Import Data to Donorbox CRM

Donorbox CRM allows for CSV files to be imported, making it easier to migrate databases and back up vital donor information.

Jump to a section:

• Donorbox CRM Data Import 
• Prepare a CSV file to Import Data to Donorbox CRM 
  • Transaction & Supporter Fields
  • Supporter Fields
  • Communication Record Fields
  • Initiate the Import in Donorbox CRM
    • Custom Matching Criteria
• Revert Updates After Data Import is Complete

Donorbox CRM Data Import 

The process to import data into Donorbox CRM involves setting up a CSV file which contains data from the platform you are migrating from.

There are three types of CSV imports to easily upload your data to Donorbox CRM: 

• Transactions with Supporters - imports all transaction data along with information you have about donors, ticket buyers, and more. 
• Supporters - imports all information about donors, ticket buyers, and more. 
• Communications - imports existing supporter communication records.

In this section, we’ll show you how to do all three to ensure you have everything you need in your CRM. 

 

Note: The amount of contacts you can import depends on your Donorbox CRM plan. For example, if you have a 500 contact plan and import 600 contacts, 100 of those contacts will be displayed as archived. However, the transactions for all 600 contacts will still be recorded as there is no limit on the number of transactions you can record.

Prepare a CSV file to Import Data to Donorbox CRM 

If you have comprehensive data you don’t want to lose, follow these instructions to import data via CSV import. 

• Create a CSV file, using Excel or Google Sheets, with the required information and any optional import fields you wish to include 

 

Note: The number of contacts you can import depends on your Donorbox CRM plan. For example, if you have a 500 contact plan and import 600 contacts, 100 of those contacts will be included in the errors file due to the limit being exceeded on your plan.

Transaction & Supporter Fields

When importing Transaction data, each transaction is associated with a Supporter. The fields listed below are supported.

Import all your existing transaction data, along with critical information you have about donors, ticket buyers, and more, using the Transactions with Supporters CSV import. 

The transactions import process conveniently searches for corresponding supporter data to provide a more comprehensive import. If no supporter information is available, it will create the supporter before linking the respective transaction to that supporter profile.

This saves you time since you don’t need to upload supporter data before uploading transactions.

 

Pro tip: Since transactions carry tons of valuable donor data – like donation amounts, designations, and campaign information – we recommend starting with a transaction import first. If you have additional supporter or communications data you’d like to sync to Donorbox CRM, we suggest uploading those lists once your transaction data is in place.

Fields in bold denote required fields.

 

¹ The following currencies are unsupported:

BYR, SKK, ZMK, BCH, XFU, GBX, EEK, LTL, LVL, MTL, TMM, ZWD, ZWN, ZWR, VES, XBA, XBB, XBC, XBD, XTS

² These fields support the specified values provided under the example column. Ensure that these fields are populated with the predefined options for a smooth import.

 

 

 

 

Field	Type	Example
First Name	text	Bob
Last Name	text	Smith
Email	email	[e-mail]
Amount	decimal	123,456.78
Currency1	3-letter ISO code	USD
Status2		blocked charge_pending failed fraud migrated paid paypal_pending paypal_processing pending refunded
Note	text	A noteworthy transaction.
Receipt Sent	boolean	True/False
Anonymous	boolean	True/False
Tax Deductible Amount	decimal	123,456.78
Transaction Date		YYYY/MM/DD
Transaction Type2		donation purchase due imported
Supporter Type2		Donor Attendee Member Fundraiser Subscriber Volunteer Contact Imported
Alternative Email	email	[e-mail]
Phone number	integer	1 212 345 6789
Phone Country Code	text	+1, +44
Preferred Language	text	English
Address Line 1	text	123 Main Street
Address Line 2	text	Apt. 1121
City	text	New York
State	text	New York
Zipcode	text	10001
Country	text	United States
Birth Date		YYYY/MM/DD
Education Level2		high school associate degree bachelors masters doctorate other
Religion2		christian catholic jewish muslim hindu buddhist sikh atheist agnostic spiritual other
Organization Comment (text)	text	Supporter Notes Field
Gender2		male female nonbinary not listed other
Nickname	text	Bobby
Pronouns2		he she they shethey hethey other
Do Not Call	boolean	True/False
Do Not Email	boolean	True/False
Do Not Text	boolean	True/False
Supporter Comment	text	A noteworthy cause.
Designation	text
Join Mailing List	boolean	True/False
GDPR Opt In	boolean	True/False
Visible Wall	boolean	True/False
Gift Aid	boolean	True/False
App Amount	decimal	123,456.78
Processing Amount	decimal	123,456.78
Covered Amount	decimal	123,456.78
Donation Item Type2		in_kind pledge soft_credit
Donation Pledge	boolean	True/False
Donation In Kind Description	text	Dedicated to anonymous.
Card brand	text	Visa
Card Last 4 Digits	text	4242
Payment Error Message	text
Stripe Charge Id	text
Stripe Org Id	text
Stripe Payment Intent Id	text
PayPal Transaction Id	text
PayPal Email	text
Check Number	text

After this CSV file has been set up, you can upload it to Donorbox CRM where the data will be mapped, processed and stored in your Donorbox CRM instance.

Supporter Fields

The Supporters CSV Import will upload all the information you have about donors, ticket buyers, and more.

Since this type of import will exclude any transaction data linked to supporters, this is ideal for uploading any information on supporters who do not have existing transactions.

Fields in bold denote required fields.

 

¹ The following currencies are unsupported:

BYR, SKK, ZMK, BCH, XFU, GBX, EEK, LTL, LVL, MTL, TMM, ZWD, ZWN, ZWR, VES, XBA, XBB, XBC, XBD, XTS

² These fields support the specified values provided under the example column. Ensure that these fields are populated with the predefined options for a smooth import.

 

 

 

Field	Type	Example
First Name	text	Bob
Last Name	text	Smith
Email	email	[e-mail]
Amount	decimal	123,456.78
Currency1	3-letter ISO code	USD
Status2		blocked charge_pending failed fraud migrated paid paypal_pending paypal_processing pending refunded
Salutation2		Dr. Miss. Mrs. Mr. Ms. Pro. Custom
Occupation	text	Software Engineer
Employer	text	Donorbox
Supporter Type2		Donor Attendee Member Fundraiser Subscriber Volunteer Contact Imported
Alternative Email	email	[e-mail]
Phone Number	integer	1 212 345 6789
Phone Country Code	text	+1, +44
Preferred Language	text	English
Address Line 1	text	123 Main Street
Address Line 2	text	Apt. 1121
City	text	New York
State	text	New York
Zipcode	text	10001
Country	text	United States
Birth Date	date	yyyy/mm/dd
Supporter Notes	text	A noteworthy cause.
Education Level2		high school associate degree bachelors masters doctorate other
Religion2		christian catholic jewish muslim hindu buddhist sikh atheist agnostic spiritual other
Organization Comment	text	Supporter Notes Field
Gender2		male female nonbinary not listed other
Nickname	text	Bobby
Pronouns2		he she they shethey hethey other
Do Not Call	boolean	True/False
Do Not Email	boolean	True/False
Do Not Mail	boolean	True/False
Do Not Text	boolean	True/False

After this CSV file has been set up, you can upload it to Donorbox CRM where the data will be mapped, processed and stored in your Donorbox CRM instance.

Communication Record Fields

This CSV import allows you to upload any existing supporter communication records you have available. This ensures you can maintain communication records easily with supporters right from your CRM.

 

Note: You must have all supporter information available or uploaded before importing communication records. If you don’t have existing supporter records in your CRM, new supporter records will be created with this import.

Fields in bold denote required fields.

Field	Description
First name	Bob
Last name	Smith
Email address	[e-mail]
Direction of communication	inbound or outbound
Channel	email or phone
Purpose
Log date	When the record was created
Comment	Comments related to the communication sent/received
Org User Email	[e-mail]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top Tips

• Columns with a blank header will be skipped during the import process. 

• If your file contains duplicate column headers, Donorbox CRM will process only the last duplicate column. 

• Use lower case when labelling your headers. This will remove the additional steps when mapping fields in the CSV to Donorbox fields.

After this CSV file has been set up, you can upload it to Donorbox CRM where the data will be mapped, processed and stored in your Donorbox CRM instance.

Initiate the Import in Donorbox CRM

After you have prepared your CSV file, you can head over to the Donorbox Web Application.

• Log in to your Donorbox account and click CRM (if you have access to Donorbox CRM as part of your plan).

• In the menu panel at the left, select Data Imports.
• Within Data Imports, click + Import New File at the top-right of the screen.

• Label the the upload for future reference.

• Select the CSV file by clicking Choose File.
• Select the import type depending on the data being imported (Supporters, Transactions, or Communications).

Custom Matching Criteria

You can customize which fields you want to use to match records being imported.

These fields include:

• first name
• last name
• email
• Country Code (Country code for phone number)
• Phone number
• DOB
• Zipcode
• Country

The first name, last name and email are set as the default criteria but you can modify it based on your needs.

• Under Match Imported Data to an Existing Supporter select the Custom Matching Criteria checkbox which suits your use case.
• You can either leave it as Automatic matching or specify which fields are used for matching (refer to fields above).

• Select the fields that you want to include in the matching criteria for a particular import.

 

This is an optional step and the default criteria is email only.

Note: You can also import supporter information directly from the Supporters page. Click Actions > Import Supporters.

• Click Next after selecting the file and data type.
• You are prompted to map fields in the CSV to fields in Donorbox. These should be auto-matched, however, we do recommend reviewing all fields.

• On the next page, you'll see a preview of your mapped CSV data. If everything looks good, click Import.
• When the import is complete, the import status and the number of valid and errored records are displayed.
• Any error record will be consolidated into a CSV file with an extra column detailing the error.
  • This makes it easy for you to fix any errors and re-upload that same file to complete the import process.
• Find a record of this import process on the Data Imports page for future reference. 

Revert Updates After Data Import is Complete

You can revert any changes that have been made to you transaction, supporter or communication data, after an import is complete.

• Go to CRM > Data Imports.
• Click the Import title.
• On the Import records into your CRM (Completed step) screen, click the red Revert button.