FundRaiser Blog
Importing into FundRaiser ... The Right Way!
Hi Everybody! The name is Nick and if you've called for FundRaiser Tech Support in the last year or so you've probably talked to me, and if not, then what's stopping you?
Anyway, today I would like to talk about the best way to import data into FundRaiser and the mythically obscure .CSV file ... scary. Now, you may or may not be asking yourself. "Awesome Nick, how do I create a .CSV without summoning potentially evil spirits?"
Well, first things first, open up your spreadsheet in Excel. Most of the time it will be saved as an Excel Workbook or some other file useless to FundRaiser. Now, go to "Save As" this will open the "Save As" window. On the bottom of the "Save As" window you will see a drop menu that says "Save As type." Now this part is crucial, click on the drop down menu.
You should now be seeing a list of bizarre file types, some may seem alien to you. From the list, select CSV (comma delimited) and then click save (after naming it of course). Excellent! You created a .CSV file and now it just needs a little cleanup.
In your CSV file, I want you to take good, long, hard look at the first row in your spreadsheet. You should have field names or column headers. (Examples include: First Name, Last Name, Address, State, Postal Code, etc.) If the answer is "Yes" then congratulations, exit and go to FundRaiser. If "No" then add them now, don't be shy, I'll wait until you're finished, because you will need those field headings during the import.
Before starting the import process make sure you create a backup of your FundRaiser data. In FundRaiser, click File --> Create A Backup. Now, with your backup created and CSV spreadsheet ready and closed, go to FundRaiser --> File Menu --> Import --> ASCII / dBase Files, this will bring up the import window.Here you can open up your CSV file and then match up the fields.
Matching up fields is easy. Select the incoming field on the left and then select the corresponding FundRaiser field on the right and click 'add', repeat until you get what you need matched up. Now, go to the "Set Defaults" and "Advanced" tabs, if everything looks right, check "this page is OK - ready to import" on both tabs. When both are clicked the "Import" button should become highlighted. When you click on the "import" button it will begin importing your data. The process could take a while. Once it's done it will bring you back to the Masterlist.
To see more of what FundRaiser can do watch this 5 minute overview video
