SmartMAILCHIMP: Set up and configuration in Mailchimp and Raiser's Edge NXT

SmartMAILCHIMP: Set up and configuration in Mailchimp and Raiser's Edge NXT

How are Mailchimp and Raiser's Edge kept in sync?

  1. SmartMAILCHIMP works by transactional sync, changes are passed between Mailchimp and Raiser's Edge via our SmartSYNC platform as they happen.
  2. SmartMAILCHIMP connects a dynamic Constituent List in Raiser's Edge NXT that contains the same records as your Mailchimp Audience.

Configuration in Mailchimp and Raiser's Edge NXT before sync is enabled

  1. Before the sync is enabled it is important your Constituent List and Mailchimp Audience mirror each other exactly.
  2. The SmartTHING team will audit your systems as part of the set up process and work with your to ensure your Raiser's Edge List and Mailchimp Audience match. This process typically involves exporting, analysing and importing data into Mailchimp, updating records where required.
  3. The Constituent ID from your Raiser's Edge database must be passed to a Merge Field in Mailchimp to bind records together between applications. (as image below)
Constituent ID configuration in Mailchimp
Mailchimp Merge Fields showing the Constituent ID (CONSID) from Raiser's Edge NXT

Which data is synchronised between Raiser's Edge NXT and Mailchimp?

Basics fields
  1. Constituent ID | Email address | First name | Last name | Nickname | Address
Additional fields (examples)
  1. First gift data | Latest gift date | Latest gift amount | Latest Gift type | Total Given | Education class of | Job Title | Employer
Subscription status
  1. Subscription status in Mailchimp is passed to Consent and Solicit Codes in Raiser's Edge NXT.

Creating new Constituent records in Raiser's Edge

  1. If you use a Mailchimp sign up form to grow your Audience SmartMAILCHIMP can add these Contacts as new Constituent records in Raiser's Edge NXT.
  2. SmartMAILCHIMP will search your Raiser's Edge database for a matching record, if no match is found a new Constituent is added.
  3. The matching criteria is determined by SmartSYNC and would typically use a combination of email address and name data to try and find a match although this can be tweaked per client.
  4. SmartMAILCHIMP can add a specific Constituent Code to new Constituents (e.g Mailchimp signup) or other data marker so you can review them.

Testing

Note: Synchronisation delays

  1. To stop loops of information passing between applications and to allow SmartMAILCHIMP to work correctly, following a change, data flows are limited to one direction for a period of an hour for that record.
  2. As an example, if a change is made to a Mailchimp record (say the user unsubscribes) then that users data will only pass from Mailchimp to Raiser's Edge for one hour after the change has been made. Changes to the same person record in Raiser's Edge will be ignored during the same period.
  3. There can be a delay of up to 30 minutes before updates in Raiser's Edge NXT are picked up by SmartMAILCHIMP. This is a limitation of Blackbaud's API. 
  4. There are only a few seconds delay for changes in Mailchimp being picked up by SmartMAILCHIMP.
The above are important to note during testing and we therefore recommend you use one record for testing the RE to Mailchimp sync and another the Mailchimp to RE sync just to avoid falling fowl of the above loop prevention.

Flow
Delay
Mailchimp to Raiser's Edge
New signup, profile edited, unsubscribe or invalid address notifications.
5 minutes
Raiser's Edge to Mailchimp
New signup or unsubscribe
Up to 24 hours
Raiser's Edge to Mailchimp
Existing Mailchimp contact, profile update
Typically up to 30 minutes

Forcing an update from Raiser's Edge

The sync from Raiser's Edge to an external system can take a while, as outlined above.
You can however force a sync within 5 minutes by using the 'New or Updated Constituent' Event step 'Test Record IDs' field:

You enter the Raiser's Edge Constituent IDs (not Lookup ID) of the records you wish to test here. You can see this Constituent ID in RENXT by going to the record and noting the web address i.e.
https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com/constituent/records/2154?envId=...&svcId=renxt 
in which the Constituent ID is 2154.

Once you add this to the Event step it will cause the records information to sync and the 'Test Record IDs' field will be reset to blank. You can see the sync within the Logs area of SmartSYNC too of course.

Selecting records for testing

During testing you may want to limit the records that are synchronised by adding a filter based on email address.
  1. Edit the event step and under Advanced options you would add a SmartFILTER for:

    1. Mailchimp: Enter 'email' in the left column and list the emails in the right column separated by a comma i.e. 


    2. Raiser's Edge: Enter 'email|address' in the left column and list the emails in the right column separated by a comma i.e.