Unlocking the Basics : The School Level Data Importer Made Easy

Have you been showing up to our many GiveCampus webinars on the data importer and keep thinking to yourself, "This functionality is super cool, but where do I start?" Well, then you've come to the right place! In this article we will provide some example templates and show you how to map those to a configuration!  These templates will provide a great entry point into the data importer and while they won't unlock everything the SLDI powers, but it will unlock:

• First-time donor matches and challenges
• Constituent ID Matching for gift reports
• Smart Appeals (Anniversary and Recurring Donors)
• Smart Ask Amounts
• GC Texting
• ....and more!

While you can create as many file configurations as you wish, we recommend having at least two: a constituent file and a gifts file.  

Download our sample CSV templates

• Constituent file template
• Gift file template

The Constituent File

This should be your first step as this is the file that will create all of your constituents in GiveCampus.  To make things as easy as possible, we've prepared a sample file (ConstituentBioConfigTemplate.csv) That you can use to unlock all of the above by following these simple steps:

1. Navigate to School Dashboard>Data Import>Import Configurations and choose "Add New CSV Configuration"
2. Copy in the file name and all the headers from the template into the appropriate place in the configuration (screenshot below to show what this looks like for the first few fields)
   1. external_id is in the top section
   2. In the Constituent - Biographical Data section, enter first_name, last_name, class_year, birthdate, deceased, primary_email, business_email, other_email, and cell_phone 
   3. In the Constituent - Mailing Address section, enter address1, address2, city, state, zipcode, and country
   4. In the Constituent - Affiliations section, enter affiliation_name and affiliation_value (learn more about Affiliations)
   5. NOTE: Double-check that the Header Names match the column headers in your CSV file!
3. Once you've mapped those fields, save the configuration
4. Drop your data into the template (you will first need to run a test import with <100 rows)
5. Upload the test to ensure everything works
6. Assuming it goes through with no issues, enable the configuration and upload your full file. Congratulations, you're more than halfway there!

The Gift File

For this step, you will be pulling a gift history file from your CRM.  The reason this is a separate file (and the reason we did the constituent file first) is that we want to be able to associate multiple gifts to a single constituent.  In this file, you can have multiple rows with the same constituent ID because the Gift ID is going to be used as the unique identifier.  

1. Navigate to School Dashboard>Data Import>Import Configurations and choose "Add New CSV Configuration"
2. Copy in the file name and all the headers from the template (GiftConfigSample.csv) into the appropriate place in the configuration (screenshot below to show what this looks like for the first few fields)
   1. external_id is in the top section
   2. Everything else will be under the Gifts section
   3. NOTE: Double-check that the Header Names match the column headers in your CSV file!
3. Once you've mapped those fields, save the configuration
4. Drop your data into the template (you will first need to run a test import with <100 rows)
5. Upload the test to ensure everything works
6. Assuming it goes through with no issues, enable the configuration and upload your full file. Congratulations, you did it!

You now have both gifts and constituents uploaded and ready to go.  You'll now be able to dive into advanced functionality and begin unlocking the powers of data-driven fundraising!