How external donations sync to the Donor Portal

This article explains how External Donations work in the Donor Portal when you import donation data from a supported CRM.

It is designed to help you understand what the sync does, what it does not do, and what to expect when records change later in your CRM.

This guidance applies to External Donations imported from Virtuous G&C Import Write and Salesforce NPSP.

How External Donations work

External Donations brings donation history from your CRM into Fundraise Up so supporters can see those donations in the Donor Portal alongside donations processed by Fundraise Up.

After the initial import:

New qualifying donations can continue to sync from the CRM
Existing imported donations can be updated when supported donation details change
supporter profile details are not continuously re-synced from the CRM

How supporter matching works

Fundraise Up matches imported donations to supporters by email.

If a matching supporter does not already exist, Fundraise Up creates one using the core details available through this flow:

email
firstName
lastName

This is important because later changes to supporter identity in your CRM, such as merges or profile edits, do not retroactively reorganize donation history that has already been imported.

FAQ

What happens if two supporters or contacts are merged in the CRM?

Does Fundraise Up track CRM-side merges?

What happens if the supporter profile data is updated in the CRM?

Which supporter fields are imported?

What happens if a donation is deleted in the CRM?

Are External Donations additive-only?

What kinds of donation updates can sync after the initial import?

How often does the data update after the initial import?

Does ongoing sync apply only to new donations?

What happens if the initial import is run again?

What this feature does not do

To set the right expectations, External Donations should not be treated as a full CRM mirror.

It does not provide:

Retroactive supporter merges in Fundraise Up
Continuous supporter profile re-syncing
A general CRM-to-Fundraise Up deletion sync
Retroactive reassignment of historical imported donations after a CRM merge