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How-to guides
How to import historical giving from a spreadsheet
Bring last year's (or many years of) gifts from Planning Center, Breeze, or Excel into ChurchRaise so reports and year-end statements are complete.
Step-by-step guideAbout 30 minutes
Before you begin
- Giving module enabled
- CSV or Excel export from your old system or spreadsheet
- Columns for donor name or email, amount, date, and fund name
Why import old gifts
Online giving only captures gifts from when you turned it on. Importing history fills in donor totals for year-end statements, analytics, and pastoral thank-yous. ChurchRaise matches donors by email when possible.
Prepare your file
Export from your old system
In Planning Center, Breeze, CCB, Realm, Elvanto, or similar, export giving history as CSV or Excel. If you only have a spreadsheet, save it as CSV or XLSX.
Include key columns
At minimum: donor name or email, gift amount, gift date, and fund name. Add payment method, check number, or memo if you have them.
Clean obvious errors
Remove blank rows. Fix emails (one @ per address). Use dates like 2024-03-15 or whatever format your export uses consistently.
Tips
- Test with one month of data first before importing ten years.
- Existing People records match on email — consistent emails reduce duplicate donor records.
Run the import wizard
Open Giving → Import Giving
In the left sidebar, click Giving, then Import Giving. (This may open as a full page or a popup — same steps either way.)
Upload your file
Step 1 — Upload: drag your CSV or Excel file onto the upload area, or click to browse.
Map fields
Step 2 — Map Fields: ChurchRaise auto-maps columns with AI. Review each mapping — Contacts (name, email, phone), Funds (fund name), Transactions (amount, date, fund). Turn off entity types you do not need. Click Re-analyze if you change mappings.
Set options
Step 3 — Options: optionally attach all gifts to a Campaign. Choose Live or Archive for any new funds created from the file.
Confirm and start
Step 4 — Confirm: review row count. Click Start Import. A progress bar shows contacts, funds, and transactions created. Large files import in batches — do not close the window.
Review the summary
Step 5 — Summary: note how many records were created vs matched to existing contacts. Click Go to Giving when done.
Watch out
- If transaction columns are mapped but the Transactions toggle is off, those gifts will not import — turn Transactions on.
- Do not close the browser during a large import.
If something goes wrong
Many rows failed
Open the error details if shown. Usually bad dates, missing amounts, or malformed emails. Fix the spreadsheet and re-import the failed rows.
Donor totals look doubled
You may have imported the same period twice. Check Transactions and remove duplicate batches if needed.
Fund names wrong
Re-import with corrected fund column mapping, or rename funds under Giving → Funds.
After importing
Open Transactions → Manage and spot-check a few familiar donors. Then you are ready to run year-end statements or giving reports with complete history.
Related articles
Also available in-app at /help/giving when you're signed in.