When a donor gives, it's essential that your team has the most accurate and current information—whether it's their first gift or their hundredth. Ensuring that Contact details like phone numbers and addresses are correct is critical for effective communication, including thank-you letters and follow-up calls. To facilitate this, the contact information between Virtuous Raise and Virtuous CRM+ must sync. The Contact Sync feature allows changes made in either app to reflect in the other, keeping donor records consistent.
How Does It Work?
Virtuous Raise efficiently collects donation and donor information and sends it to Virtuous CRM+ when the integration is enabled (for more information on the Virtuous CRM+ and Virtuous Raise integration, click here). This process captures the majority of updates, as both admin and donor-initiated changes in contact information are communicated to Virtuous CRM+.
A key aspect of this feature is the "Contact Reference Source," which is automatically set during each data transfer. Only Contacts with a Reference Source of "Virtuous Raise" are eligible for synchronization. This is crucial for organizations with extensive Contact lists; for example, if you have 1,000,000 Contacts in Virtuous CRM+, but only 200,000 are digital donors, you may only want the donor records to sync with Virtuous Raise.
What Gets Synced?
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From Virtuous Raise to Virtuous CRM+:
- Gifts and Contact Updates: Whenever a Gift is recorded or a Contact update occurs, the information is sent along with the Reference Source and the Donor ID.
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From Virtuous CRM+ to Virtuous Raise:
- Only Contacts with a Reference Source of "Virtuous Raise" will sync back to Virtuous Raise, ensuring that updates are applied only to relevant records.
Main Data Points Synced Bidirectionally:
- Name Changes: Any updates to donor names (individuals or organizations) are reflected in both systems.
- Address Changes: Updates to primary addresses sync automatically, which is particularly useful for NCOA updates that may affect many records at once.
- Phone Number Changes: Changes to primary phone numbers are also synchronized.
One-Way Sync Details:
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From Virtuous Raise: If a donor in Virtuous Raise doesn't exist in Virtuous CRM+, a new Contact is created with the Reference Source "Virtuous Raise" via the Gift and Contact Import Tool. Email address changes are also sent from Virtuous Raise to Virtuous CRM+, but the reverse is not true for security reasons.
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From Virtuous CRM+: Edits made to Contacts with a Reference Source of "Virtuous Raise" in Virtuous CRM+ sync to Virtuous Raise, including changes to names, primary phone numbers, primary addresses, and unique IDs. However, email changes in Virtuous CRM+ are not reflected back in Virtuous Raise for security purposes.
When Does Data Get Synced?
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From Virtuous Raise: All donors in Virtuous Raise qualify for syncing. Updates made by an admin or donor through their respective portals will be sent to Virtuous CRM+. However, edits via the Virtuous Raise API do not currently trigger syncs.
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From Virtuous CRM+: Contacts with a Reference Source of "Virtuous Raise" will sync to Virtuous Raise when changes are made by admins, donors in their portals, through the Virtuous CRM+ API, or during NCOA updates.
Conclusion
The integration between Virtuous Raise and Virtuous CRM+ ensures that your donor information remains accurate and up-to-date. By effectively utilizing the Contact Sync feature, you can maintain the integrity of your Contact data, enabling your team to focus on building meaningful relationships with your donors.