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Kindsight - Milestone 1
Milestone 1 Optimizations Explained:
As we reflect on Milestone 1, we are seeing the completed optimizations in action. In Milestone 1, significant work was completed around data integrity. This work provides the foundation for the work that lies ahead as we continue with our forward momentum.
What do these accomplishments mean for your day-to-day ACE experience? We have compiled a series of notes for each completed task below.
What do these updates mean for you?
Stock Record External IDS
The solution implemented cleared the “External System ID” field on records for stock payments that was populated during the ACE conversion. This will make stock gift or payment adjustments more efficient for constituent management staff.
Amount on Installment Payment does not match amount of Payment Record.
Updated installment payment records on pledges where the installment payment amounts were converted to ACE incorrectly.
This issue primarily affected paid pledges, and it did not impact the pledge reminder process or the calculation of fundraising totals.
New Pledge Payments applied to incorrect installment.
Pledge payments were being applied to the incorrect installment. The UTFI and Kindsight teams identified and corrected an Ascend bug that caused the issue. This previously impacted the pledge reminder process, for which the Business Intelligence team built a temporary workaround. The original bug was fixed late 2024, and now affected installments have been updated.
Designation on Payment does not match Designation on Linked Designation Detail Record.
On some constituent records, lifetime fundraising was displaying as $0, despite related gifts to the record. The issue was identified and records have been corrected.
Payment s incorrectly converted with "Wire" Tender Type.
During the data review, 560K payment records that were incorrectly converted with a “Wire” tender type were corrected and updated. The majority of the errors were either Payroll Deduction or ACH transactions. The resolution included an update to ensure accurate reporting.
Funded Gifts/Pledges with no Payment Record.
Upon an initial data review, the team removed 51 duplicate Matching Gifts that had accidentally been created without payments. The User Experience team confirmed that these records did not impact any fundraising totals before or after removal, and the issue that lead to the creation of these records has been corrected.
ANDI Address Lines 1 and 2 converted on a single line.
Updated about 40K address records that were converted from ANDI with street line 1 and street line 2 combined into a single field in ACE.
Address "In Care of" Data Clean-Up.
Updated Address Relation records where the “In Care Of” field was inadvertently converted with duplicated “In Care Of”, “ICO”, or “C/O” values. This will allow this data to display accurately when used for mailings.
Constituent with Active Email/Phone/Address but none are marked Preferred.
Constituent records are now populating with the preferred email, phone and address, and missing preferences have been updated. The issue that prevented preferred contact information from being recorded has been resolved.
Preferred Email/Phone/Address on Constituent Overview does not match record marked preferred.
During the conversion process, records were identified with incorrect “Is Preferred” preferences for email, phone or address records. This error was caused during the conversion process, and affected less than 50 records. The constituent records have been identified and updated with the correct data.
Process to prevent Giving and Event Forms from updating Constituent Names.
After review of the issue, the UTFI team updated the Interims process to prevent a constituent’s existing primary name from being overridden by updates from online gift, event registration and other form submissions. Often, these changes included nicknames, or even typos, that replaced a preferred, formal name in ACE.
Names submitted online will continue to be captured on a constituent’s ACE record, but they won’t replace the existing primary name.
Upgrade interims process to prevent duplicate constituents from giving platforms.
A new process was implemented for generating Interim records from Give Campus, Blackthorn, philanthropic commerce and other online transactions to better prevent accidental duplicate constituent records. Duplicate records were sometimes created in instances where a new donor would make multiple gifts in the same day, or at the same time, such as a campus giving day.
Blackthorn Donor Records created without Preferred Email/Phone/Address.
Updated the Blackthorn transaction process to ensure that if a new constituent record is created, the provided email/phone/address will be marked as preferred. Previously, these records were created as “Lost” but had active contact information.
Update Blackthorn gift load process.
An updated was implemented to the Blackthorn transaction process to include additional data for gift processing to improve efficiency. Specifically, this solution addresses instances where the paying donor differs from the registering attendee and the event includes a discount code.
Partial Birthdate Policy & Procedure
A new checkbox field has been created to easily identify constituent records where a partial birthdate is entered, but either the birth day or birth year are unknown. This field can be used on ACE/BI reports and has been added to the Constituent Overview.
Constituents without a Primary Name Record.
After a review of ACE processes, 286 constituent records that did not have a “Primary Name” identified on their record were updated. Of these records, 23 were a result of conversion, while the rest were created after go-live. The ACE process that lead to this issue is has been reviewed and updated during Milestone 1.
Preserve Constituent Types during external data loads.
The interims process used to load external files with data for constituent groups (new graduates, students or parents) was updated to prevent the “Constituent Type” on an existing record from being overwritten. This will significantly improve efficiency and accuracy of external data loads in ACE.
Milestone 1 Overview:
Focus Areas
- Establish Agile Accelerator for detailed work/user story tracking.
- Upgrade UTFI software from 6.58 to the latest major release 7.11.
- To resolve data issues that don’t require the utilization of information from ANDI.
- Update and optimize integrations and automation processes to resolve incorrect data creation within the ACE ecosystem.
- Install self-service Lightning reports for UTFI review.
- Complete Gift Entry (XGPv2) migration.
- Survey users on training focused questions.
- Develop and deliver Salesforce Lightning Report Training using focused examples.
- Complete Formstack work on gift receipts and acknowledgements.
- Tableau Cloud enhancements, large datasets and extracts.
- Additional reporting priorities, job aids, training and communication tools as needed.
Progress Tracker
The progress tracker is a working document that will be updated frequently as we continue in the Milestone 1 phase.
Last update: 8/13/2025
| Task | Area | Status | Release Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Stock Record External IDs |
Data Integrity |
Complete |
7/8/2025 |
|
|
Amount on Installment Payment does not match amount of Payment Record. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/25/2025 |
|
|
New Pledge Payments applied to incorrect installment. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/25/2025 |
|
|
Designation on Payment does not match designation on Linked Designation Detail Record. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/30/2025 |
|
|
Payments incorrectly converted with “Wire” Tender Type. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/8/2025 |
|
|
Funded Gifts/Pledges with no payment record. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/25/25 |
|
|
ANDI Address Lines 1 and 2 converted on single line. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/15/2025 |
|
|
Address “In Care Of” Data Clean-Up. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/15/2025 |
|
|
Preferred Email/Phone/Address on Constituent Overview does not match record marked preferred. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/15/2025 |
|
|
Process to prevent giving and event forms from updating constituent names. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/25/25 |
|
|
Upgrade interims process to prevent duplicate constituents from giving platforms. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
7/25/25 |
|
|
Blackthorn Donor Records created without preferred Email/Phone/Address. |
Data Integrity |
Complete |
7/8/2025 |
|
|
Update Blackthorn gift load process. |
Data Integrity |
Complete |
7/8/2025 |
|
|
Partial Birthday policy and procedure. |
Data Integrity |
Complete |
7/8/2025 |
|
|
Constituents without a primary name record. |
Data Integrity |
Complete |
7/8/2025 |
|
|
Preserve constituent types during external data loads. |
Data Integrity |
Complete |
7/8/2025 |
|
|
Constituent with Active Email/Phone/Address but none are marked as preferred. |
Data Integrity |
Completed |
8/8/2025 |
|
|
Gift processing upgrade to Expedited Gift Processing Version 2 |
Functionality |
Completed |
8/8/2025 |
|
Milestone 1 Work in Progress
The UTFI and Kindsight teams have identified areas that will require further review and planning. Progress in these areas will continue in Milestone 2.
| Task | Area | Status |
|---|---|---|
|
Formstack: Donor Advised Fund Acknowledgements |
Document Generation |
In Progress |
|
Formstack: Gift-in-Kind Receipts |
Document Generation |
In Progress |
|
Formstack: IRA Acknowledgements |
Document Generation |
In Progress |
|
Formstack: Standard Gift Receipts |
Document Generation |
In Progress |
|
Formstack: Stock Receipts |
Document Generation |
In Progress |
|
Formstack: Tribute Cards and Envelopes |
Document Generation |
In Progress |
|
Ascend upgrade to Version 7.11. |
Functionality |
In Progress |
|
Ascend out-of-the-box reports. |
Reporting |
In Progress |