When you’re getting started with a new donor database, one of the first questions you’ll want to ask is how easy it is to get your existing data into the new program. Everybody has at least a few donors already, right? And some have lots and lots of donors – too many to type in by hand. What do you do if you want to get get started with Donor Tools? Easy, just import them.
The first thing to do is to export your donor list from your old program as a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file; most programs, including Excel, will export in this format. Then, sign in to your Donor Tools account, click “Import Donors”, and upload your CSV file.
Once your data has been uploaded, you can match the fields (first name, last name, etc) from your old database with your new Donor Tools database.
After the field names have been matched, you’re ready to go – just click the “Import Donors” button, and the program will start working. Depending on how many donors you’re importing, this will take a few minutes to finish. It will process in the background, so you can keep using Donor Tools while it’s importing.
That’s it! In just a few minutes you can be up and running with all your existing donors in your new Donor Tools database.
6 Comments
Great to hear! Let me know what other fields you’d like to have – we might be able to add them.
We are a 501C3 no kill cat shelter and we are looking for just what you describe. I would be very interested to try it, where can I download/demo it?
Thanx!!
Zoe
Thanks Zoe! I’m getting ready to send out a few more beta test invitations very soon – I’ve added your name to the short list, so you should be one of the first.
OUr donor history resides in QuickBooks. Can we import from QB and maintain year to year historic giving by donor by fund?
Hi Annemarie,
Yes, we can import your Quickbooks file. Currently we don’t have an automatic import tool like the one described in this post, but we can import your Quickbooks file via our Data Migration Service (http://www.donortools.com/about/data_migration ). And yes, we can bring in your year to year historic data by donors and by funds.
- Ryan Heneise
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[...] If you’re adding a large number of donors, and you have a CSV (comma-separated values) file, your best bet is to import your database. [...]