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Import Your Donation History into GivingFuel, and Enter Multiple Offline Donations at Once
Import Your Donation History into GivingFuel, and Enter Multiple Offline Donations at Once

Import Transactions Into GivingFuel in Bulk

Maddy avatar
Written by Maddy
Updated over 3 weeks ago

The Import Donations feature in GivingFuel makes it easy for organizations to quickly and accurately import donation data from external sources, saving time and reducing manual entry errors. Whether you're transferring data from another system or consolidating offline donations, this tool ensures a seamless integration, allowing you to maintain up-to-date donor records and provide a more efficient giving experience.

Example Use Cases

  • Your organization wants to import donation history from a previous platform to retain your donor data

  • Your organization wants to import 150 offline donations you received from your giving campaign all at once

Jump To...

Import Donations

  • From the Pages screen, click the Donations tab from the top menu bar

  • Click Import Donations on the right-hand side

  • Click Download Template

    • If you would like to learn more about the columns, click View Columns

  • Find the template on your computer, and open the file

  • Add the Donation Information to the template

  • Save your file

Import Donations Template Descriptions

  1. Donation Amount (required)

  2. Donation Fund (optional)

  3. Donation Date (required - available formats listed below)

    • MM/DD/YYYY

    • MM-DD-YYYY

    • YYYY/MM/DD

    • YYYY-MM-DD

    • MM/DD/YY

    • MM-DD-YY

  4. Payment Method (required - available formats listed below)

    • Card

    • ACH

    • Offline

  5. Reference Number (required)

  6. Account Mask (optional)

    • Card Example: Card Type + Last 4 digits (VISA-4111)

    • ACH Example: Last 4 digits of bank account (1111)

  7. Currency (optional - available currencies listed below)

  8. Email (required)

  9. First Name (required)

  10. Last Name (required)

  11. Billing Address Line 1 (optional)

  12. Billing Address Line 2 (optional)

  13. Billing City (optional)

  14. Billing State (optional)

  15. Billing Postal Code (optional)

  16. Billing Country (optional)

Warning: If you delete a required field from the template and attempt to import your donation history, the import will fail. For this reason, we discourage individuals from deleting any columns in the template to ensure that your import will proceed as expected.

  • When you are ready, go back to the GivingFuel Import Donations screen

  • Click Upload CSV

  • Select the appropriate file

  • Click Open

  • Enter the Email you would like to receive a summary of the number of successful donations, as well as a CSV file sharing why any imported donations were unsuccessful

  • Click Import

Pro Tip: Contacts in GivingFuel are tied to the billing email. All of the donations submitted under the same billing email will appear together in the Contact profile and Year-End Statements. For this reason, we recommend double-checking the billing email to ensure that it is correct, and strongly recommend using a unique email for each separate contact for whom you add a donation.

If you are adding donations to a donor who has already given in GivingFuel, we recommend confirming that the billing email is the same on the import as in their donor profile. If the billing email is different in the import, any donations will be imported into a new contact.

  • When the import is complete, our system will send an email to the email that was entered

    • Imported Transactions will show how many donations were successfully import into GivingFuel.

    • Failed Transactions shows how many donations were unsuccessful

    • Any unsuccessful donations will be attached in a CSV file with an error code sharing why the donation was unsuccessfully imported.

Note: The time our system takes to import the donations varies, depending on how large the file is.

Failed Transaction Import Codes

  • CSV has no data rows: this error occurs when the CSV file has head row but no data rows. We recommend uploading a new CSV file with data

  • Error parsing CSV: this error occurs when the CSV is empty, or when the file is not a CSV file. We recommend uploading a new CSV file with data

  • Please split the CSV into smaller files: this error occurs when the CSV file has more than 1 million lines. We recommend breaking this file into multiple smaller CSV files, and uploading those individually

  • Account Mask may contain at most 4 digits of the card number, like "VISA-1111: this error occurs when the account mask contains too many digits. We recommend removing the extra digits to contain at most 4 digits, and re-importing

  • Failed to parse "_____" as a decimal number in the Donation Amount field. It should be a positive number: this error occurs when the donation amount is in an improper format. We recommend updating the donation amount to be a positive number, and re-importing

  • Failed to parse "_____" as a Donation Date in the Donation Date field. It should be formatted like one of the following: "2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00", "2006-01-02", "2006/01/02", "01-02-2006", "01/02/2006", "01/02/06", "01-02-06", "1/2/06", "1-2-06: this error occurs when the Donation Date is in an unsupported format. We recommend updating the donation date in a supported format, and re-importing

  • First Name is required: this error occurs because the first name column is blank on the donation. We recommend adding a first name to this donation, and re-importing

  • Invalid Donation Amount: "-_____". Donation Amount must be positive: this error occurs when the donation amount is negative. We recommend updating the donation amount to be positive, and re-importing

  • Invalid email: "_____": this error occurs when the email is invalid. We recommend adding a valid email, and re-importing

  • Invalid Payment Method: "_____". It should be one of: card, ach, offline: this error occurs when the payment method is in an unsupported format. We recommend updating the payment method to either Card, ACH, or Offline, and re-importing

  • Last Name is required: this error occurs because the last name column is blank on the donation. We recommend adding a last name to this donation, and re-importing

  • Reference number already exists in a transaction: this error occurs because this reference number is already in our system. We recommend adding a unique reference number on this failed donation, and re-importing

  • Reference Number is required: this error occurs when the reference number column is blank on the donation. We recommend adding a reference number to this donation, and re-importing

  • Unsupported currency: "_____": this error occurs when the currency is in an unsupported currency. We recommend updating the currency to a supported currency, and re-importing. NOTE: our system requires any currencies to be listed in all-caps. For example, a code of Usd or usd will receive an error, and must be entered as USD

FAQs

If my imported donation has the same billing email as a current donor in GivingFuel but a different name or address, will GivingFuel update the donor profile?

No, if your imported donation has the same billing email as a current donor but a different name or address, the donor's Contact information will remain the same. In this case, the Contact name will remain the same, and the linked transactions will reflect the name and address that is entered in the import.

For example, let's assume that sally@donations.com currently has a Contact name of Sally Smith. In the import, a user is importing a donation from sally@donations.com, and this donation was imported with the billing name Sally Jones. After the import, the transaction will appear under Sally Smith's contact, as the same billing email is used. The Contact name will remain Sally Smith. The linked transaction will display the name Sally Jones.

Can I Upload My Document as a Numbers file or another file type?

At this time, donations must be imported as a CSV file. If you file is saved under another file type, we recommend saving the document as a CSV.

What is the Maximum Number of Donations I can Import?

Right now, users can enter a maximum of 50,000 donations at once using the Import Donations feature.

What currencies can I import into GivingFuel using the Import Donations feature?

Right now, users can enter donations from the following currencies:

  • United Arab Emirates dirham (AED)

  • Australian dollar (AUD)

  • Brazilian real (BRL)

  • Canadian dollar (CAD)

  • Swiss franc (CHF)

  • Chinese yuan renminbi (CNY)

  • Danish krone (DKK)

  • Euro (EUR)

  • British pound sterling (GBP)

  • Mexican peso (MXN)

  • Norwegian krone (NOK)

  • New Zealand dollar (NZD)

  • Swedish krona (SEK)

  • Singapore dollar (SGD)

  • Turkish lira (TRY)

  • Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TTD)

  • United States dollar (USD)

Related Articles
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Edit a Recurring Donation
Void and Update the Status of an ACH Donation
Accept ACH Donations
Enter a Donation for your Donors (Manual Entry)
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