Enjoy the convenience of having all your online giving in one place. Givebutter's semi-automated migration service allows you to do just that! We've made it easy to transfer recurring transactions from your current Stripe processor to Givebutter. 👌
Here's more about how we support recurring donation migration:
Transfer pre-existing recurring donations from any Stripe processor into the Givebutter campaign of your choice.
Givebutter compares the imported donor data against your account's existing Contact records and, upon validation, will update existing Contact activities or create a new Contact.
Newly migrated transactions are managed exclusively in the Recurring Payments tab of your Dashboard.
Steward recurring donors like never before while centralizing accounting and reporting and reducing overall costs.
Step 1: Connect a payout method to your Givebutter account
If you haven't already, follow the directions in our help article about connecting a payment method.
Step 2: Download your existing Stripe Customer information and start your import spreadsheet
Givebutter needs some basic information about your recurring transactions. This allows us to recreate those records in Givebutter. The data needs to be formatted and uploaded to your Givebutter Dashboard. Improper formatting will delay or inhibit the migration.
Data formatting of this nature is traditionally a time-consuming step, and to help you prepare that data, we've included a template below.
Pro Tip: We recommend copying the template in Google Sheets or downloading it if you prefer working in Excel. Then match your data to the corresponding columns on the template.
Required fields: (in any order):
First Name: The donor's first name
Last Name: The donor's last name
Email Address: The primary email of the donor
Amount: Only numbers, no currency symbols.
Frequency: Available options are Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly.
Last Bill Date: Format is YYYY-MM-DD
Campaign Code: The Campaign code of the Campaign recurring donors will be migrated into. This can be found by clicking on All Campaigns in the left-hand menu bar.
Stripe Customer ID: Stripe metadata (always begins with "cus_")
Stripe Source ID: Stripe metadata, this column is called "stripe_id_new" in your Stripe export (begins with“src_”, "pm_", "ba_" or "card_")
Stripe Source ID: This information will be emailed to you from Stripe,
once the data copy is completed by them.Address Line 1
City
State
Zip Code
Country Code: Three symbol country codes only.
Optional Fields: (in any order)
Phone Number
Address line 2
Save this file as you'll need to provide parts of to Stripe in your next step.
Step 3: Contact Stripe to release your payment tokens
We've provided an email template to expedite your request.
Attach the recently uploaded CSV in your email to Stripe so they know which tokens to transfer over.
Email Template
TO: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Dear Stripe Support Team,
We are making some changes to our fundraising systems and how we process
recurring donations.
Would you please transfer our recurring donors' payment tokens along with their
names and email addresses to Givebutter's Stripe Account?
I have CC'ed your migrations team and Givebutter to assist with this as needed.
Would you please let me know if anything else is required and an approximate
timeline for the transfer?
Thank you!
[Your Name]
The Stripe support and migration team will work together over the following days to transfer the payment tokens and data.
Step 4: Fill out the migration intake form with Stripe
The form can be found here:
(for migration type, select "data copy", then indicate that the account is the 'source').
Select 'partial' copy.
Destination merchant: acct_17qVRFEBuKNYj3GG
Step 5: Email Givebutter
Email Givebutter at [email protected] with the Stripe Account ID you'll be importing from and to let us know you have completed the intake form with Stripe.
We have a form to fill out on our side and will send you a confirmation email once that is complete. Then we wait for Stripe!
Step 6: Double-check the info in the next email from Stripe and respond with “permission to proceed.”
Stripe will send an email to you and Givebutter requesting permission to proceed with the migration. Both parties MUST respond to this email by giving permission to proceed or your migration will not move forward.
Example email from Stripe
Hi all,
Thank you for sending over that list! We have the verified authorizations for
this copy. For data security, before we proceed, please review the details
of what we received below:
source_account: acct_#############
source_account_name: EXAMPLE
destination_account: acct_###########
destination_account_name: Givebutter
estimated_customers_to_copy: 8, from list 'migration'
If your team manages several merchant accounts, we highly recommend validating
the account IDs above are correct. Account IDs and account names are
visible via the Stripe Dashboard: https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/user
Please reply here to let me know that you approve proceeding with the
information above, and let me know if there's anything I can help clarify.
Best,
Stripe Support
Step 7: Wait for Stripe to complete the data copy
You'll get an email looking something like this. There will also be a CSV file attached. Keep that! You'll need to add some of the data to your import spreadsheet before your upload.
Example email from Stripe:
Hi all,
Thank you for confirming!
I just completed the copy on my end. All those customers are now in the
destination account and kept the same id (cus_XXX. I haven't made any
changes to the source account and the customers are still present there
too if you want to continue using them there.
Please remember that we only copy customers and their saved cards or
bank accounts. We don't copy the payment history, plans, discounts or
active subscriptions.
All the best,
Stripe Data Migrations
Step 8: Update your import spreadsheet and upload
In the file that Stripe sends back to you, there will be a column labeled source_id_new.
Add that to your import spreadsheet under the Stripe Source ID column. Now you're ready to import your recurring donations! 🎉
Navigate to the Track, and then Recurring Plans in your Givebutter Dashboard.
Click the Actions button, then click New Import and select the import file from your device.
Next, choose whether to Upload data from file or manually enter data.
Click Upload data from file, review the data mapping in your import file to the fields in a preview window or manually enter your data into the window.
When you're finished, toggle through some of the records to spot-check for completeness and click Continue. You will receive an email confirmation from Givebutter. If that status is failed, follow the directions provided in our email to reconcile any errors.
Step 9: Validate the Recurring Plans
When you receive the confirmation email from Stripe that your data transfer is complete, navigate to the Account and then Imports in your Givebutter Dashboard.
Click into the Recurring Plans tab and select Validate Plans.
Shortly after clicking Validate, you will receive an email confirmation from Givebutter. Each Recurring Donation is validated individually. Follow the directions provided in our email to reconcile any errors.
Step 10: Activate the Recurring Plans
Now it’s time to cancel or disable your recurring gifts while suppressing any "your monthly donation has been canceled" emails on your legacy platform.
Once you've completed that step, return to the Imports tab in your Givebutter dashboard.
Click the three dots next to each plan and select Activate Plan.
👉 Note: Admins can also edit the plan amount and the next bill date by selecting the (...) menu next to any imported plan.
You're all set, those recurring donations will begin processing in Givebutter.
Good to know
While our best-in-class support team is available to guide your way, data migrations can be a challenging and time-consuming process if not well organized. The state of your data will determine your migration experience. Givebutter will not analyze, structure, or organize your data for you. You are the leader of your migration. This process can take a few weeks to a few months. It entirely depends on the quality of your data.
Givebutter cannot complete a migration until the payment token/data has been released by your current payment processor and received/imported by Stripe.
Timing is important. You'll need to coordinate canceling your existing subscriptions and the import to ensure no payments are missed or duplicated.
Need support while migrating your recurring donations?
If you have any questions about migrating your recurring donations to Givebutter or difficulties with your legacy platform or processor, reach out to our Migrations team by emailing [email protected] and an actual person on our team will get back to you in 2-3 business days.