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Importing donor contacts from Excel to Salesforce is just the first step. The real challenge is preserving the giving history, volunteer activities, and campaign participation that make donor relationships valuable.
Here’s how to maintain donor relationship data during contact imports using coordinated multi-object exports and External ID linking.
Maintain donor relationships with coordinated multi-object imports using Coefficient
Coefficient can help preserve donor giving history relationships through its support for custom objects and related record exports. While Contact import is the primary step, maintaining giving history requires coordinated import of related records using Salesforce’s multi-object export capabilities.
How to make it work
Step 1. Import donor contacts with External ID fields.
Start by importing your donor contacts with External ID fields like donor ID or email address. These identifiers become the linking mechanism for related giving history records.
Step 2. Set up separate Coefficient exports for giving history records.
Create additional exports for related objects: custom Donation objects, Opportunity records for major gifts, and Campaign Member records for donor campaign participation. Each export links back to Contact External IDs.
Step 3. Map relationship fields using External ID references.
In your giving history data, map the donor identifier fields to Contact External ID references. This tells Salesforce which giving records belong to which donor contacts.
Step 4. Use UPSERT operations to maintain existing relationships.
Configure UPSERT actions for related records to update existing giving history while preserving established relationships. This prevents duplicate donation records or broken lookup relationships.
Step 5. Preview relationship mappings before export.
Coefficient’s export preview shows how related records will connect to donor contacts. This visibility prevents the relationship breaks that commonly occur with bulk imports using separate files.
Step 6. Process related records in sequence.
Import donor contacts first, then process related giving history records. This ensures the Contact records exist before creating the relationships, preventing lookup failures.
Step 7. Use Formula Auto Fill Down for calculated relationship fields.
Before export, use Google Sheets formulas to calculate relationship fields like total giving, last gift date, or donor lifetime value based on the related record data you’re importing.
Keep donor relationships intact during migration
Coordinated multi-object imports preserve the donor relationship data that makes your Salesforce database valuable. With External ID linking and relationship preview capabilities, your donor history stays connected where it belongs. Try Coefficient to see how much easier donor relationship management becomes.
