The Public Lands Foundation (PLF) is a national membership organization that advocates and works to keep public lands in public hands. The Public Lands Foundation Website is located at: https://publicland.org. The website serves as PLF’s primary public face and presence on the internet. Functions available from this website include links to PLF Newsletters, links to topical public land issues, and updates, and links to PLF positon papers, public land maps and other public land news topics.
Two of the most important functions available from the PLF site are links to PLF membership registration and renewal, links to donations to support public lands. Given the current computing environment a web-based application programming interface is the best solution to renew PLF memberships and pursue online gift donations; and that this user application would have to fit into a WordPress environment which is the new industry standard for web development.
WordPress: The Public Lands Foundation Website is hosted on WordPress. WordPress is a free, open-source Content Management System (CMS) that allows anyone to easily build and manage websites, using plug-ins (code modules) that can be purchased and plugged in to the system.
Little Green Light: Little Green Light (LGL) is a donor management system that is a WordPress plugin. The Public Lands Foundation is using WordPress to manage membership renewal and online fundraising. It is a flexible, all-in-one donor management and fundraising platform that is specifically built for small to mid-sized nonprofits. Little Green Light is a responsive donation system with a strong communication feedback loop coupled with substantial data analytics.
Although Little Green Light represents the best subscription solution to managing our members and gift donations, there are still challenges with Little Green Light.
Data Base Schema – Little Green Light utilizes a standard Data Base Schema and Data Dictionary that PLF cannot modify or change. A Data Base Schema defines how data is organized, stored, and related within a database. It outlines the tables, fields, relationships, constraints, and other objects that comprise the database, but does not include the actual data itself.
There are a total of 38 data files that comprise Little Green Light. Of these 38 data extracts, 13 contain No Records. Three pertain solely to fund-raising codes. Three pertain to the recorded number of times PLF has corresponded with a specific constituent. Six tables relate to the number of times a particular constituent has donated or responded to an appeal for donations from PLF.
Constituent Management – There are two primary ‘People Files’ in Little Green Light – the Constituent File and the Memberships File. The database schema in Little Green Light is not optimal from PLF’s perspective in that over half of the data elements in the Constituent File pertain solely to Name or Salutation. Given that Little Green Light is almost exclusively focused on corresponding with its donors to solicit ‘gifts’ that makes sense. However, in PLF, our members are our donors. To the LGL Working Group, the most significant data element in the Constituents File is ‘Giving_status’ which relates to both your donor and membership status. However the assigned value of this data element is calculated internally by Little Green Light based upon a hierarchical algorithm.
Data Accuracy Issues – In regards to Little Green Light, the Public Lands Foundation did not do a good job of documenting our internal business processes or establishing written User Documentation or Standard Operating Procedures for its use. Data standards concerning PLF membership were not properly clarified or documented when PLF initially fielded Little Green Light. As a result, there are numerous data discrepancies which have been identified in Little Green Light that need to be remedied through a thorough data analysis process. As a self-contained WordPress plugin, Little Green Light goes through an internal business process algorithm on a daily basis to determine an individual’s ‘Giving_status’. It has become increasingly evident that this methodology is somewhat flawed. Increased familiarity with the Little Green Light operating system may help to clarify these anomalies in the future. In the interim, it has been determined that the best methodology to accomplish a clean sweep of our member data, and resolve our data accuracy issues can be accomplished by migrating our membership data from the Little Green Light WordPress plugin to an Oracle Database using My SQL hosted on this site (https://plfgroup.net) where in turn, it can be better managed.