Bring existing donors and their giving history into Donors from a spreadsheet. Donors reads the file and proposes where each column goes, so there's no template to fill in.

Before you start

  • A spreadsheet in .xlsx, .xls or .csv format, 10 MB or smaller.
  • Only the first 5,000 rows of a file are imported. Split bigger files.

Steps

  1. Go to People and click Import. You can also start from Organization Settings → Data & audit and click Import.
  2. In Import your data, drag your spreadsheet into the box or click to browse.
  3. Click Analyze with AI. Donors detects the record types (donors, gifts or both) and matches each column to a field.
  4. Review Here's what I found. The Column mapping table shows each Spreadsheet column, what it Maps to, and a Sample. Columns marked Not imported are skipped. Warnings show rows with dates or amounts it may not read, missing required fields, or possible duplicates.
  5. If the plan looks wrong, click Back and adjust your file. If it looks right, click Approve & import.
  6. When it finishes, Import results opens. Use Needs attention to see only the rows that need you.
  7. For a Failed row, click Fix & retry, correct the value (or use Apply fix if one is suggested), and retry.
  8. For a Possible duplicates row, click Resolve and choose Add as new, Merge or Delete.
  9. Click Finish, or Import another file.

What happens next

Clean rows are written as soon as you approve. Each import is saved under Import history in Organization Settings → Data & audit, with counts of imported, failed and duplicate rows, so you can reopen it and finish later.

Imported gifts are fixed historical records. They're treated as already receipted outside Donors: they get no receipt, no thank-you email and no card charge, and their fields are read-only. They still count toward each donor's giving totals.

If AI isn't available, Donors builds the plan by matching column names instead, and the plan is labelled Import plan rather than AI import plan.