Helpful Hints When Submitting Data Requests

HELPFUL HINTS

• We request 10 business days for service requests.  Requests needed sooner than 10 business days are subject to manager approval if needed.  Dashboards and reports require a longer lead time. If a request needs to be completed in a very short amount of time, we ask that you notify us directly so that we are aware of it.
• Lists have a shelf-life of 2 weeks.  Due to the constant efforts of updating demographic data, lists become stale after 2 weeks and must be refreshed for usage. Reference the original ticket number when requesting a refresh.
• Be clear WHY you are requesting data so that we can ensure proper exclusion/suppression rules are applied (solicitation, invitation, mailing or analysis).  A&P adheres to required guidelines that ensure we do not contact or solicit constituents who have requested us not to. Knowing why also enables us to have a better understanding of what specific information we need to include.
• The more criteria you provide, the sooner we’ll be able to complete the request.  If the ticket isn’t clear and it requires us to follow-up on criteria clarification, this will delay the finished product. 
• Tell us who you need to be included, but also inform us of who needs to be excluded.
• Define the time period or date range.
• Confirm whether the list should be householded. This means if two people from the same household meet the criteria, or if you have a single donor that is married, you will only receive a single record of the head of household.
• When referencing giving, clarify if you want to use hard credit gifts (attainment) or include soft credit as well (donor recognition).
• When requesting an alumni contact list targeted by a college or degree, please include whether we should only be looking at majors or minors.  Please provide a list of degrees when requesting an alumni list by degree. Apollo does not track degrees by program.

OUTPUT INFORMATION

• Define the output you need to see.  By default, LookupID, first name, last name, and informal joint addressee/salutation are provided.  NOTE: Users should always use a name format when merging data into correspondence and NOT the first name and last name field respectively.  Name formats incorporate UCF naming standards to ensure that constituents are being addressed properly (incorporating nicknames where appropriate).  Formal addressee/salutations are also available upon request.
• Fields will be masked according to the donor’s request. This allows you to see that the donor’s record was included even though their contact information is hidden (i.e. the email field of a donor that does not want to be emailed will be shown as “*****”).