Exporting all constituents

Stephen Gouws

Hey,


I'm new here. New to Luminate and the whole suite in general.


I'm wanting to do an export of all Constituents.

My understanding so far is the best way to do this is through the 'Mail Merge' tool.

1. I just want confirmation that this is the best method before attempting said export.
2. Are there any limitations in terms of the exported data, such as you cannot export certain metadata?
3. Is there a better method for exporting all constituents?
4. Are there any gotchas/caveats that I need to be aware of when doing a mail merge?
5. Once I have cleaned the constituent list, what's the best way to get the list back in Luminate?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just finding the documentation to be a little vague and unclear at times.


Any answers/help would be greatly appreciated!


Stephen

Alex Russell

Stephen Gouws:

Hey,


I'm new here. New to Luminate and the whole suite in general.


I'm wanting to do an export of all Constituents.

My understanding so far is the best way to do this is through the 'Mail Merge' tool.

1. I just want confirmation that this is the best method before attempting said export.
2. Are there any limitations in terms of the exported data, such as you cannot export certain metadata?
3. Is there a better method for exporting all constituents?
4. Are there any gotchas/caveats that I need to be aware of when doing a mail merge?
5. Once I have cleaned the constituent list, what's the best way to get the list back in Luminate?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just finding the documentation to be a little vague and unclear at times.


Any answers/help would be greatly appreciated!


Stephen

 

I can't give you any guarantee that Mail Merge is the best tool because I'm a relatively new Luminate user, however it's pretty easy to just select the criteria you want downloaded and then selected All Registered Users. I do often use Report Writer if I'm looking for more specific output or if the constituents I'm trying to pull aren't part of a group or task result. It really depends on what kind of information you want LO to pull on all constituents. Data Downloads also exist in the Import/Export section, but I believe those only download data that was added after the last time the download was run.


In terms of limitations, I believe that Mail Merge will only let you pull the first, last, and largest gift information, and I don't think it will pull constituent interactions. Report Writer will, but it typically takes a little more time to set up than a Mail Merge (at least for me, anyway).

Philip Nawrocki

Hi Stephen,


Mail Merge is the best way to export data.


Just go to Mail Merge and click 'Create New Mail Merge' to see all the fields you can export.


No 'gotchas' to worry about. Its pretty straightforward.


I use this and then do my filtering in Excel.


To import back in, go to Data Management -> Import/Export


I usually use a custom constituent import, but there are many other to use.

Here is more info on those methods:
https://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/helpfiles/luminate-online/help/luminateonline.html#../Subsystems/DataManagement/Content/Concepts/Admin_Data_Sync.html?s_site=cmf&s_locale=en_US


Thanks,


Phil

Stephen Gouws

This is awesome, some really great info here!

Thank you both!


Really appreciate both of you taking the time!