Building a strong data foundation for more meaningful fundraising initiatives

Solution overview

To regain control over its growing Salesforce database, Plan collaborated with Experian to build a smarter, more scalable approach to managing supporter data. The goal was simple: create one accurate, unified view of every supporter, without the manual work usually involved in fixing duplicate or conflicting records.

Contact data matching and merging

The solution centred on implementing an automated matching and deduplication process using Experian’s Aperture Data Studio, integrated directly with Salesforce. This enabled Plan International to extend the basic matching capabilities available in Salesforce.

Supporters often use multiple email addresses, change phone numbers, move homes or appear under different name variations. With these complexities in mind, the new process could identify not only obvious duplicates but also close matches that previously slipped through the cracks and created fragmented supporter histories.

The first priority has been addressing Plan International’s contact records, where duplication caused the most disruption. By detecting more nuanced similarities between records, the implementation is already delivering a more complete and dependable view of each supporter.

Client driven merge logic

Experian then worked closely with Plan International to define exactly how records should be merged. With support from Experian’s consulting team, Plan International was able to take full control of the merge process in Aperture Data Studio without needing deep technical expertise.

A critical part of this work involved determining which record should survive when duplicates were found. To do this, Plan International developed a set of business-specific rules that reflected how they identified a “true” master record. These rules were entirely shaped by their organisational context, and in this instance, Plan relied on attributes such as legacy supporter identifiers, membership numbers and the relevant age of record, for example, selecting the version with the oldest creation date or the smallest legacy ID value.

Because only Plan International held the contextual knowledge to understand which identifiers carried the most significance, their input became central to the design. Rather than imposing assumptions, Experian’s role was to listen, interpret and translate these insights into a robust merge process so that it aligned precisely with the client’s established data governance standards.

Additionally, Plan International preserved field level rules to ensure important information such as marketing preferences or validation fields could be carried forward from non-surviving records when required. This meant that no critical details were lost during the merge process and every consolidated record reflected the most complete picture possible.

Once approved, the resulting clean and consolidated master record was written back into Salesforce. As implementation continues, Plan International’s teams are gaining a more reliable and consistent supporter data to work from, enabling clearer insights and more meaningful supporter engagement.

Ongoing data quality operations

Following the initial matching run, Plan International intends to operate the solution as a repeatable, operational process. After the first full pass across its contact records, future runs will focus on delta changes. This allows the organisation to identify and resolve new duplicates as they appear, without reprocessing the entire database each time. A monthly cadence has been identified as the likely operating model, giving Plan International a consistent rhythm for maintaining accurate and reliable supporter data.

As part of the broader transformation, Plan International has also licensed Experian’s contact validation capabilities for email, phone and address data. Once the core deduplication solution is fully live, a bulk validation exercise will be completed to further uplift data quality. With more reliable contact details in place, Plan International expects fewer bounce backs and misdirected messages, making it easier to reach supporters through their preferred communication channels.

As the full solution comes to life, Plan International is positioning itself for deeper engagement, more meaningful conversations and ultimately more support for children and communities who need it most.

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