We spent a bit of time in our Introduction to the Import Data Process training videos chatting about how the Import Process works as well as some general advice on how to perform Data Prep.

Before you Get Started

• Don't feel like completing these steps yourself? No worries! We also provide Data Formatting and/or Data Importing as Professional Onboarding Services. You can reach out to us at support@keela.com for details on all of this!
  
  
• Not sure where to start with your spreadsheets? There is an Excel Template at the bottom of this page that is built to suit Keela's Accepted Fields.

How to Format Your Donation Data

In this video, we'll discuss all of the things that you need to know about formatting your Donation Data before importing it into Keela. You'll see an explanation of how to compare your data with our Accepted Fields, things to look out for in your spreadsheet as well as an explanation on some of Keela's terminology. 

Note: Please see Keela's Accepted Fields (Step 4) below in this article for up-to-date import fields & accepted values. 

Step 1: Gather your Data

If this is your first import, you may have data spread across many different sources (spreadsheets, petitions, data stored in other CRMs), so take this opportunity to bring all your donation data together to import to one place - Keela! You can consolidate all your contacts into one spreadsheet OR you can import each contact data set separately, it's up to you!

Step 2: Import Contacts

We highly recommend importing the contact data before moving forward with the donation data for easy contact matching.

When contacts already exist in Keela, Keela will automatically match the donations to the correct contact during the import using the Duplicate Management Rules. If donations are imported without an existing contact record in Keela, a new Contact will be created as a result.  It is best practice to check your Duplicates Manager after each Import to ensure no duplicates were created during the process.  Managing Duplicate Contacts.

Step 3: Audit your Data

(1) Ensure that your data is consistent in each column. For example, if the column header is “First Name”, you’ll want to make sure that column contains only first names - not last names, company names etc.

(2) To create a revenue record for a company or other organization (an entity - not a person), make sure that you fill in Organization Name under Company Name and enter Company in the Contact Type. More details provided below in the chart.

(3) Create one row per donation record and make sure each row has a contact's name or email. For donors that have made multiple donations over the years, that means there will be several rows for each person, like this:

Step 4: Compare Data to Keela Requirements

The next step is to refer to the template at the bottom of this page and the chart below to see what fits with the Keela criteria.  

During the import process, Keela will ask you to match each column in your file with a field in Keela, so you'll want to prepare your files so the header and data in each column correspond with a Keela field. 

Depending on your data, you may also need to do some cleanup such as:

• removing columns you don't need
• adding missing columns
• splitting or consolidating data into columns

If you're using Excel to prepare your data, you can find some helpful instructions for these functions in the Office Help portal here.

Note that unlike contacts, it's not possible to create custom fields for donation records. If you have data that does not belong in one of the fields below, we recommend storing this data in "Notes" or "Keywords".

Accepted Fields

Due to differing compliance laws in each country there are differing Accepted Fields dependant on your region. Please review your regions Accepted Fields below.