The power of EverTrue begins with your organization's data. Mix in our revolutionary platform and intuitive interface to arrive at the finest software available to non-profit advancement teams today. 

To get your constituent and other institutional data to EverTrue, the first step is to build a CSV export from your database. This document contains both an overview of EverTrue's data requirements and a few other need-to-knows. In addition, we have specific File Field Guides that your organization will need based upon the EverTrue product purchased. Altogether, these documents will be the building blocks and we will be your champion from day one. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to the EverCrew team! 

The Basics

We offer several different file types for import. File types available to your organization are dependent on the suite of EverTrue products purchased. The EverCrew team will advise which file types should be used during the implementation. For existing customers, please check with genius@evertrue.com to confirm. Below are the file types available:

• Constituent
• Interactions
• Gift Transactions
• Proposals
• Portfolio Assignments
• Volunteer Assignments 

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File Formatting

After arranging your data using the field guides provided, you will want to export those fields into CSV (Comma Separated Value) files. 

Just a few file formatting tips to help with preparation:

• EverTrue accepts only CSV files.
• EverTrue does not require any specific naming convention for the field headers. However, we provide suggested header names for each field.
• EverTrue does not require any field order.
• To delimit data within a field, you are welcome to use semi-colons.
• If no value exists for a particular field, please leave the cell empty (without a placeholder, i.e do not include "Null" as a value in your fields).

Protecting Text

EverTrue adheres to standard CSV formatting. Therefore, in order to protect values containing meaningful commas, they must be quote-wrapped/text-qualified with double quotes.

Similarly, if there are meaningful quotes in any values, they must be double and text-qualified.

In general, please make sure to properly text-qualify all necessary values. Unwrapped meaningful commas or unescaped text-qualifying quotes will cause your data to be misread and imported incorrectly.

Encoding

Please use UTF-8 encoding to protect symbols and ensure that your data will be parsed correctly. Every database and reporting tool controls encoding differently. In many cases, the encoding can be set by programming your export, or by selecting the type of encoding with your file type. In a few cases, UTF-8 encoding cannot be set pre-export and has to be adjusted manually post-export using various methods depending on your configuration. If you are having trouble setting your encoding, please reach out to your database or reporting tool provider.

List Properties

Any field marked as a list property allows for more than one value. To delimit those values in a single field use semi-colons ( ; ). You can also choose to separate each value into a separate column and map all columns to a single field during importing.

Example of Delimited Field: Soccer;Football;Baseball

If using a single field with semi-colon delimiters, make sure to select that field as delimited using the checkbox provided during mapping.

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Field Groups

Field groups only apply to your Constituent file. EverTrue uses them as an easy way to group data points and in some cases to create nesting field groups, i.e. fields that are related to and rely on one another. Below are EverTrue’s field groups for a Constituent File:

• Emails
• Phones
• Addresses
• Employment
• Giving
• Assignees
• Custom Fields

Groups that allow for multiple sets within that group

If completing incremental imports or separating constituent data into multiple files, you should include all needed fields from a field group in a single file. For example, all custom fields must be in a single file or all address fields in a single file.

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Field Types

EverTrue uses the following field types:

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Importing & Mapping

Once your CSV files have been reviewed by your Implementation Partner and they have given you the go-ahead, it is time to officially import your files into EverTrue’s platform!

Looking for an overview of the data implementation process? Click here.

Importer

Both the import and mapping process will take place in the Data Manager, EverTrue's data management platform. Your Implementation Partner will provide credentials when it is time to begin importing. 

Before getting started, confirm with your Partner that all needed custom fields are in place. 

Once in Data Manager, after navigating to the Import Data in the left-side menu, select the New Import button. 

Note: The first time a file type (i.e. constituent, interactions, or proposals) is imported to EverTrue it may take longer than any subsequent imports of the same type. 

Detailed instructions on using the Data Manager Importer are here.

Note: You will be able to select Partial Import (which allows you to make changes only to records that are in the import file) or Full Import (which replaces records previously imported with the records that are in the import file).

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Automation

You have probably heard that fresh, up-to-date data is really important here at EverTrue. It not only provides your users with the latest and greatest data, but it allows our platform to run in tip-top shape - being the best it can be!

To do this, we provide your institution with the option to deliver files on a regular basis via SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol). Your Partner will work with you to both create optimal CSV files for automated* imports and make sure everything is set up to accept and ingest those delivered files.

For more information on using SFTP, click here.

Note: Complete automation is only possible with databases that support scheduled exports to your computer or server. However, databases that cannot schedule exports still have the option of using SFTP to deliver files to EverTrue.

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Questions? Contact your implementation Partner or reach out to EverTrue Support at genius@evertrue.com.