Importing constituent information from excel

Marcia Reed · June 2016

I'm sure that there is a best, efficient, accurate method to do this. Question is: If entering a group of new constituents, what would be the excel heading criteria for accurate new constituent set up from an import?

Help!

Thanks.
Marcia Reed
Donor Services Manager

721 Cliff Drive
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
reed@sbccfoundation.org
Phone: (805) 730-4405
FAX: (805) 965-3161
sbccfoundation.org

Julie Reymore · June 2016

I have the same question. Thank you!

JoAnn Strommen · June 2016

Import can be tricky to me. One of the best ways I learned at some training along the way for import headers is to create an export with all the fields you want to import (just use your record or an example). You can then use that excel file for your import (cut and paste to existing if needed).

You can actually name the headers in excel/csv whatever makes sense to you. When you import you'll map them to the RE fields. Nice when they match going in but they don't have to. There is an import guide online that is quite helpful but very large book.

Check knowledgbase for some demos. They might be helpful. You can create your own import ID's and you'll need them for the constituent record, address etc. Our format is date-user import type-sequence (062116-jsconsatt-001). Don't leave any columns blank - import thinks blank is the end of the data.

Hope this helps a bit.

David Zeidman · June 2016

I would agree with JoAnn that the easiest way to set up the format is by first doing an export. However the best way using RE's own built in import is to make use of the export from import function (rather than using the export module). In import, select the import type you want and then select the radio button "Create import file". This will give you a template that you can use when you want to bring in your own data.

This is of course using the built in RE module which of course will not cost you a penny more but can be complicated especially if you are adding child records and gifts etc. There are alternatives where the import file format is much more forgiving. Our product Importacular for example allows you to bring in data on to the constituent and gift records for free without worrying about ids and is much more intuitive to bring in complex data sets. The best thing is that it is free for this kind of import (and very cheap for others). Check it out here: http://www.zeidman.info/project/importacular/

Jill Freidmutter · June 2016

Another option is to call BB customer support and ask them to walk you through it. Last year our organization expanded to a neighboring county, and needed to add records for those donors. I had constituents, spouses, orgs, contacts, salutations, notes and attributes. I had never done imports before. Customer support was fantastic. A very knowledgeable rep spoke with me about the steps we'd need to take. (First import the constituents, then import spouses, then orgs, and then contacts.) He walked me through it from beginning to end. We probably had 5 phone conversations/screen shares over 3 days, with me setting up the spreadsheets for importing between calls. We did trials with just a few records. Resolved errors in the spreadsheets. In all, it was a fantastic experience. Perhaps I was lucky because my rep was the perfect person to help. And I learned a ton.

Importing constituent information from excel

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