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. Having updated and correct phone numbers for your supporters will lead to better engagement and better connection. The easiest way to keep your phone numbers fresh is by running phone appends–for residential numbers or mobile numbers–on your supporters' information. This guide provides a general FAQ on the phone number append process.
Table of Contents
- What Is A Phone Append?
- How Can A Phone Append Help My Organization?
- What Is The Process To Append Phone Numbers?
- Will I Get Results For Every Record I Submit?
- How Long Does It Take?
- Can I Append International Phone Numbers?
- How Are We Billed?
- What Is The Zip File Sent To Me After The Phone Number Append Runs?
- Why Is Address Information Included In A Phone Number Append?
What Is A Phone Append?
A phone append is a service that adds new or missing phone numbers through public and private sources to enhance your existing CRM data. Phone appends can search for either mobile phone number updates or residential phone number (landline) updates a combination of both.
How Can A Phone Append Help My Organization?
Having up-to-date phone numbers means your organization can reach supporters through multiple channels—whether that's personalized calls, timely SMS messages for events or urgent appeals, or phone-based thank-yous to strengthen donor relationships. With supporters changing phone numbers—especially mobile numbers— appends can help your team reconnect with donors who might have lapsed because of outdated contact information. This expands the pool of reachable supporters, can reduce frustration from wasted outreach efforts, and gives you a reliable backup if email deliverability issues arise.
What Is The Process To Append Phone Numbers?
The process to append phone numbers includes:
-
Create an Individual Query in your database and name it Data Append: Phone Number. Filter for:
- Has Phone? > Is False
- Any other groups you wish to exclude; for example, deceased or anonymous individuals.
-
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
- Open a support ticket with the Virtuous Support Team that includes the type of data append you want (for example, a mobile phone append) and the exact name of your Individual Query. Click here to learn more about submitting support tickets.
- The Virtuous team member will confirm your 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.
- 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 successfully matched with residential or mobile phone numbers. 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 or anonymous names (like Friend or Default), may result in fewer matches. In some cases, an Individual's data simply isn't available in the public and private sources we use.
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 Phone Numbers?
Phone appends only consider US data sources.
How Are We Billed?
You are billed per phone record returned, not per record submitted. This means if you submit 6,000 records for a mobile or residential phone number update but only 2,000 are returned with results, you will only be charged for the 2,000. If you request both a mobile number append and a residential number append at the same time, they can be processed together to save on cost.
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 Phone Append Runs?
After the Phone 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 phone match codes, confidence scores, and appended phone numbers.
- Address Quality Report: Summarizes how well your addresses matched USPS data and highlights any issues with deliverability. Address validation is required before phone 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 and DPV results.
- Cell Phone Append Report: Shows match rates specifically for cell numbers, including how many new cell numbers were appended and the type of match (new, verified, or updated).
- Residential Phone Append Report: Shows match rates for landline/residential numbers, including new numbers appended, duplicates, and the confidence level used to make the match.
Why Is Address Information Included In A Phone Append?
Phone number matching 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.
Want help turning these results into outreach workflows? To learn more about how Professional Services can help you, check out this resource.