CentraCare Foundation successfully migrated
an acquired foundation’s data into one unified
Salesforce organization

The CentraCare Foundation was founded in 1996 and the mission continues to this day: we enhance health care through support of services that provide hope and healing for our patients and families in central, west-central and southwest Minnesota. Learn more at centracare.com/foundation/ 

CentraCare Foundation, one of the largest healthcare systems in Central Minnesota, had recently acquired Carris Health Foundation, which serves Western Minnesota. Following this acquisition, the CentraCare Foundation (CCF), which had transitioned its technology from RE to NPSP in 2020, faced the task of migrating Carris Health Foundation’s (CHF) data from RE into the existing CentraCare Foundation Salesforce org. This project was crucial to ensuring that CentraCare Foundation could continue its essential work of supporting healthcare services to a broader region.

A primary challenge was determining which data was essential for the new system and what could be left behind. Decisions on how to tag CHF gifts, whether to use existing campaigns or create custom ones, and which RE attributes were necessary required careful consideration. Additionally, the significant contact overlap between CHF and CCF required thorough analysis and cleanup of duplicates to ensure accurate and streamlined data.

Integrating business processes added another layer of complexity. Close collaboration with stakeholders from both foundations was crucial to understand how Carris Foundation used their RE data and where it should be placed in CentraCare Foundation’s NPSP org. This integration also involved incorporating new business processes required by CCF to accommodate CHF, adjusting Carris Health Foundation’s existing processes to align with CentraCare Foundation’s operations in Salesforce, and identifying opportunities to enhance CentraCare Foundation’s current Salesforce practices.

Further complicating the project was the need to manage concurrent initiatives. While the data migration was underway, another Redpath consultant led a separate project for general Salesforce support and improvements. This required careful coordination, as any necessary organizational changes based on data migration had to be addressed through the support project, given the migration project’s limited scope.

Resource management was a constant concern. Being mindful of the hours allocated was essential to ensure the project remained within budget and on schedule. Despite these challenges, the successful migration was critical to enabling CentraCare Foundation to effectively manage its expanded operations and continue providing exceptional healthcare philanthropy across Central and Western Minnesota.

The solution to the challenges presented by migrating from RE to NPSP was straightforward: migrate the needed data. This process required close collaboration among all parties to determine which data was essential and how to handle various RE attributes, ensuring a smooth and effective transition.

One key element was dealing with RE attributes, one of the few customizable fields in RE, often leading to numerous duplicates and some attributes unknown to users. Our team enjoyed sorting through these attributes to identify what was necessary and figuring out the best way to load them into NPSP, ensuring that only relevant and valuable data was migrated.

In determining what data could be left behind, we decided that some data, such as gifts before 2015 or whole objects like memberships and honor memorial information, were not needed. This careful curation helped streamline the new system. We also worked closely with the CentraCare Foundation team to identify data they could manually move over after Redpath’s work was done, saving valuable project hours.

Updating business processes was another significant aspect of the project. Although both CCF and CHF had used RE, their processes differed greatly. The openness of all involved to improve Salesforce implementation allowed us to choose the best solutions in each case, rather than defaulting to existing practices. For example, CentraCare Foundation had migrated their split gifts from RE as regular gifts, while Carris Health Foundation treated them as recurring donations. By agreeing that recurring donations were the best solution, we improved how CentraCare Foundation was tagging these gifts in their existing org.

During the project, CentraCare Foundation hired a Data Systems Manager who worked closely with the support project lead on training. Leveraging the new manager’s skills, we trained them on duplicate merging and helped CentraCare Foundation better manage their data independently. This empowerment was crucial for the long-term success of their data management.

In summary, the solution to the migration challenges was a combination of thoughtful data selection, close collaboration on business process updates, and effective training and support.

The successful migration of data from RE to NPSP has brought on positive results for CentraCare Foundation. Now, the Foundation benefits from their new, unified Salesforce org, which has greatly enhanced their operational efficiency and data management capabilities.

By selecting the necessary data and leaving behind outdated or redundant information, we streamlined their database, making it easier to navigate and utilize. The collaboration with stakeholders ensured that the business processes of the Foundation were optimized within the new system, leading to improved functionality and better alignment with their operational needs.

The integration of recurring donations, the effective handling of RE attributes, and the updates to business processes have all contributed to a more efficient and user-friendly system. CentraCare Foundation’s ability to tag and track gifts more accurately has improved their fundraising capabilities, while the streamlined processes have enhanced overall productivity.

Moreover, the training and support provided to CentraCare Foundation’s new Data Systems Manager have empowered the organization to manage their data more effectively, reducing reliance on external support and fostering greater independence.

Overall, the project’s success has enabled the broadened CentraCare Foundation team to continue their essential work with a robust and efficient Salesforce system, ultimately supporting their mission to make rural life healthier, because health means everything.