CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) provide a variety of charity financial services including banking, donation forms, payroll giving, and a charity voucher scheme. It's useful to bring all of CAF's donation types into your Beacon account, and we've created a variety of pre-built import templates to make this easy!
If you haven't already, you can familiarise yourself with the general import process here.
There are 4 sets of import templates to bring in CAFs different products:
Direct giving (CAF Payment report)
Donations via CAF come in many forms - one-off donations, Direct Debit donations, charity vouchers, CAF account donations, CAF account standing orders... phew! These are created as Payments in Beacon, linked to the Person or Organisation who donated (and to the relevant Payout if you have the finance element).
All of these donations are available via CAF's Payment report. We will import the report twice; once to bring in payments from people and again to bring in the payments from organisations (don't worry - you won't need to edit your sheet!).
Before you start
To ensure your Payouts have complete information, if you use Beacon's Finance element, also add 'CAF' as an option in the 'Source' dropdown field on Payouts.
Note: You'll need to be an admin to edit fields.
Download payment report from CAF
Log into CAF
Click on 'Payment reports' in the menu
In Step 1 select 'Direct giving', in Step 2 select 'A single report', and in Step 3 choose the date range for donations you'd like to include
Click 'Search now' and then click the file to download the report
Import direct giving donations into Beacon
If this is your first import, you'll need to add the two CAF direct giving templates to your account. Click here for instructions.
If this is your first import, you'll need to add the two CAF direct giving templates to your account. Click here for instructions.
Head to Import data > Manage templates in your Beacon sidebar
Click 'Create template'
Give your template a name (such as 'CAF Payment report (People)') and select the pre-built CAF - Payment report (Payments from People) template from the dropdown list
Review the template, and click 'Save template'
Repeat steps 1-4 for the CAF - Payment report (Payments from Organisations) template.
Nice one: You're set up and ready to import your CAF payroll giving donations!
We will run two imports with the same report, one with each template you created:
Head to Run import in your sidebar
Choose the 1st CAF template you just created (Payments from People)
Upload your .csv file and run the import
Repeat steps 1-3 with the same spreadsheet, but choosing the 2nd CAF template you created (Payments from Organisations).
Tip: If any of these donations are from regular Direct Debits, also run the 'Regular giving subscriptions (Direct Debits)' import to update Subscription records.
If any of these donations are from regular standing orders, also run the 'Regular giving subscriptions (Standing orders)' import to update Subscription records.
Payroll giving (Give As You Earn)
Payroll giving is a donation, but may include additional matched donations from an employer. These donations get created as Payments in Beacon, linked to the Person who is the donor, and the Organisation that enabled it (set as the fundraiser). If there is matched giving from the employer, a second template creates them as separate payments from the Organisation, with the employee as the fundraiser.
These donations are available from CAF's Payroll Giving Payment Report.
Before you start
So that your CAF payroll givers can be correctly deduplicated, this template requires a new field on your People records. Create a new short text field named 'CAF GAYE reference'.
To ensure your Payouts have complete information, if you use Beacon's Finance element, also add 'CAF' as an option in the 'Source' dropdown field on Payouts.
Note: You'll need to be an admin to edit fields.
Download payroll giving payment report from CAF
Log into CAF
Click on 'Payment reports' in the menu
In Step 1 select 'Payroll giving', in Step 2 select 'A single report', and in Step 3 choose the date range for donations you'd like to include
Important: CAF Payroll giving payments don't include IDs,
so only include donations that aren't in Beacon yet
Click 'Search now' and then click the file to download the report
Import payroll giving donations into Beacon
If this is your first import, you'll need to add the two CAF payroll giving templates to your account. Click here for instructions.
If this is your first import, you'll need to add the two CAF payroll giving templates to your account. Click here for instructions.
Head to Import data > Manage templates in your Beacon sidebar
Click 'Create template'
Give your template a name (such as 'CAF Give As You Earn 1/2 (Employee donations)') and select the pre-built CAF - Give As You Earn 1/2 (Employee donations) template from the dropdown list
Map the 'PGA Donor Ref Number' column to the 'Payer (Person) > CAF GAYE Reference' field created earlier.
Set the deduplication field for People (Payer) as 'CAF GAYE Reference', and set its import behaviour to 'Only create'.
Click 'Save template'
Repeat steps 1-3 for the CAF - Give As You Earn 2/2 (Employer contributions) template.
Map the 'PGA Donor Ref Number' column to the 'Fundraiser (Person) > CAF GAYE Reference' field created earlier.
Set the deduplication field for People (Fundraiser) as 'CAF GAYE Reference', and set its import behaviour to 'Only create'.
Click 'Save template'
Nice one: You're set up and ready to import your CAF payroll giving donations!
We will run two imports with the same report, one with each template you created:
Head to Run import in your sidebar
Choose the 1st CAF template you just created (Employee donations)
Upload your .csv file and run the import
Repeat steps 1-3 with the same spreadsheet, but choosing the 2nd CAF template you created (Employer contributions).
Warning: CAF GAYE payments don't have IDs, so if you reimport the same payments twice they will always create duplicates. If you do need to reimport them, delete the original payments in Beacon first.
Regular giving subscriptions (Direct debits)
Regular givers paying by Direct Debit have a separate report that includes the detail of their giving (frequency, status, etc). This regular giving gets created as Subscriptions in Beacon, linked to the Person who is the donor. Any donations imported from your direct giving payment report will get linked to these Subscriptions.
Download Direct Debit regular giving report from CAF
Log into CAF
Click on 'CAF Donate donations data' in the menu
Choose the 'Regular Payment Reports' tab, and select 'Direct Debit'
Choose your settings (we recommend choosing 'All' for both dropdown options) and click 'Generate CSV Report'.
Import Direct Debit subscriptions into Beacon
If this is your first import, you'll need to add the CAF Direct Debit regular giving template to your account. Click here for instructions.
If this is your first import, you'll need to add the CAF Direct Debit regular giving template to your account. Click here for instructions.
Head to Import data > Manage templates in your Beacon sidebar
Click 'Create template'
Give your template a name (such as 'CAF Regular giving subscriptions (Direct Debit)') and select the pre-built CAF - Regular giving subscriptions (Direct Debit) template from the dropdown list
Review the template, adding any additional information needed, and click 'Save template'
Nice one: You're set up and ready to import
your CAF Direct Debit subscriptions!
Head to Run import in your sidebar, choose the CAF template you created, and upload your .csv file. Import away!
Regular giving subscriptions (Standing orders)
Regular givers paying by standing order from their own CAF bank account have a separate report that includes the detail of their giving (frequency, status, etc). This regular giving gets created as Subscriptions in Beacon, linked to the Person or Organisation who is the donor. Any donations imported from your direct giving payment report will get linked to these Subscriptions.
These subscriptions are available from CAF's Regular Payments Report. We will import the report twice; once to bring in payments from people and again to bring in the payments from organisations (don't worry - you won't need to edit your sheet!).
Before you start
So that your CAF standing order donors can be correctly deduplicated, this template requires a new field on your People records. Create a new short text field named 'CAF SO reference'.
Note: You'll need to be an admin to edit fields.
Download standing order regular giving report from CAF
Log into CAF
Click on 'CAF Donate donations data' in the menu
Choose the 'Regular Payment Reports' tab, and select 'Standing Order'
Click 'Generate CSV Report'.
Import standing order subscriptions into Beacon
If this is your first import, you'll need to add the two CAF standing order templates to your account. Click here for instructions.
If this is your first import, you'll need to add the two CAF standing order templates to your account. Click here for instructions.
Head to Import data > Manage templates in your Beacon sidebar
Click 'Create template'
Give your template a name (such as 'CAF Regular giving subscriptions (Standing orders from People)') and select the pre-built CAF - Regular giving subscriptions (Standing orders from People) template from the dropdown list
Map the 'Donor ID' smart column to the 'Payer (Person) > CAF SO reference' field created earlier.
Set the deduplication field for People (Payer) as 'CAF SO reference', and set its import behaviour to 'Only create'.
Click 'Save template'
Repeat steps 1-3 for the CAF - Regular giving subscriptions (Standing orders from Organisations) template.
Nice one: You're set up and ready to import your CAF standing order subscriptions!
We will run two imports with the same report, one with each template you created:
Head to Run import in your sidebar
Choose the 1st CAF template you just created (From People)
Upload your .csv file and run the import
Repeat steps 1-3 with the same spreadsheet, but choosing the 2nd CAF template you created (From Organisations).
Finished with CAF? Head to the caff... 😄