External donations

To activate external donation import, connect your CRM to Fundraise Up in import mode (see detailed instructions below).

After the initial sync, Fundraise Up checks for new external donations on a regular schedule:

• Virtuous: every 10 minutes.
• Salesforce NPSP: every 20 minutes.

These checks run separately from your main sync process, so they do not slow down or add load to your integration.

Enabling import mode in the Salesforce NPSP integration

Each donation is matched to a supporter by email address. If the supporter doesn’t exist in Fundraise Up, we create a new record. They can log into the Donor Portal using their email immediately after that. No emails are sent automatically, but your organization can provide supporters with a link to the Donor Portal, which is available in Settings > Donor Portal > URL settings.

If the supporter already exists, the donation is added to their giving history.

All external donations appear as one-time donations in Fundraise Up, even if they are part of a recurring plan in your CRM.

Individual external donation details are not shown in the Dashboard. Your CRM remains the system of record for those details.

When syncing external donations, Fundraise Up follows these rules:

• One active sync at a time. You can connect multiple CRMs to Fundraise Up, but only one can sync external donations at any given time. If you try to activate a second sync, you’ll see which one is currently active.
• Automatic deduplication. Fundraise Up imports only donations made outside the platform. If a donation was already processed through Fundraise Up, it will be skipped during sync, even if it appears in your CRM.
• Currency conversion. External donations are converted to your organization’s default currency during import. Fundraise Up uses exchange rates from your CRM when available, or rates from the donation date if not. If no exchange rate is available, the donation will appear in the Donor Portal with its date but will not count toward monetary totals.

Each CRM handles donations and supporter information slightly differently:

Virtuous G&C Import Write

• Syncs donations from Gift records.
• Gets supporter information from the Contact linked to each Gift.
• Uses the primary email if a Contact has multiple email addresses.
• Handles refunds as negative gifts. When a negative gift appears, Fundraise Up marks the original donation as refunded.

Salesforce NPSP

• Syncs donations from Opportunity records.
• Gets supporter information from the Contact linked to each Opportunity.
• You choose which Opportunity stages count as successful donations during setup (Closed won is the default).
• Imports currency from each Opportunity if your Salesforce organization uses multi-currency. Otherwise, all donations use your organization’s default currency.

Supporters see external donations in their Donor Portal alongside Fundraise Up donations. All donations appear in a single list, sorted by date.

Each external donation has a detail page showing the information provided by your CRM:

• Amount and currency
• Date
• Payment method
• Status: succeeded or refunded (these are the only two possible statuses in Fundraise Up for external donations)

If your CRM didn’t include certain information, the corresponding fields won’t appear on the page.

Fundraise Up cannot generate receipts for external donations, since we didn’t process these transactions and cannot create legally compliant receipts. Instead, you can upload receipts that your organization has already issued. During CRM integration setup, you map where receipt files or download links are stored in your CRM. Once configured, supporters can download receipts from the Donor Portal, just like they do for Fundraise Up donations.

If receipt locations are not mapped, no download option will appear. If a receipt link breaks or expires, supporters will see a message asking them to contact your organization.

Supporters can also use the Download all receipts button in the Donor Portal to download all their receipts at once — including external donation receipts.

All supporters appear in your Dashboard, whether they donated through Fundraise Up or were imported from your CRM.

Supporters created through external donations appear in your Dashboard with an Imported from CRM tag.

For these supporters, you see:

• Personal information obtained from the CRM.
• Total successful donations imported.
• Combined amount of successful donations.
• First donation date and amount.
• Most recent donation date and amount.

The Dashboard doesn't show each external donation as a separate transaction. You see totals and counts instead.

Supporter imported from CRM

Once a supporter added from an external donation interacts with Fundraise Up online, Fundraise Up stops treating them as CRM-created. Personal information from Fundraise Up takes priority and updates their record. This occurs when they:

• Make a donation through Fundraise Up.
• Start a donation but don't complete it.
• Set up a delayed recurring plan.
• Create or join a Fundraiser.

If the same supporter appears again in an external donation import, Fundraise Up continues to add their external donation history. Only personal information from the CRM stops updating.

For supporters already in Fundraise Up, imported external donations appear on their Dashboard page under a separate section called Donations from [CRM]. You see:

• Total successful donations imported.
• Combined amount of successful donations.
• First donation date and amount.
• Most recent donation date and amount.

External donations added to an existing supporter

Fundraise Up does not update personal information from your CRM for existing supporters — only donations are added.

For integration-specific setup:

• Set up external donation import in Virtuous G&C Import Write →
• Set up external donation import in Salesforce NPSP →

For more about Donor Portal:

• Donor Portal overview →

Other ways to track external and offline donations:

• Add offline amounts to campaigns →
• Include offline donations in Goal Meters and Stat Counters →