DonorPerfect Data Import

Jason Morris

I am having some issues coming up with a solid integration procedure for Donor Perfect.  So far I have come up with the below steps to facilitate this.

1. Pull donor information from Convio and DPO.
2. Using formulas in Excel, I will need to match up the donor id's from both databases to their respective contacts.
3. I will import the DPO id's into Convio and vice versa.
4. Export entire donor list into DPO using two seperate imports, one for new donors and one for updating old donor info.
5. Using a transaction report, I will create an import file into DPO for gifts.  Before importing I will need to make sure that the donor id's from DPO are correctly assigned to the donor's relative gift.

According to best practices I should do the same in reverse to ensure Convio has all the DPO gift information in order to facilitate dymanic asking emails.  These procedures do not take into account soft credits either.  Is this the best way to import data into DPO or does someone else have a better solution.  Thanks.

Patrick Hansen

Hi Jason,

You're definitely approaching this the right way in general.  I don't have specific knowledge of Donor Perfect, so I do hope that other active members of the Community who see this thread might respond with the specifics of how they're managing their donor data in DP and Convio.

One thing I will note - there's no way to store in Convio every donor's detailed transaction history.  Convio's online marketing database only stores detailed transaction information for gifts processed online.  Meaning, the step in the process you describe at the very end of importing all DP transaction information back into Convio isn't possible (and, in many ways, isn't desireable).

Convio does have a variety of fields that are intended to capture information about offline transactions in a way that allows you to segment and target your online solicitations in the future.  These include:

external_first_gift_dateExternal First Gift Dateexternal_first_gift_amountExternal First Gift Amountexternal_last_gift_dateExternal Last Gift Dateexternal_last_gift_amountExternal Last Gift Amountexternal_largest_gift_dateExternal Largest Gift Dateexternal_largest_gift_amountExternal Largest Gift Amountexternal_ytd_gift_amountExternal YTD Gift Amountexternal_ytd_gift_countExternal YTD Gift Countexternal_lifetime_gift_amountExternal Lifetime Gift Amountexternal_lifetime_gift_countExternal Lifetime Gift Count

"External" is intended to indicate that the information has been consolidated/aggregated from your donor database of record ("external" to or outside of Convio).

Because I'm not familiar with the specifics of Donor Perfect, I don't know whether you may have fields like this already available to you "out of the box" in DP or whether you can easily configure DP to provide you with this kind of consolidated donor history information.

Is there anyone with DP-specific experience that can shed more light here?

Thanks,

-patrick

Rob Manley

Patrick Hansen:

Hi Jason,

You're definitely approaching this the right way in general.  I don't have specific knowledge of Donor Perfect, so I do hope that other active members of the Community who see this thread might respond with the specifics of how they're managing their donor data in DP and Convio.

One thing I will note - there's no way to store in Convio every donor's detailed transaction history.  Convio's online marketing database only stores detailed transaction information for gifts processed online.  Meaning, the step in the process you describe at the very end of importing all DP transaction information back into Convio isn't possible (and, in many ways, isn't desireable).

Convio does have a variety of fields that are intended to capture information about offline transactions in a way that allows you to segment and target your online solicitations in the future.  These include:

external_first_gift_dateExternal First Gift Dateexternal_first_gift_amountExternal First Gift Amountexternal_last_gift_dateExternal Last Gift Dateexternal_last_gift_amountExternal Last Gift Amountexternal_largest_gift_dateExternal Largest Gift Dateexternal_largest_gift_amountExternal Largest Gift Amountexternal_ytd_gift_amountExternal YTD Gift Amountexternal_ytd_gift_countExternal YTD Gift Countexternal_lifetime_gift_amountExternal Lifetime Gift Amountexternal_lifetime_gift_countExternal Lifetime Gift Count

"External" is intended to indicate that the information has been consolidated/aggregated from your donor database of record ("external" to or outside of Convio).

Because I'm not familiar with the specifics of Donor Perfect, I don't know whether you may have fields like this already available to you "out of the box" in DP or whether you can easily configure DP to provide you with this kind of consolidated donor history information.

Is there anyone with DP-specific experience that can shed more light here?

Thanks,

-patrick

Patrick,

We don't use DonorPerfect, we use MPX, but I was doing some reading about how best to integrate our data and ran across this post. I was reviewing the list of fields available for import into Convio at https://secure2.convio.net/pov/admin/AdminHelp?pagename=Admin_ImportExport_CustomConstituentImport and I don't see any of the fields that begin with "external_" that you mention in your post. These fields would be very helpful, of course. How do I access these fields? Are these fields that have to be activated on our account? I know that is sometimes the case. Assuming we have access to these fields, what import process would be used to import into them if not the Custom Constituent Import?

Thanks for your help.

Patrick Hansen

Rob Manley:

Patrick,

We don't use DonorPerfect, we use MPX, but I was doing some reading about how best to integrate our data and ran across this post. I was reviewing the list of fields available for import into Convio at https://secure2.convio.net/pov/admin/AdminHelp?pagename=Admin_ImportExport_CustomConstituentImport and I don't see any of the fields that begin with "external_" that you mention in your post. These fields would be very helpful, of course. How do I access these fields? Are these fields that have to be activated on our account? I know that is sometimes the case. Assuming we have access to these fields, what import process would be used to import into them if not the Custom Constituent Import?

Thanks for your help.

Hi Rob,

Those External fields I listed aren't always available by default.  If they weren't enabled for you in your initial Convio setup, you can ask your Account Manager to enable them for you at any time.

Once those fields are enabled, you should be able to pass data into them via either the Custom or Standard constituent import operations in Convio.

-patrick