Nothing remains the same, things either improve, or they decline – the only question is over what time period. There are various theories about the half-life of a contact database but our estimate is about 18 months – i.e. if you do not use your database it will be half as useful after 18 months, then again after a further 18 months. Why? Simple really, people change jobs and email addresses, change their names and sadly sometimes pass away. Companies change name, get taken over, go out of business, change their url.

The Third Stage can help if you are in that situation – database cleansing and database repair is something we do well.

The Third Stage worked with a national UK charity whose database had become clogged with old and unreliable contact information over a number of years rendering it unusable. Working with us the charity re-established contact with 38% of the database and got renewed full email permission from 28%. As a bonus they got sms marketing permissions for the first time and over 400 new Gift Aid sign ups.

The result – A rock solid validated database. Cleansing was complete and new Gift Aid forms and sms permissions received.