What we look at
The audit checks the things that break migrations.
Every audit covers the six areas where migrations most often run into trouble.
Duplicate records
The same donor entered more than once under slightly different names or addresses. Duplicates split a donor's giving history, so your most loyal supporters can look smaller than they are – and unless they're caught, they carry straight into the new system.
Contact information
Missing, outdated, or inconsistent addresses, emails, and phone numbers, along with donors who have passed away or moved but are still marked active. A new CRM won't correct a bad address – it will simply keep using it.
Giving history
We check that gift totals in your database match what your finance team recorded. If the numbers don't line up today, they won't line up after migration, and your first reports in the new system will start off wrong.
Campaign, fund & appeal codes
Codes used in different ways by different people, codes whose meaning has been lost, and gifts with no code at all. Your new system needs one clear coding structure, decided before the build begins.
Households, relationships & soft credits
Spouses, family foundations, donor-advised funds, and board connections. These links are often the first thing to break in a migration and the hardest to rebuild later.
Communication preferences & restrictions
Do-not-solicit, do-not-mail, anonymous, and deceased flags. If these don't carry over correctly, you risk reaching out to someone who asked not to be contacted, or naming a donor who asked to remain anonymous.
What you get
A document, not a sales pitch.
You'll receive a findings report written for your executive director and board, covering your donors, gifts, households, soft credits, and fund and appeal coding, with record counts for each issue. We'll then walk through it with your team, and your implementation partner is welcome to join. You'll leave with a prioritized plan for what to clean up before your migration.
Deliverablecontents
How it runs
Start to finish in two to four weeks.
Kickoff
We start with a call to learn about your database, your migration plans, and any concerns you have. Afterward, you'll send a data export through our secure portal or set up a guest login for us.
Review
We run the audit. We may reach out with a few quick questions along the way, usually about codes or fields only your team knows. Otherwise, there's nothing you need to do during this step.
Findings
You'll receive your report, and we'll walk through it together. You'll leave knowing what needs attention, what it will take, and what to share with your implementer.
Only a few hours of your team's time across the whole audit – the kickoff call, pulling an export or setting up a guest login, answering a few questions, and the findings walkthrough. To get started, we'll need either a guest login to your database or a full export of your constituent records, gifts, relationships, and code tables. It's also helpful to have your gift totals from finance for the last three fiscal years, so we can compare the database against your books.
What if the audit finds almost nothing?
Then you'll have that confirmed in writing, which is valuable in its own right. You can share it with your board and your implementer and move forward with confidence. In our experience, though, that's rare.
Do we have to hire you for the cleanup?
No. The audit is a standalone deliverable, and the report is yours to keep. You can use it to clean up in-house, share it with your implementer, or work with someone else. If you do choose Trellis for Migration Management within 60 days, your audit fee is credited toward it.
What CRMs and databases can you audit?
Any system that can export to Excel or CSV, which covers nearly all of them – including Raiser's Edge and RE NXT, Salesforce (NPSP and Nonprofit Cloud), HubSpot, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, Little Green Light, Neon, and Virtuous. We also work with homegrown databases and spreadsheets.
How do you handle our donor data securely?
Our Data Security page covers the full upload process. Specific to the audit: we ask for a guest login or a CSV export, your data is kept only in Sync.com Teams – never on a personal device or in email – the findings report identifies records by database ID rather than full donor details, your data is automatically deleted within 365 days of the walkthrough, and confidentiality terms are part of our signed agreement before any data is shared.
Can our implementation partner be part of this?
Yes, and we encourage it. Your implementer is welcome to join the kickoff and the walkthrough, and the report includes a technical section they can work from. We work on your behalf, so the audit gives you an independent view of your data before anyone quotes you for the work.
What it costs
One number, agreed before we start.
A flat fee based on the size of your database, so you know the price before we begin. If you hire Trellis for Migration Management within 60 days of the audit, the audit fee is credited toward the project total.
Get started
Start with the audit.
One conversation, one fixed fee, one real number for what your data actually needs.
Book a time on the nonprofit page, or email info@trellisdatapartners.com