How the sync works
The NGP VAN sync runs automatically once per day. It pulls contacts from your connected NGP VAN account and imports any that do not already exist in your contact database. Contributions are synced after contacts, because contribution records are linked to contact records by NGP VAN ID.
The sync is additive only. It brings in contacts from NGP VAN that are not yet in your database. It does not overwrite or update fields on contacts that were already imported from a previous sync.
The contact already exists
If a contact was imported from NGP VAN in a prior sync (or was imported from another source with matching data), the sync will skip that person. The sync checks whether each contact's NGP VAN ID already exists in your database before inserting. If it finds a match, it moves on without making any changes to the existing record.
This means edits made directly in your contact database after the initial import will not be overwritten by a later sync. It also means edits made in NGP VAN after the initial import will not be pulled in automatically.
The contact was not returned by the NGP VAN API
The NGP VAN API does not offer a way to fetch all contacts at once. The sync queries by first name or email address, using each letter of the alphabet and common characters as a starting filter. A contact whose name and email do not begin with any of those characters, or whose record is not active in NGP VAN, may not be returned and therefore will not be imported.
The sync job did not complete successfully
Each sync runs as a background job. If the job encountered an error or is still in progress, some contacts may not yet have been processed. You can check the status of recent sync jobs in your integrations settings. A job that shows an error or is stuck in a pending state may need to be restarted.
The credentials are inactive or incorrect
The sync only runs for organizations with active NGP VAN credentials on file. If the credentials were deactivated, expired, or entered incorrectly, no sync will run and no contacts will be imported. Confirm that your NGP VAN connection is active in your integrations settings.
What to do
Check your integrations settings to confirm the NGP VAN connection is active and that recent sync jobs completed without errors.
If the contact exists in your database already (imported from a prior sync or another source), the sync will not update it. You can edit the contact directly.
If you believe a contact should have been imported but was not, and the sync shows as completed, contact support with the contact's NGP VAN ID so we can investigate.