What are Raiser’s Edge import files?

GiftTool makes it easy to migrate your GiftTool data into your The Raiser’s Edge® database, so that you can have a single view of your constituents, bridging both your online and offline activities.

By generating import files for Raiser’s Edge within your GiftTool account, you can map all fields between Raiser’s Edge and GiftTool once, then as needed, generate the import files with a click of a button which are ready to be uploaded into your Raiser's Edge database. How do I transfer my GiftTool data into Raiser's Edge?

Core Files [required for all services]

The following core files are required to import transaction data across all services (Donation, Event Registrar, Pledge-a-thon, Membership and Shopping Cart).

Constituent
Constituent Attribute
Gift
Gift Attribute
Gift Notes
Pledge Payment
Canadian Receipt Number

All Canadian eTax receipt numbers, amounts & dates issued at the time of an online donation will be automatically included in the gift import file. For manually issued receipts or annual receipts for recurring donors, the information for these receipts will be included in the Canadian Receipt Number file.

Event Module [optional for GiftTool Pledge-a-thon service]

Optionally, if you wish to import your Pledge-a-thon data directly into the Raiser’s Edge Events Module, you can set up 5 additional import files specific to this module.

Pledge-a-thon Participant
Sponsoring Pledge
Sponsoring Pledge Payment Gift
Registration Fee
Registrant’s Donation

If you chose the Events Module, your import files will generate the Sponsoring Donors gifts so that they will be imported into Raiser’s Edge as a Gift Type of “Pledge”. A corresponding pledge payment will be generated to these gifts, even if they were paid by credit card. This is so that the sponsoring donor’s gift will link to the Participant’s record in the Events Module under the Sponsoring Pledges tab.

If you do not have the Raiser’s Edge Events Module, your Pledge-a-thon transaction data for the Sponsoring Donors gifts will be a gift type of “Cash”.

Tribute Module [optional for GiftTool Donation service]

Optionally, if you wish to import your Donation data directly into the Raiser’s Edge Tribute Module, you can set up 3 additional import files specific to this module. This ensures that the person being notified about a tribute gift will be generated as a relationship record to the honour/memorial constituent in Raiser’s Edge.

Tribute Relationship (Acknowledgee)
Tribute (on the Honour/Memorial Constituent’s record)
Tribute Gift (donor’s gift)

If you chose the Tribute Module, the transaction data will have a gift type of “Cash”. An Honour/Memorial Constituent record will be generated. A separate donor relationship record will be created.

If you do not have the Raiser’s Edge Tribute Module, your GiftTool transaction data for donations will have a gift type of “Cash” with all tribute information in a gift note.

Please Note:

The GiftTool import files for The Raiser’s Edge® are compatible with all Raiser’s Edge version 7. If you have a version of Raiser’s Edge, prior to Version 7, you will not be able to use these import files as is. They would have to be manipulated into other import formats.
GiftTool has endeavoured to have all the Raiser’s Edge import field names accurate. You should be able to create each of these Import Parameters by pointing to one of each of these import files from GiftTool. The Fields tab in the Import Parameter will default to each of the fields.
As you are aware, there is no control over what your donors / customers type when processing an online transaction through your GiftTool pages. Therefore as with all data imports at this time, there is no easy way to ensure that duplicates will not be created.

For example, your import file could contain three donations for a Cathy Smith, a Catherine Smith and a Cath Smith. You will need to evaluate if these three donations are from the same donor or if they represent donations from 3 separate donors.

To minimize duplicate constituent records, you can use Raiser’s Edge duplicate checking during the import process and after doing the importing. We are providing files to import directly into Raiser’s Edge, not into a Raiser’s Edge batch. Therefore duplicate checking will need to occur after the data has been imported.
It is recommended that you manage your Pledge-a-thon events & campaigns within GiftTool for the entirety of the event, including the issuance of all Canadian eTax receipts for offline and online donations. Once your Pledge-a-thon is over and all tax receipts have been issued through GiftTool, you can import all your GiftTool Pledge-a-thon data into Raiser’s Edge in a single operation.