About the activity feed 📋
Every contact profile has an activity feed that keeps a running history of that contact's interactions with your organization, listed from newest to oldest. Givebutter automatically logs most activity, like donations, ticket purchases, and Engage messages, and you can log interactions that happen outside of Givebutter, like phone calls, meetings, and volunteer shifts, one at a time or in bulk.
Ongoing items, like active recurring plans and upcoming event tickets, appear in the Summary section at the top of the profile.
Full list of activities recorded in the activity feed
Full list of activities recorded in the activity feed
Transactions
Transaction
Peer to Peer Credit
Transaction Acknowledged
Transaction Unacknowledged
Soft Credit
Recurring Plan Created
Recurring Plan Activated
Recurring Plan Canceled
Ticket
Communication
Email
Video
Text message
Phone Call
Letter
Meeting
Signups
Signup Form
Joined Campaign
Email Subscribed
Email Unsubscribed
SMS Subscribed
SMS Unsubscribed
Tasks
Task created
Completed task
Other activity
Note
Tagged
Untagged
Custom field updated
Volunteer activity
Archived
Unarchived
What's logged automatically ⚡
Givebutter adds these activities to a contact's feed as they happen:
Donations and other transactions, including offline transactions you record
Recurring plans, including when a plan is created or activated after an import
Ticket purchases and event registrations
Engage emails and texts, with sent, opened, clicked, or undelivered status
Emails sent by a workflow, with a link to the workflow that sent them. Emails your team sends through Engage show the sender's name.
BCC'd or forwarded emails, shown as sent externally
Mailings, when a paid order is placed or a print-yourself mailing is marked as sent
Personal thank-you videos, with watched status
Notes added by workflows
Imported contact activities and transactions
Volunteer activity synced from POINT
Automatically logged activities can't be edited or deleted, but you can add a note to any of them or pin them to the top of the feed.
Manually logging activity ✏️
Use manual activities to record interactions that happen outside of Givebutter, like a stewardship call, a meeting, or a thank-you note sent by mail.
In your dashboard, go to the Contacts page and open the contact's profile.
On the Overview tab, in the Activity section, click Add a note or log an activity.
Select the activity type. Available options include Note, Email, SMS, Phone call, Meeting, Completed task, and Volunteer activity.
Choose the date the activity happened, and add your notes. You can type them or dictate them with speech-to-text by clicking the microphone icon. You can also include emojis by clicking the smiley face icon.
Click Add activity to add the activity to the contact's feed.
Manually logged activities can also be edited after they've been saved. You can add an internal note, edit, delete, reassign the activity to a different contact, or pin an activity to the top of the list.
Filter and pin activities 📌
For long-time supporters with years of history, use the filters at the top of the activity feed to show one or more activity types at a time. Quick filters let you jump to common groups, like all communications or signups.
To keep an important activity at the top of the feed, click the pin icon on the right side of the entry. You can also add a note to any activity, including ones that were logged automatically.
Importing activities in bulk ⬆️
If you track interactions in a spreadsheet or are moving from another CRM, you can import contact activities in bulk. Upload a CSV, paste data from a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, or type directly into the import table.
Preparing data for import 🧮
To upload your activities successfully, your data needs to be formatted properly. We recommend starting with the template below.
Your file must contain the following columns:
Contact ID – The Givebutter Contact ID of the contact you want the activity associated with. This is found in your contact export.
Activity Type – Completed task, Email, Meeting, Note, Phone call, SMS, or Volunteer activity.
Date Occurred – Must be a valid date format, such as 01/01/2023, 2023-01-01, 2023-01-01 12:00:00-05:00, or 2023-01-01 12:00:00 EST.
Optional fields:
External ID – Unique identifier/customer ID from your previous platform. (Not case sensitive. For Salesforce, please use the 18-character ID.)
Subject – Not required for Note activities.
Note – The details of the activity.
Timezone – Defaults to the timezone in your Account Settings if not specified.
Uploading your data ⬆️
Select Settings from the left sidebar in your Givebutter dashboard, then select Imports.
Click New Import, then select Contact activities from the dropdown.
To upload data from a spreadsheet file, click Upload file and select your file. Supported file types include .csv, .tsv, .xls, .xlsx, .xml, and .txt.
Click Import.
Confirm mapping for your data. If an Incoming Field is matched to the wrong Destination Field, click the dropdown arrow to reassign it.
Click Continue in the upper right corner, then click Submit. You'll be notified by email when your import is complete.
You can quickly fix formatting issues or fill in missing fields in bulk with the importer's Transform tool. Incomplete import files are saved as drafts in your dashboard. Learn how to transform your data →
Viewing imports 👀
In your dashboard, go to Settings, then click Imports. You'll see your import history.
Failed import rows will be displayed here. You can download just the failed records by clicking the red icon next to the relevant import.
To download the file, click the three dots [...] on the right and click Download File.
Click on an import to view details, including the type of import, number of rows/failed rows, date of the import, and specific lines for each failed row.
Deleting imports ❌
If you make a mistake, you can delete entire imports from your account. This will remove all data from this import. We cannot restore deleted import data.
In your Givebutter dashboard, navigate to Settings and click Imports.
You'll see a list of all previous imports in the History section. Click the three dots [...] on the right side of the import you'd like to delete.
Click Delete to delete this import.
Click Delete Data to confirm the deletion.
FAQ 🤔
Do refunds appear in the activity feed?
No, refunds aren't currently logged as an activity. To see a refunded transaction, click View all transactions in the contact's Summary section.
Can I see all of a contact's transactions in one list?
Yes! Click View all transactions in the contact's Summary section to open your Transactions page filtered to that contact.
Are changes to recurring plans logged?
When a recurring plan is created or canceled, it's logged in the feed. Other updates, like changing the amount or pausing a plan, aren't currently logged.
What date is used for offline transactions in the activity feed?
Offline transaction activities are backdated to the donation date entered for the transaction, not the date they were recorded in Givebutter.
What's the difference between a contact's Note and a note activity?
The Note field is one note saved in the contact's details sidebar. It's included in contact exports and imports. A note activity is a dated entry in the activity feed, and a contact can have as many as you need. To add notes to the feed in bulk, use a Contact activities import. A Contacts import updates the Note field instead.
Can I export a contact's activity feed?
Not currently. Add your vote to the feature request! →
Does the activity feed connect an opened email to a later donation?
Not currently. Opened emails and donations appear as separate activities.