Nonprofit CRM migration checklist for donor and gift data
A field-tested checklist for moving donor data without losing receipts, recurring gifts, soft credits, relationships, and original source IDs.
Sapling CRM Editorial Team
Sapling CRMAugust 24, 20262 min read
01
Export more than names and gifts
A migration should preserve the operational story, not just a spreadsheet of donors. Export contacts, households, individuals, addresses, phones, emails, gifts, recurring gifts, campaigns, funds, appeals, soft credits, tributes, notes, communication history, receipt status, and original IDs.
02
Keep external IDs
Original IDs are the safest way to make repeated imports idempotent. They also let your team trace where a record came from if a donor or finance reviewer asks why a field looks the way it does.
03
Do not import every row blindly
Rows should be staged into clean, review, and needs-attention states. Anonymous donors, passthrough gifts, duplicate contacts, invalid dates, missing amounts, and unknown tender types need review before they become permanent CRM truth.
04
Validate after import
Check lifetime giving totals, yearly totals, recurring donor lists, receipt files, refund history, relationship records, and a sample of contact timelines. The migration is not done until a fundraiser can trust the contact page.
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