Overview
Welcome to Part 2! Now that you’re starting to get familiar with the system, this week we’ll be focusing on importing your past data into Kindful. This usually includes contacts and transactions (donations).
Just to recap, in Kindful we have contacts and activities (transactions or interactions). All transactions are assigned to a Campaign, which is a part of a Fund. Read this article for additional information on the difference between a Campaign and a Fund.
Linked Articles:
Migration Options
You have four ways to migrate your data into Kindful depending on the onboarding package you’ve purchased. You may choose just one of the options below or a combination of importing your data and connecting an integration:
Basic Import - Importing contacts and transactions via spreadsheet files using our Import Tool. This is a self import completed by the organization.
Standard Import - Importing contacts and transactions via spreadsheet files, but your Onboarding Rep will import your data for you.
Custom Import - Our team imports advanced data types for you. These include pledges, soft credits, notes, relationships and non-cash gifts. These data types must be in our template files in order to be imported accurately. Please email your Onboarding Rep for those templates.
Connecting Integrations - You can also connect certain integrations in the Apps section to automatically sync historical data into your account.
Before Migrating FAQs
Here are typical things to consider before starting your migration.
Will we be connecting QuickBooks?
If you are planning or considering using our QuickBooks integration, you’ll need to connect this integration first during the import process. QuickBooks will dictate the structure of your Campaigns and Funds, therefore it’s imperative this is connected before importing any other data.
Please have your accounting/finance team thoroughly review this article to determine if the QuickBooks integration will work based on how your organization has setup QuickBooks.
You have two options with connecting QuickBooks based on your ‘Source of Truth’ (see below). You can either connect the integration and sync all past sales receipts (transactions) into Kindful, or you can choose a sync date to only sync sales receipts / transactions from a certain date. This date could be present day if you’d only like to sync sales receipts / transactions moving forward. Keep in mind that all active customers will sync from QuickBooks into Kindful, regardless of the sync date you choose.
What is our ‘Source of Truth’?
Your team will need to determine where the cleanest most comprehensive place your past donations and contacts are currently stored. Your data may be scattered in various spreadsheets, it could all be in your previous donor system or maybe it’s all in another tool we integrate with, like Quickbooks or CrowdRise.
Does our team have a migration plan to smoothly transition?
Once you’ve determined your ‘Source of Truth’, your team can start working on connecting integrations and/or compiling all of your data into our spreadsheet templates (if you’re using our Import Tool). All of our integrations are in Apps > App Directory. Please review our support articles before connecting any integrations.
We highly recommend your team chooses a transition date when you stop using your previous system and a start using Kindful. This is the best way to minimize any data gaps. For example, if there’s a 1-2 week window between exporting all data from your old system and importing into Kindful, note these dates so your team can do an additional import of the remaining data from your old system into your Sandbox. You could also manually enter the data into Kindful via the ‘Add New’ button.
Starting to use Kindful’s fundraising options by your transition date can also help streamline this process. We’ll cover this more in Part 3.
How far back should we go?
We’re often asked how much historical data should be brought into Kindful. Some organizations migrate data from the past 3-4 years, others may need to import decades, and some may choose not to import past data at all. This is ultimately left up to your team, but we recommend considering a simple solution.
Review the various reports and appeals (letters, emails, etc) that your organization completed over the past year. Then determine what criteria was used to generate those. This should be the same criteria you use to decide what to bring into Kindful. If you hardly ever reference messy data prior to 2010, why bother bringing it into your brand new account?
How does Kindful handle duplicate contacts and transactions?
If contacts are imported from multiple sources, you will most likely run into duplicates within Kindful. We have a Contact Duplicate Finder tool that can be used to merge these duplicate contacts together. You can also manually merge contacts together if they do not appear in our finder.
Please note that we do not have a way to find duplicate transactions.
How should we track couples in Kindful?
There are a few options for tracking spouses with Kindful. Please read this article for a detailed explanation of things to consider when determining the best option for your team.
How do we migrate our recurring donors?
If you have recurring donations setup in Stripe or Authorize.net, your Success Rep can help walk through ways to bring those recurrences into Kindful. We also have a way to pull in Paypal transactions. If these recurrences are setup within another payment gateway, your team can manually enter these transactions into your Kindful account as they come in each month or you could ask those donors to consider setting up a new recurring gift through Kindful.
Start Migrating
Let’s get started! Please click the link for each item below for additional instructions:
1. Connecting transactional integrations (Go to Apps > App Directory):
- QuickBooks Online
- QuickBooks Desktop
- CrowdRise
- Stripe Create - Sync historical transactions from your Stripe account
2. Connecting email marketing integrations:
3. Import Tool - Importing contacts and transactions via spreadsheet files:
- Preparing Your Data for Import
- Contact Custom Fields vs. Campaign Custom Fields - You can add custom fields for your contacts if there is additional data you’re tracking outside of our default fields. You can also import up to three custom fields for transactions for each campaign. Please review the differences between these two types of fields.
- Using the Data Import Tool
After Migrating
After all of your integrations are connected and spreadsheets are imported, your team may need to do some additional clean-up. First, we would recommend using the Contact Duplicate Finder to merge any duplicate contacts together. Next, if you need to adjust any transactions or contacts, you can bulk edit your contacts as well as bulk edit activities.
Finally, please be aware of your total number of contacts in your account. If you've passed your contact limit for your Kindful subscription, an additional contact usage fee will be charged. Please reach out to success@kindful.com about upgrading your account or you read these instructions on archiving contacts
To-Do
- Identify your ‘Source of Truth’
- Determine a Transition Date
- Connect Quickbooks or other integrations (if applicable)
- Import your spreadsheet files using our Import Tool
- Merge any duplicate contacts using our Duplicate Finder
Click here to begin Part 3 - Start Fundraising!
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