Donorfy is a UK-based CRM that Access acquired in November 2024. It has a large number of great features but isn't as customisable as Beacon, where you'll want to use the guide below to help you transition your data across.
Setting up
Downloading your data from Donorfy
There are 2 ways to get at your data in Donorfy - the easiest is to go into a Record type i.e. "Campaigns" or "Individuals" and select the download button:
Through using this method, Donorfy will include some but not all of the information when you do this via the record types (you'll only get one Mailing Address for instance).
As such, we recommend using the Donorfy list system and have created our templates to match this in this file structure.
To create a list, hover over the "Add" button in the top left of the content area:
Then select the data you would like to export from the list section:
Beacon supports importing all of these data types from Donorfy, so feel free to choose from there! 🎉
Give your list a name, where if you've selected Constituents we recommend a name such as "All-Constituents-Donorfy".
To exactly match our Donorfy Import templates (which would definitely speed up this transfer process), you'll need to ensure you open the Columns area and "Select All":
Note: If you do not want to import all of your data into Beacon, you may want to add a Filter before exporting, but otherwise you should be fine do to do without!
Once you're ready, click on the "Save List and Fetch the Results" button in the top right:
Once processed by Donorfy, you'll see your results in the table below. Double-check that any filters that you might have applied worked as expected, where from there you're free to download the file, selecting the download icon on the left hand side:
You'll want to make sure everything is off and then click on "Prepare Download".
Following this, you'll need to scroll to the top of the page where you'll see a new alert, where you should click on "Click here for status" to view the download in progress:
This can take a little while, where you can always to go the Download section to retrieve this later on and keep click once it is complete.
Congratulations, you've downloaded your first piece of Donorfy Data! 🎉
Now that's done - you'll want to do the repeat this process for all of the types of Donorfy data that you want to bring into Beacon.
Step two: Add Donorfy Templates to Beacon
On Beacon's side, we've added a number of Donorfy specific import templates to get the majority of your data across as seamlessly as possible.
On the left-hand sidebar of Beacon, you'll want to open up the "Import Data" section and select "Manage Templates" from the options presented:
From there, click on the "Create Template" button in the top right, clicking on the "Create from Blank Template" dropdown, and selecting Donorfy.
This will open up a folder of the templates you need, where to speed things up, you'll see the option to scroll to the bottom of that list and click on the "Install All" button 🙌
Alternatively you can choose which you want to add and what name to give them by selecting them individually.
Congratulations you're now ready to upload your CSVs 👏.
Importing your Constituent Data into Beacon
Importing your Individuals
In Beacon, we call Individuals "People" and these are separate from Organisations & Funds. You will be using the "All Constituent" list download for this process, where our Import Template is designed to just look at importing "People/Individuals".
By default, you can use the template by going to "Run Import" and selecting the CSV file you got from Donorfy. This will include:
First, Middle and Last Name
All of their Emails
All of their Addresses
All of their Phone Numbers
Date of Birth
Organisation
Contact Consent
Title
Gender
Previous Database ID (Entity Number in Donorfy)
Note, for addresses we combine some of the data, as Beacon uses Royal Mails address format:
Address One: Building Number and Address One
Address Two: Address Two and Address Description
County: County and Region
In terms of ordering, we use "Preferred" for Primary, and for ordering secondary it is:
Personal
Work
Other
If there are other fields you would like to import, you can go into the Template and map these over.
Note that we do not recommend using this CSV for importing Tags or Activities (see details below)
Importing your Organisations
In Beacon, we also have Organisations, so you are able to import by default. When importing it is the same file as the individuals, and we filter out "Individuals" and "Funds" from the CSV.
By default, you can use the template by going to "Run Import" and selecting the CSV file you got from Donorfy. This will include:
Organisation Name
Description (to Notes)
All of their Emails
All of their Addresses
All of their Phone Numbers
Previous Database ID (Entity Number in Donorfy)
In terms of ordering, we use "Preferred" for Primary, and for ordering secondary it is:
Personal
Work
Other
Importing your Tags (for Constituents) into Beacon
Note: Tags can be used for lots of different things in Donorfy, the guide below is for "Attributes" of an individual i.e. "Hikes" or "Pizza-lover"
We will be adding guides further down the line for other uses such as "Campaign Member" or "Event Attendee"
In Beacon, we do not have a direct system like Tags where these can often get out of hand. Nevertheless, the tags in Donorfy often hold lots of useful information where to get these into Beacon, you'll want to follow the steps below.
Create your Custom Fields for each Tag Category
For any Tag Categories you want to store, go into a Person record on Beacon, and click the Customise cog option on the top right hand side. (You'll need to be an admin to edit the database, so good to reach out to your admin if you don't have these permissions!)
From there, you'll need to click on a card on the record, click to "Create a new field" and select the "Dropdown" field type. This newly created field would be there you would add in the names of the Tags that you still want to store.
More on adding drop down options is run through in our guide article here, so good to check this out if need a hand there!
If you're using our template to import data (recommended), you'll want to ensure the values are the same as in the Donorfy UI:
i.e. "Baking" and not what you'll see in the CSVs i.e. "Interests and Hobbies_Baking".
Note: By default, Donorfy has "Interests and Hobbies" and Beacon uses "Interests" that you can repurpose for this.
Download "Constituent" Tags from Donorfy
As per the guide above, you'll want to hover over the Add button and select "Constituent Tag List", to ensure all columns are included and downloaded as normal.
Customising the Import Template
Once you have the Donorfy Tag Template in your Import Templates in Beacon, you'll need to edit it.
Scroll to the far right of the spreadsheet to get to the Smart Field we have created called "SmartInterestAndHobbies". Click on Edit this, and you'll see the Formula that we have created there.
For each Tag Category, you'll want to copy this Formula, create a new Smart Field, paste the Formula and change the text i.e. "Interests and hobbies" to the value in the Tag Category area.
You'll then want to map each of these Smart Fields to the Custom Field that you created above.
Note: We haven't mapped the Interest and Hobbies to Interests, in case you have made changes to your Interest field. But for most people, you can use that example Smart field and map it to Interests.
Finishing up
All that is left to do, is to save your changes to the template, go to Run Import, and upload your CSV. Done!
Importing Campaigns
Campaigns are very simple in Donorfy. As such, you can just go into the Campaign List in Donorfy and upload it in Beacon using the Donorfy Campaign template.
Things to note:
You will likely want to map over the Campaign Type and Channels
The Dates in Donorfy are years, not actual Dates unfortunately
We map over the Notes field for you, but if you don't use this, you might want to add an "Imported by Donorfy" to the Notes field similar to Constituents
Importing Subscriptions (Stripe)
Subscriptions in Donorfy are handled differently to Beacon. At Beacon, we use Stripes built in Subscription model, which makes it easier to see all your subscriptions in Stripe, make more granual changes and also if you ever want to leave Beacon its much less work.
To import Subscriptions into Beacon, we have a few steps to do:
1. Download Subscription Data from Donorfy
Download a new Recurring Payment Instruction List (see above guide for downloading lists)
Ensure you select all fields.
2. Turn off all Subscriptions in Donorfy
To ensure you don't get people charged double, turn off the subscriptions in Donorfy (You already downloaded which ones are active).
3. Add Products to Stripe
If you haven't created a Product in Stripe already for your subscriptions, you will need to do this now:
Make sure you set it to Flat-rate pricing and Recurring.
4. Convert your Donorfy Spreadsheet into Stripe format
First, you'll want to filter on those that are relevant:
RecurringPaymentInstruction_InstructionStatus
Active
RecurringPaymentInstruction_CollectionMethod
Stripe
To do this, change the headers using the table below:
Donorfy Header (Original) | Stripe Header (New) | Example Data |
RecurringPaymentInstruction_CollectionRef1 | customer | cus_IFudp.... |
RecurringPaymentInstruction_Amount | adhoc_items.0.amount | 10 |
RecurringPaymentInstruction_PaymentFrequency | adhoc_items.0.interval | Month |
RecurringPaymentInstruction_Currency | adhoc_items.0.currency | USD |
You'll also need to create the following new Columns with the following data:
Column | Data | Fixed, Formula or Choice |
start_date | =(VALUE(DATE(RIGHT(GK2,4),MID(GK2,FIND("/",GK2)+1,FIND("/",GK2,FIND("/",GK2)+1)-FIND("/",GK2)-1)+1,LEFT(GK2,FIND("/",GK2)-1)))-25568-1)*(24*60*60) | Formula (This implies the Transactions_DateOfLastGift is in Column GK, gets the date, add a month, and converts to a timestamp)
You'll need to drag this for each row |
adhoc_items.0.quantity | 1 | Fixed |
metadata.source | donorfy | Fixed |
automatic_tax | FALSE | Fixed |
collection_method | charge_automatically | Fixed |
cancel_at_period_end | FALSE | Fixed |
items[0].price_data.product | The Stripe Product Key created above i.e. prod_RNwUdDnm01t... | Choice |
5. Upload to Stripe
Go through the flow here:
Double-check that your data is only those that are active - as you don't want to charge people who have cancelled their subscription
6. Upload data to Beacon
Now that you have created the Subscription in Stripe, you'll want to create the objects in Beacon so that all future subscriptions are attached to them.
You can import them using this guide here:
You've now migrated your Stripe migrations over
Frequently asked questions
Are more guides for Record Types coming?
Yes, we are actively working on improving this guide at the moment.
How can I import Tags from non-constituents?
You can use the Column "Active Tags", however, because this includes the Tag Category, and it isn't easy to consistently data clean this, we don't have a guide or import template for this at the moment. We recommend using either Excel's or Beacon's Smart Filters to help with this - Try using Beacon AI!
Why doesn't Beacon have a Tag system?
Tags, like Labels, have a bad reputation for becoming unwieldy as you add more and more to them. Instead, we allow you to create Custom Fields on all Record Types, so you can ensure you get the exact data models that you need for your particular Charities needs.
Can I upload my Donorfy files?
Unfortunately, there are only 2 ways to get your files from Donorfy:
Download them Manually (which can take a very long time depending on your records)
Pay Donorfy to do a pull for you (which costs money)
We will be adding a template and guide for Donorfy files in the future, but you can do this manually using the Zip file upload and their CSV with mapping over. You will need an import template per associated record type though.