Even the cleanest data can get stale over time. Over 1 million people in Canada move house each year. With that in mind, it's no wonder that the address data in your database will need to be refreshed regularly to avoid sending mail to your supporters at the wrong address.
The easiest way to keep your addresses fresh is by running a data append on addresses of your supporters.
Table of Contents
- What Is A Canadian NCOA?
- How Can A C-NCOA Help My Organization?
- How Can I Prepare for a C-NCOA?
- What Are The Steps To Process A Canadian NCOA?
- Will I Get Results for Every Record I Submit?
- How Long Does It Take?
- Can I Append Addresses Outside of Canada?
- How Are We Billed?
- What Is The Zip File Sent To Me After The NCOA Runs?
What Is A Canadian NCOA?
C-NCOA, which stands for Canadian National Change of Address, is a data append service that will look to match the name and address data you have for your CRM+ Contacts to the Canadian Post database, identifying new addresses for anyone who has moved and completed a permanent change of address. Additionally, the address append includes address standardization so that the addresses are all validated.
How Can A C-NCOA Help My Organization?
C-NCOAs have one of the highest return on investments for organizations because they help you get more mail delivered and, in return, more Gifts received. This means appeals, Receipts, and event invites actually reach the right mailbox instead of getting returned or tossed out. Running a C-NCOA also lowers your costs by letting you suppress bad addresses, supports accurate householding of your donors, and reduces duplicates during Imports and merges.
How Can I Prepare For A C-NCOA?
Before our team can begin processing, there’s one important step for you to complete: registering your organization as a business with Canada Post and agreeing to the NCOA Mover Data Terms of Use. This step is required by Canada Post before the Virtuous team can start processing the append. To do so,
- Sign in to your Canada Post business profile, or create a new profile if you don’t have one.
- Review and accept the NCOA Mover Data Terms of Use on behalf of your business. All parties must agree to the Terms of Use in order for us to clean up your customer data.
- Once accepted, you’ll receive a Terms of Use ID and Expiration Date. The ID will be in the format: **EU#########** (EU followed by 9 digits).
This Terms of use ID and Expiration Date will be sent in your Support Ticket.
Note: The registration process with Canada Post can take several days to complete.
What Are The Steps To Process A Canadian NCOA?
The entire process to append phone numbers includes:
- Register with the Canadian Post and receive your Terms of Use ID and Expiration Date.
- Create a “Bad Address” Tag. This Tag will be associated with Contacts included in the NCOA run, so each Contact indicated as a bad address is flagged. Click here to learn more about creating Tags.
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Create a Contact Query in CRM+ and name it Data Append: C-NCOA Append. Filter for:
- Contact Type > is> Household (as household data typically yields better results)
- Address > Is not known
- Any other groups you wish to exclude (for example, deceased or anonymous donors)
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Open a support ticket with the Virtuous Support Team that includes:
- The type of data append you want (for example, a Canadian NCOA)
- Your Terms of Use ID and Expiration Date from the Canadian Post
- The exact name of your Contact Query and your “Bad Address” Tag
- A new address label: When a new address is available, it will be added to the Contact as the Primary Address (the previous address will remain on the record, but will no longer be flagged as Primary and will require an updated label). All addresses in Virtuous CRM+ must be identified with a label (i.e., "Home," "Work"). Enter a value to be used as the label for all new addresses created as part of the NCOA update (for example, "NCOA Update mm/yyyy").
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 Information to search public and private data sources for appending these addresses.
- Once records are matched, the update will be made to your CRM. Our team will follow up with your results, noting the number of Contacts submitted and the records that were successfully matched with new addresses. You'll 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 to keep as a record.
Will I Get Results for Every Record I Submit?
Yes. If an address update is available, it will be returned. Otherwise, the existing address will be standardized and validated.
How Long Does It Take?
Data appends typically take between 2-3 business days to process after the Support Ticket has been opened. Timing may vary based on weekends and holidays, or if any questions arise.
Can I Append Addresses Outside of Canada?
Since this process is based on data provided by the Canadian Post, CNOA updates are only applicable for Canadian addresses. If you’re looking for a US change of address append, click here to learn more.
How Are We Billed?
Canadian NCOAs will validate all the data you submit. NCOA validation starts at $380 for up to 60,000 records, with pricing scaling up for larger requests. Click here to learn more about all the pricing for the Virtuous Data Services.
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 NCOA Runs?
After the NCOA 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 standardized Canadian address fields, quality codes, address types, NCOA match indicators, and move type information.
- Canadian Standardization Report: Summarizes how well your Canadian addresses matched Canada Post data and highlights validation results. Shows the breakdown of validated addresses (with/without corrections), quality codes (Q1-Q6), address types, and identifies any deliverability issues.
- Canadian NCOA Summary Report: Shows how many records matched the Canadian National Change of Address database. Provides counts of individual/family/business moves, how many forwarding addresses were found, and identifies records where people moved with no forwarding information or foreign moves.
Need More Help?
Need hands-on help cleaning up your data? Virtuous Professional Services offers solutions to optimize your CRM data and improve data hygiene through deduplication, Pledge & Recurring Gift clean up, and data appends. These services are geared to improve your Donor Segmentation, streamline your marketing Campaigns, and ensure accurate reporting. Click here to learn more about our Professional Services offerings, or contact your Customer Success Manager to get started!