Importing Donors into Silent Partner
If you have a large number of donor names and their contact details in a spreadsheet that you would like to add to the Silent Partner database, you might find it more convenient to import them in bulk as opposed to entering the new names one-by-one manually.
A few helpful tips before you get started with importing donors:
- It is important to have the first and last names in separate columns. The same is true for the city, province and postal code.
- If there are phone numbers in your spreadsheet, either the area code needs to be in a separate column from the phone number, or the area code needs to be present in a very consistently structured format.
- Make sure the original file you're importing has column headings! This will make the import process quite a bit easier.
- Be sure to save your original file in CSV format. If you are starting in Excel, you can do this by clicking File > Save As > and select “CSV (comma delimited)” from the list format options.
We strongly recommend doing a backup just prior to the import in case something goes wrong.
Once you have your CSV with donors ready, from the green screen in Silent Partner, go to "Maintenance → Import data".
1. Select “Import New Names/Addresses”, then fill in the remaining fields. Specify whether the incoming file includes Headers or not, indicate the date and phone format, and choose your CSV to import:
1. Select “Import New Names/Addresses”, then fill in the remaining fields. Specify whether the incoming file includes Headers or not, indicate the date and phone format, and choose your CSV to import:
The incoming file should not contain commas in the headers, as they might break the import.
2. Next, assign ("map") the fields of data from the incoming file (on the left) to the corresponding Silent Partner fields (on the right):
Keep working your way through the list until all the columns you want imported have been mapped. Click OK.
3. The next screen allows you to set the default values for incoming donors, if applicable (so that all the newly added donors will get the same owner/source/mail codes, donor type, etc);
3. The next screen allows you to set the default values for incoming donors, if applicable (so that all the newly added donors will get the same owner/source/mail codes, donor type, etc);
4. In case your information is written in all caps, Partner DMS will fix this for you based on your selection. If this is not needed, click Done:
5. The import process will begin. For each detected duplicate, Partner DMS will present the following window, with options on how to take some actions near the bottom:
- Add this name: will add the name immediately
- Add this name and any other possible duplicates without asking again: this will let the computer automatically add this name and all other possible duplicates for subsequent donors without asking again
- Reject this name: if it is a duplicate entry, please select this option
- Reject this name and any other possible duplicates without asking again: this will let the computer automatically reject this name and all other possible duplicates without asking again (possible duplicates for this and subsequent incoming donors);
- Only process additional data (Connectors, Our Tags) for selected donor: Will just apply to My Tags, Connectors etc.
When Partner DMS completes the process, it will inform you that your import was successful and present the number of added donors.
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