How Do Deceased Appends Work?

Data hygiene is fundamental to responsive nonprofit organizations, but it's easy for even the cleanest data to get stale over time. Virtuous' data append services are designed to promote the health of your CRM's data integrity. Identifying deceased supporters in your database is essential for respectful communication, can improve your campaign metrics, and ensures your organization maintains the sensitivity and professionalism that supporters expect. The easiest way to keep your supporter data accurate is by running deceased appends on your database. This guide provides a general FAQ on the deceased append process.

Table of Contents

1. What Is A Deceased Append?
2. How Can A Deceased Append Help My Organization?
3. What Is The Process To Append Deceased Individuals?
4. Will I Get Results For Every Record I Submit?
5. How Long Does It Take?
6. Can I Append International Data?
7. How Are We Billed?
8. What Is The Zip File Sent To Me After The Deceased Append Runs?
9. Why Is Address Information Included In A Deceased Append? 

What Is A Deceased Append?

A Deceased Append uses the address, email, and phone data you provide to determine whether an Individual is deceased and, where available, to return a date of death. This ensures your database is up to date with deceased information.

How Can A Deceased Append Help My Organization?

A deceased append can help create more compassionate stewardship by avoiding insensitive outreach and keeping relationships up to date. It also can help with cost savings and list quality by suppressing marketing efforts so you don’t waste budget on undeliverable outreach. 

What Is The Process To Append Deceased Individuals?

The process to append deceased Individual data includes:

1. Create an Individual Query in your database and name it Data Append: Deceased Individuals. Filter for:
   • Deceased > Is False
   • Any other groups you wish to exclude; for example, recent donors or those with an anonymous name. 
2. Export your Query as CSV. Select the following fields to be included:
   • Contact Id, Contact Type, and Contact Name
   • Individual Id, Title, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, and Suffix
   • Primary Address Line 1, Line 2, City, State/Province, Postal, Country
   • Phone
   • Email
3. Open a support ticket with the Virtuous Support Team that includes the type of data append you want (for example, a deceased Individual append) and the exact name of your Individual Query. Click here to learn more about submitting support tickets.  
4. The Virtuous team member will confirm your data append request and billing, if relevant. They will use your Query to export the Contact and Individual Information to search public and private data sources for appending phone numbers. 
5. Once records are matched, the update will be made to your CRM. Our team will follow up with your results, noting the number of Individuals submitted and the number that were matched as a deceased individual. The Virtuous team member will also send a zip file of the raw data containing line by line information on what was submitted, what was updated, and how it was updated.

Will I Get Results For Every Record I Submit?

No. Match rates may vary based on the completeness and accuracy of your data. Incomplete or outdated records, such as missing or business addresses, partial names or anonymous names (like Friend or Default), may result in fewer matches. For example, match rates can be impacted by Individuals with a “Jr.” or “Sr.,” have a common name, or passed away very recently. In some cases, an Individual's data simply isn't available in the public and private sources we use.

Ideally, most people in your file are not deceased, which means only a small subset of your submitted records should return as deceased.

How Long Does It Take?

Data appends typically take between 2-3 business days to process after your list of Individuals has been submitted. Timing may vary based on weekends and holidays, or if any questions arise. 

Can I Append International Data?

Deceased appends only considers US data sources.

How Are We Billed?

You are billed per deceased record returned, not per record submitted. This means if you submit 6,000 records for a deceased Individual update but only 20 are returned with results, you will only be charged for the 20. 

If your Virtuous subscription already includes a set number of data appends per year, you will not be billed. If you'd like to add data appends to your contract in the future, contact your CSM or reach out to customersuccess@virtuous.org.

What Is The Zip File Sent To Me After The Deceased Append Runs?

After the Deceased Append is processed and the updates are made to your CRM, you will be sent a zip file of the raw data containing line by line information on what was submitted, what was updated, and how it was updated. This zip file does not require any action, however, it may be helpful to use these files to spot check the updates the Virtuous team made to ensure all records have been updated correctly. Some organizations keep these files for a few months as a backup of their original data. The file contains the following reports:

• File Layout Report: Explains every field in your output file so you know what each column represents, including deceased match flags, date-of-death fields, DMA suppression indicators, and other suppression-related fields.
• Address Quality Report: Summarizes how well your addresses matched USPS data and highlights any issues with deliverability. Address validation is required before deceased matching for best results.
• CASS Summary Report: The official USPS certification form confirming your addresses were processed with CASS-certified software. Often used for compliance or record-keeping.
• Data Quality Summary: A quick, high-level snapshot of your address accuracy, DPV results, and counts of deceased matches and other suppressions.
• Suppression Report: Shows how many records matched deceased files, and may also include matches to DMA Do Not Mail, nursing home, or prison suppression files depending on what was requested.

Why Is Address Information Included In A Deceased Append? 

Deceased suppression relies on accurate name and address data, so the the Virtuous team must standardize and validate the addresses first. These details are included so you can see exactly how the match was made. Address information returned here will NOT be updated in Virtuous. To make the address updates in your CRM, please request a NCOA if you would like to fully validate address data. Click here to learn more about NCOAs.

Need more help cleaning up your data? To learn more about how Professional Services can help you, check out this resource.