Employee File Import

The employee file is the primary mechanism for loading your workplace donors’ information into DonorPoint. A well-structured import ensures accurate record matching, clean data, and a smooth donor experience.

Supported File Formats

Employee files can be imported as:

  • Excel (.xlsx, .xls) — first sheet is used; first row must be headers
  • CSV (.csv) — UTF-8 encoding recommended for special characters

Standard Fields

The following fields are recognized in employee import files. Column headers must match these names (case-insensitive):

Field Required Description
firstName Yes Donor first name
lastName Yes Donor last name
email Yes Email address — used as the primary login username
contactId Recommended External unique ID (employee number, student ID, etc.) — used for matching existing records
address No Street address
city No City
state No State/province (2-letter code)
postalCode No Postal / ZIP code
phone No Primary phone number
workPhone No Work phone number
organization Recommended Employer organization name — must match an Organization record in DonorPoint
organizationCode Recommended Organization’s external code — used for matching org records
password Situational Plain-text password (when using “Imported and Sent” password strategy)
workgroup No Workgroup name for row-level permissions
owner No Username of the workgroup owner

Custom Fields on Employee Records

Any custom fields defined on your Employee Relationship definition can be included in the import file using their field name as the column header. For example, if you have an employee custom field named DepartmentCode, add a column DepartmentCode to the file.

Matching Logic

DonorPoint matches incoming rows to existing contact records in this order:

  1. contactId — if a contactId value matches the ContactID field on an existing contact record, that record is updated
  2. Email — if no contactId match, the email address is checked against existing contact emails
  3. No match — a new contact record is created

Best practice: Always include a contactId (e.g., employee number) in your import file. This prevents duplicate records when employees change email addresses or have minor name variations.

Organization Matching

The organization and organizationCode fields are used to link employees to their employer Organization in DonorPoint. Matching works as follows:

  1. If organizationCode is provided, it matches the Organization’s Code field (exact match)
  2. If only organization is provided, it matches the Organization’s Name field (exact match, case-insensitive)
  3. If no match is found, a new Organization record may be created (depending on your import settings)

Incremental vs. Full File

Two import modes are available:

Incremental — only rows in the file are affected. Existing employees not in the file are unchanged. Use for adding new employees or updating specific records.

Full (Replace) — the import file represents the complete current employee list. Employees in DonorPoint but not in the file are flagged as “expired” or deactivated. Use for end-of-campaign cleanup or when your HR system provides a complete extract.

Configure the import mode in the import dialog when uploading the file.

Running the Import

  1. Go to the Organization record for the employer.
  2. Click the Tasks button and select Import Employees.
  3. Upload your file.
  4. The import dialog maps your file columns to DonorPoint fields — review and correct any auto-mappings.
  5. Click Import.

The import processes immediately and shows a summary of records created, updated, and any errors.

Import Errors

Common import errors and their causes:

Error Cause
“Organization not found” The organization or organizationCode value doesn’t match any Organization record
“Email already in use” The email matches a contact record owned by a different account
“Invalid email format” The email field contains a non-email value
“Required field missing” firstName, lastName, or email is blank

Rows with errors are skipped; the rest import successfully. Download the error report from the import results dialog to fix and re-import affected rows.

After Import: Inviting Employees

After importing, send invitation emails to new employees using the Send Invitations action on the organization or workplace campaign. This uses the configured invitation autoresponder template.

See Employee Passwords for password strategy options to include in invitation emails.