We highly recommend auditing your historical data before importing it into 'Donor Management'. Accurate data will help expedite the import process and give you control over where you want certain fields created and listed in the system later on.
Uploading incomplete or incorrect data can result in higher e-mail bounce rates, more mail marked "Return to Sender", and an overall loss of integrity of your contact’s data.
Before You Begin
The Network for Good Data Import Team strongly recommends exporting or downloading all data from your former donor management system so you have a complete archive of your former system if a field is overlooked during the import process.
Click here for additional guidance on that process.
Step 1: Download the simple self-import data template
For your convenience, we have created a downloadable spreadsheet you can use as a template when importing data into 'Donor Management'. This includes the most common fields organizations include in their imports. This template also easily color-codes which fields are required or recommended, so you can easily tell what information you must (or should) include.
You can also find a downloadable version of this spreadsheet in 'Donor Management' – an option to download the template in Step 4 of the import process.
This spreadsheet is a helpful guide when deciding what information to include in your records and how to format your import so it will be processed as smoothly as possible.
To view additional details about more complex data imports that include other, less common fields, check out this article!
Step 2: Remove any unnecessary fields
When working directly with your historical data, delete any columns you do not plan to import into 'Donor Management' to minimize confusion.
Deleting unnecessary fields will streamline this process and make it easier to continue cleaning up and updating your data.
Step 3: Double check all required fields are present
Some fields are required for your import to process properly in 'Donor Management'. You want to include them for each record so you are less likely to encounter errors during the import process.
Contacts: Each contact record needs to have a first name (or, if no first name is available, an e-mail address must listed in the “first name” field.) While it is not required, we recommend having an e-mail or physical address for each contact record.
Donations: Each donation record needs to have some way to be associated with a contact record – in most cases, this is by the donor’s e-mail address - but, some organizations instead use a field like internal ID to make that association. Donation records also need to include the exact date of the donation (MM/DD/YYYY), the amount, and the payment method used to make the transaction. If you don’t know the date of a donation, you can always enter it as January 1st of the current year.
The steps outlined in this related guide will clarify which fields should be included while working through this process.
Step 4: Review your data for any duplicates
While 'Donor Management' finds and addresses potential duplicates, we recommend reviewing your data before importing it to identify and minimize potential duplicates.
You know your data best and can quickly identify and resolve duplicates on your own – and reviewing potential duplicates cannot be done in bulk through 'Donor Management'. You may be able to save yourself time if you review them beforehand. (This is especially important if you submit multiple spreadsheets for import!)
Note: Each donation will have its own individual donation record. Carefully review donation records for duplicates, as two separate donation records may appear as duplicates when they are two completely different transactions.
If your historical data includes a unique ID number for each donor, you can also include that in the 'External User ID' field in a more complex import. This can help minimize duplicates and confirm historical donations correspond to the correct donor!
Step 5: Separate organization contact records from individual ones
'Organization contacts' function slightly differently from their 'individual contact' record counterparts in the import process. We recommend saving all organization contacts in a separate Excel file (not a separate tab!) to make it easier for you to process them independently and review the results more comprehensively.
Check out this guide on available import fields!
Step 6: Save your import files in the correct file format
To import a file into 'Donor Management', save it as an Excel document (.xls or .xlsx) or a Comma Separated Value document (.csv).
This applies to your historical files as well.
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