Connecting GiveSmart Events

Before You Start

• You need to be an Org admin in GiveSmart. GiveSmart only lets Org admins build custom reports.
• You need the Admin role here. The setup pages below are open to Admins only.
• Set up GiveSmart Events here once. Click Connections in the sidebar, open GiveSmart Events, pick a Default fund and a Revenue account, and click Save configuration. Every donation in your file needs these to be recorded. GiveSmart Events shows up for upload only after you save.
• Check your time zone. Open Organization > How we record your money and confirm your time zone. GiveSmart writes every time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), and we use your time zone to put each donation on the day the donor actually gave. That matters most for a donation made late on December 31.

Steps

Step 1: Build the report in GiveSmart (first time only)

1. Sign in to GiveSmart Events.

2. Select Reports > Custom Report in the left menu.

3. Click + New Report.

4. Name the report something you'll recognize, like "NP Ledger export".

5. Pick the date range. Overlapping an earlier upload is fine. We skip any donation we've already recorded from GiveSmart.

6. Pick the campaigns. Choose every campaign in that date range, for example all of "2026 Campaigns". Donations in a campaign you leave out never reach your books.

7. Select every one of these columns. Date and User name are already selected, so leave them on.

   • Date
   • Amount paid
   • Gross discount
   • Price each
   • Qty amount
   • Fair market value (FMV)
   • Item name
   • Item number
   • Item type
   • User Address: each of street, city, state/province and postal code
   • User email
   • User name
   • Event name - display
   • Surcharge label
   • Surcharge percentage

8. Select One-Time under Schedule Report.

9. Click Save.

Step 2: Download the file

1. Click Download CSV.
2. Keep the file exactly as it downloaded. Opening it in Excel and saving it again strips the leading zeros from ZIP codes and can rewrite the dates into a form we can't read.

Step 3: Upload it here

1. Click Aggregator Batch Import in the sidebar, under Imports and repeats.
2. Pick GiveSmart Events in the Aggregator dropdown.
3. Drag your file onto the upload area, or click to browse for it.
4. Click Upload & parse.

We record each donation for its donor and take you to the results for that file.

Next time

Open Reports > Custom Report in GiveSmart, open your saved "NP Ledger export", change the date range, then download and upload as above.

What to Check

• The donation count matches GiveSmart. The results page shows how many donations were Created, how many were Skipped, and how many are On hold for an answer from you.

• Nothing is listed under Failed rows. A donation dated in a fiscal year you've closed is counted as Skipped but is not recorded. It also appears under Failed rows, so check there before you treat your books as complete.

• Held donations get an answer. Two things can hold a donation:

  • An auction item or ticket needs its fair market value (the value of what the donor got in return). Only the amount above that value is tax-deductible for the donor.
  • An event or team name we haven't seen before needs a fund. You choose it once, and we use your choice for that name from then on.

  You answer both right on the results page. See Importing a Donation Platform Batch for how.

Common Mistakes

• Leaving out a column. Your report needs every column listed in Step 1. Add the missing one to your saved report, then download again.
• Renaming an event, team or item in GiveSmart after you've uploaded it. We recognize a donation we've already recorded by its date, donor email, item, amount and event name. Change one of those in GiveSmart and the next upload looks like a new donation. If you rename something, keep your next date range after your last upload.
• Uploading a GiveSmart Fundraise file here. Fundraise has its own file and its own entry in the Aggregator dropdown.

Related Pages

• Importing a Donation Platform Batch
• Giving statements