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How do I transfer my GiftTool data into Raiser’s Edge?

With GiftTool, you can generate The Raiser's Edge® import files with your GiftTool transaction data. This functionality has been created with the generous assistance of many GiftTool clients that use Raiser's Edge. To make this functionality useful for all clients, large and small, we have endeavoured to create the import files in the most generic way possible.

We recognize that all Raiser's Edge clients are configured differently and that you may need to manually manipulate the files generated to meet your specific requirements.




Step 1 - [One-time only] Configure Raiser’s Edge Back to Top

To accept GiftTool data, you will initially need to configure the following permanent settings in Raiser's Edge version 7.

  1. Constituent Attributes to be configured in Raiser's Edge:

        Category Data Type Comments
       GT-Other Text "Other" demographic fields included on your GiftTool form
       GT-Preferred Language Text Language of the GiftTool form used when completing the transaction
       GT-Constituent Type Text Based on the Service:
    Donations: Donor.
    Event Registrar: Registrant.
    Pledge-a-thon: Participant, Sponsor (online donations), Pledger (offline pledges).
    Membership: Member.
    Shopping Cart: Shopper.


  2. Gift Attributes to be configured in Raiser's Edge:

        Category Data Type Comments
       UK Gift Aid Text For UK clients only (learn more)
       GT-Currency Currency The currency of the transaction
Step 2 - Create RE import files within GiftTool Back to Top

To create the GiftTool import files which can be imported into your Raiser's Edge® account:

  1. Click the Account link located in the top right corner of your GiftTool BackOffice account.
  2. Click Raiser's Edge Report in the Reports section.
  3. Select the service to be included in the import files (Donation, Registrar, Pledge-a-thon, Membership, or Shopping).
  4. Select the associated activity to be included in the import files.
  5. If you would like to import data into your Raiser's Edge Event Module and/or Tribute Module, check the appropriate box. This will generate import files specific to these modules.
  6. Select the date range for the data to be imported.
    • Select the data type:
      • Order Date & Modify Date – will include all transaction data created and/or modified within this date range
      • Order Date – when you want to see new orders within the date ranges
      • Modify Date – When you want to see all orders that have been modified in the date range.
    • Selecting All data for the Activity selected above will include all transaction data created and/or modified since the service has been in operation.
      • Useful when importing all data for a specific event, or all historical data for an activity.
    • Selecting Last modified in GiftTool will include all transaction data created and/or modified since the date entered.
      • For example, entering 2010-08-01 will create an import file with transaction data for all orders created on, or after, August 1, 2010, as well as, all changes to order profiles during that time.
      • Order profile changes can include changes to the name, email address and other personal information collected, the targeted giving program or in tribute information, etc.
    • Select the dates by clicking the Date Picker icons.
    • Dates entered must be in a YYYY-MM-DD format.
  7. Click Next.
  8. Complete the field mapping to correctly format your import files for integration into your Raiser's Edge system.
    • Mapping includes Constituent mapping, General mapping and mapping by each service. Learn more about Field Mapping.
    • Move your mouse over the Info Bubble to learn more about a specific field.
    • Separately, you may need to configure certain attributes in your Raiser's Edge database.
    • All fields must have a value entered.
  9. When finished, click Next to save your mapping and proceed with import file generation.
    • All mapping values will be saved for future imports.
  10. Up to three series of import files will be displayed onscreen, depending on the service and activity selected in previous steps. For more details about each file see:
    • Core Raiser's Edge Import Files:
      Required for all users
      • Constituent
      • Constituent Attribute
      • Gift
      • Gift Attribute
      • Gift Notes
      • Pledge Payment
      • Canadian Receipt Number
    • Raiser's Edge Event Module Import Files:
      Only generated if you have checked off the Event Module in #5 above.
      • Pledge-a-thon Participant
      • Sponsoring Pledge
      • Sponsoring Pledge Payment Gift
      • Registration Fee
      • Registrant’s Donation
    • Raiser's Edge Tribute Module Import Files:
      Only generated if you have checked off the Tribute Module in #5 above
      • Tribute Relationship (Acknowledgee)
      • Tribute (on the Honour/Memorial Constituent’s record)
      • Tribute Gift (donor’s gift)
  11. To generate a Zip (zipped compressed) file which includes all Raiser's Edge import files for your requested data:
    • Click the Zip button and follow the instruction to open and/or save the zip file to your computer.
    • Use the “Extract all files” function to extract each Raiser's Edge import file to be saved to your computer.
    • Tip: Always generate a Zip file when your data includes today’s date. Alternatively, you can generate each file individually if your import files relate to data from a past date (this avoids importing partial data for a transaction currently in progress). To generate each import file individually, click the View button and follow the instruction to open and/or save the csv file to your computer.
  12. Once you have saved each Raiser's Edge import file to your computer, you are now ready to review your import data prior to importing into Raiser's Edge.
Step 3 - Review import data prior to importing Back to Top

Based on GiftTool keeping the import files generic and the quality of the data you wish to import, there may be some possible manual manipulation you may need to do that includes:

  • Constituent Import File – you may want to clean up Titles (Mr. & Mrs.), Gender, or addresses to your standards, etc.
  • Gift Import File – might want to change your Raiser’s Edge Gift Appeal IDs depending on the Gift SubType field. GiftTool does NOT use Raiser’s Edge Packages, so you may want to create an extra column for Packages.

Once you have done your clean up in each CSV file, make sure you continue to save them as CSV files to be able to import them into Raiser’s Edge.

Please ensure you have a current backup of both your Raiser's Edge Database and the import files generated. You will not be able to recreate these import files.

Step 4 - Import the files into Raiser’s Edge Back to Top
  1. Before importing Raiser's Edge files, you may need to temporarily change the following settings in Raiser's Edge. If you do need to change these settings, you may want to do your importing when you have fewest users using Raiser's Edge.
    • Change General Business Rule to accept invalid credit cards. You may want to turn off the Raiser's Edge Config Business Rule to save record anyway when saving a constituent or gift, if the credit card number is invalid (RE Versions 7.8.x). This is necessary as GiftTool does not release credit card numbers to ensure PCI Compliance. However the gifts will be imported with a payment method of credit card.
    • Have your setting in your Tools, User Options to import Campaign, Fund and Appeal Ids rather than descriptions!
    • Determine whether you should make some of your required fields, not required.
    • If you do change these settings in Raiser's Edge, don't forget to change them back after you have done your importing of GiftTool data.
  2. Make sure to import the files in the order that they appear. You must have Admin, Import security rights in Raiser's Edge. The general steps in Raiser's Edge are:
    • Go to Admin > Import
    • Under the General tab:
      • Set up import file parameters as Update Existing Records.
      • In the Import Options section, check off:
        • Create new table entries [Optional to automatically accept new donor cities]
        • Import records not found as new records.
        • Use duplicate criteria for new records [ensure your duplicate checking under The Raiser's Edge® Business Rules reflects how strictly you want the duplicates to be checked].
      • Select Use the Import ID to identify the existing records. GiftTool generates import ids to allow your Raiser's Edge to generate Constituent Id.
      • The format of the import file is Delimited – Character separated fields
      • Choose your import file
    • Under the File Layout tab:
      • Select Comma with a text qualifier Quotation
      • And import field names to the field names are on the first line of the import file
    • The Fields tab will be populated
    • Under the Summary tab:
      • Create an exception file and a control report to help you fix your exceptions. Refer to Raiser's Edge import guide to learn more about importing.
Step 5 - If required, update your data in Raiser’s Edge after the import Back to Top

Depending on your data, you may need to:

  1. Merge duplicate constituents. 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.
  2. For Honor/Memorial Constituents that are deceased, you will need to add the deceased flag & deceased date, and turn off mail.



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