In March, I posted "I Fixed the Association Database Problem." It's been a few months, so here's an update.
Back then, MemberVerify already worked, and I knew it could help nonprofits clean their databases and increase revenue. Since then, my goal has been to improve the program, cut costs, and strengthen security.
Here's an update on each.
Program and Costs
These turned out to be the same job. My number one goal is to make this affordable for nonprofits on a tight budget, without giving up quality.
In March, MemberVerify leaned on third-party databases, with AI doing the heavy lifting on everything else. It worked, but it was slow and expensive. So I dumped the databases and built a multi-model agentic engine that researches each contact in real time, running simple models for the easy calls and heavier ones when it gets hard.
AI only does research. Decisions are made by fixed rules, hard-coded into the program, built on a few hard-won principles:
- Failure cases, caught on real data and codified. Many people sit on boards, and those seats often show up as their current job. We filter for that and list their actual full-time role.
- Knowledge of how member data behaves. People keep their old work email long after they leave, so we never treat the email as proof of employer. We verify the person first.
- Corroboration before anything is trusted. One source claiming a job change, even a confident one, isn't enough to touch your record. A change only applies when multiple independent sources agree; anything weaker goes to a human.
The result is a stronger system at a fraction of the cost. It only spends real horsepower on hard cases, so it runs for far less than before, and that goes into lowering your price.
Security
Data is sacred, and I know that as well as anyone. In 23 years, I never sold my contact data, gave registration lists to sponsors, or bought data for my own use. I hold yours even more closely. Here's how.
- We handle as little as possible, for as little time as possible, and it never leaves the country. We only touch professional fields (name, employer, title, work email, location), never anything personal like a home address, cell number, or private email. All of it is deleted after 30 days.
- What we hold is locked down at every layer. Encrypted in transit and at rest, your CRM credentials encrypted again on top, every customer walled off from the next, access behind multi-factor login and least-privilege roles, all on independently audited infrastructure.
- Everything is logged, reversible, and held to a written standard. Every privileged action is recorded, every change can be undone, and the system is monitored in real time, with documented plans for backups, incident response, and breach notification.
None of this is a box I check. For membership organizations, trust is the entire asset, and I protect your data like it's my own. For 23 years it was.
If your organization is fighting this, I'd love to help. Reach out anytime.