Address Accuracy Success Story

About St. Lawrence College’s Alumni Relations Office

Since 1967, St. Lawrence College has been providing students with an education that not only gets results but also helps to build better communities. With campuses in three small to mid-sized cities in eastern Ontario, St. Lawrence College serves a wide and diverse catchment area. The Alumni Relations office exists to maximize positive engagement with St. Lawrence alumni, through life-long, mutually beneficial relationships. The Alumni Relations office offer a number of programs and services which provide graduates with exclusive benefits, as well as a wide range of opportunities for their alumni and friends to “give something back” by engaging in the life and work of the College today.

The Problem: Keeping in Touch with Alumni on the Move

St. Lawrence College’s award winning alumni magazine Voyageur is published bi-annually through the Alumni Relations Office and is distributed to 50,000 alumni and friends of the College. With a considerable mailing twice each year, Janine Foster, Manager of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, understands the importance of frequently updating their records. Janine works with RESolutionsTECH to ensure St. Lawrence’s address records are up to date.

The Solution: Taking Advantage of Available Resources

Each year in Canada, approximately 1.2 million households file a change of address notification with Canada Post. The Canadian National Change of Address (NCOA) database contains a 72-month history of NCOA information submitted to Canada Post from individuals, families, and companies. Addresses on the file are standardized and appended with the most recent forwarding addresses. Since approximately 20% of households and businesses in Canada move each year, the NCOA service is increasingly valuable in reducing undeliverable mail and helping increase response rates. (source: Canada Post)

The Results: Reducing Costs and Strengthening Relationships

Utilizing RESolutionsTECH’s NCOA cleanup has helped St. Lawrence keep in contact with Alumni, and helped to save money. Janine states: “When mailing an Alumni magazine to an invalid address, Canada post charges a fee around one dollar per return.” Of course, it isn’t difficult to imagine that 20% of 50,000 magazines can add up. St. Lawrence chooses to update their records according to the NCOA’s most recent data before each mailing of the Voyageur magazine. Janine states: “For a minimal investment in updating our address information, not only do we save money by reducing the return rate, we also ensure we maintain contact with our alumni.” Janine notes that when students graduate and move on to new endeavours, they expect their school will keep in touch with them. Janine remarks: “The NCOA offering from Canada Post is permission-based, and people pay for it with the understanding we will find them at their new address. People pay for this service to avoid the work of contacting everyone to update their address; they do it once, and understand that we will be able to find them. Our alumni want to be kept up to date, they want to be informed; it is our job to ensure that happens.”

St. Lawrence also has the option to regularly update their constituent phone numbers. Janine has previously worked in a call centre at another educational institution, and recalls being astounded at how often calls would be placed to numbers that are no longer in service, or that are no longer belonging to their constituents. Janine notes these invalid numbers did not appear to cost a lot of money; staff simply moved on to the next number, and time and money were not impacted with the lost call. Yet Janine states what people fail to consider here is the lost opportunity: “While an incorrect phone number does not cost a great deal, it is potentially a lapsed donor, or a lost opportunity. Considering the insignificant cost to update this information, it is foolish that someone wouldn’t follow through with this opportunity.”

Keeping Your Records up to Date: It Really is Simple

Each time St. Lawrence looks to update their contact information, Janine lets RESolutionsTECH know, and with a quick export of the relevant information, a summary report can be generated within days. The report contains helpful information, such as:

• Address Correction

Addresses are compared to Canada Post's master database of addresses in Canada, to help to identify what percentage of address are valid.

• National Change of Address – NCOA

Constituent names are compared to a master database of movers registered with Canada Post, to identify matches and determine how many forwarding addresses are available.

• Duplicate Summary

Advanced record matching technology helps to identify duplicate contact records.

• Telephone Verification & Append

Data is matched to Canada's most extensive and up-to-date 411 directory database, to determine which numbers are accurate and which can be corrected.

RESolutionsTECH provides a complimentary summary report for Canadian organizations, which provides statistical data describing the results. This free report provides an overview of the issues that can be corrected, allowing you to evaluate whether cleanup is required before you invest in doing so. Once St. Lawrence decides on the level of cleanup that is required, RESolutionsTECH helps to import this information back into their Raiser’s Edge database.

The Last Word: A Standard for Doing Business

Janine believes St. Lawrence has a responsibility to its constituents to maintain contact. As such, she views the cleanup of contact information as a necessary process. She states: “I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t use this available service. The NCOA is permission based, to not avail ourselves to that service doesn’t make sense. This really should be a standard for doing business.”