to add data across multiple Salesforce objects from a single file. This ensures the right relationships—between contact, affiliation, giving, and more—are preserved.
CleanData+ reduces human error and manual steps, leading to more accurate data for segmentation, outreach, and analytics.
Why is CleanData+ a Game-Changer for Advancement Leaders?
It’s a strategic asset for CRM-driven higher education advancement
- Built on Proven Expertise: Grounded in Affinaquest’s Golden Record experience and data governance best practices
- Saves Time: Automates labor-intensive tasks to free your team for strategic work
- Improves Accuracy: Minimizes manual entry errors and sync issues across systems
- Enhances Engagement: Enables personalized donor communication and alumni outreach
- Supports Compliance: Facilitates reporting integrity and aligns with data privacy regulations
- Scales with You: Flexible enough for small institutions and large academic medical centers alike
The Bottom Line
I know clean, connected data is the foundation of long-term advancement success.
With CleanData+ your institution gains the power to manage CRM data with confidence, clarity, and control- keeping your advancement systems clean, your segmentation sharp, and your messages on point. So, your advancement office can focus on what it does best, philanthropy.
Stop fighting with messy CRM data and start building better relationships. CleanData+ is your step toward strategic data management.
Want to see how CleanData+ works in Advancement RM?
Discover how Affinaquest’s Advancement RM drives measurable advancement results.
