Uploading gift files

What to upload and why

A gift file is your giving history: every gift, pledge and payment, one row each. TruePyramids reads it to:

• count the prospects you already have at each level of a gift pyramid (optional — a gift pyramid works from a goal alone);
• place every donor in a tier of a donor pyramid and show who moved up, down or lapsed;
• learn the tiers of a True Pyramid and find who already gives like the tier above.

Donor pyramids and True Pyramids need a gift file (or a CRM connection). You can build all three kinds of pyramid from the same upload.

Tip: Export everything you have rather than a single year. Donor pyramids show movement once you have two or more full years, and a gift pyramid's default prospect rule looks back five years from your latest gift.

Gifts or asks: what's in this file?

The upload page asks What's in this file? before you choose a file:

Gifts

Gift transactions, one row per gift or payment. This is what every pyramid is built from, and what the rest of this page is about.

Asks

Solicitations and how they ended: who was asked, when, for how much, and whether they said yes. An asks file never becomes a pyramid's gifts; it only tunes the prospect ratio suggestions in Edit levels. See Uploading an asks file.

The column guide under the drop area changes with your choice, so you can check what each kind of file needs. You can't change the choice once the file starts uploading — if you picked the wrong one, upload the file again.

File types and size

Files can be up to 2 GB. The limit applies to the file you upload, so zipping a very large CSV is the easiest way to get under it. Empty files are refused before anything is sent.

The columns your file needs

A gift file needs these five columns. Your headers don't have to use these exact names — see how we recognize your headers.

One more column is optional: capacity, a gift capacity rating in dollars from wealth screening (see below). Every other column either comes along as a detail or is left out — see Other columns.

How we recognize your headers

When we first read your file we compare each header with the names below, ignoring capital letters, spaces and punctuation — so Gift ID, gift_id and GIFT-ID are all the same. Columns are checked left to right, and each of the six roles goes to the first column that fits it. If your file has both Gift Date and Date, the first one becomes the date and the second is kept as a detail.

A header we don't recognize isn't a problem: the column comes in as Keep as detail, and you choose what it is in the review step.

Dates

We read these date formats:

A time after the date is ignored, so 2026-09-28T00:00:00 and 9/28/2026 12:00 AM both read as Sep 28, 2026. Dates stored as real dates in Excel are read directly, whatever they look like on screen.

We settle on one format for the whole file, so 03/04 means the same thing on every row. We look at the first 1,000 rows and pick the format that reads the most of them. When every date could be read either way — 03/04/2026 could be March 4 or April 3 — we choose month-first. You can see and change the choice in review: the column used as date has a Read as menu under its name.

A row whose date doesn't fit the chosen format is left out of the import with the reason “Date not readable”.

Amounts, refunds and negative numbers

Amounts can be written like $1,234.56, 1234.56, 250, -25 or (25.00) — parentheses mean negative, as in accounting. Use a period for cents; amounts like 1.234,56 aren't read. A row whose amount can't be read is left out with the reason “Amount not readable”.

A negative amount is a refund or an adjustment. Pyramids subtract it from that constituent's money received, and it never counts as a gift on its own. Give a refund row:

• its own transactionid — a refund that reuses the original gift's ID is a duplicate and is left out;
• the same constituentid as the gift it reverses;
• a type like the original gift's, such as one-time, so it's netted against money received.

Rows with a zero amount are imported but add nothing.

The optional capacity column

If you've had your donors wealth-screened, add a capacity column with each constituent's estimated gift capacity in dollars. It's read like an amount. For each constituent we keep the value on their latest gift (on the same date, the row further down the file wins); empty, zero or unreadable values are ignored. A gift pyramid uses capacity when it counts prospects and in the Shaped by your giving template — see Prospects and prospect rules.

Only one column can be used as capacity.

Other columns: kept as detail or ignored

Every other column whose name and values don't look like personal information comes in as Keep as detail. Funds, appeals, campaigns, payment methods and regions are typical. Kept details are stored with each gift (up to 400 characters per value) and are used in three places:

• View records — choose which detail columns show beside each constituent and gift. See Viewing records.
• Prospect rules — a gift pyramid's rule builder can add conditions on any kept detail column. Its “gave to funds” condition, and choosing funds for a campaign priority, use the first kept column whose name includes the word “fund” (Fund, Fund Name, GL Fund).
• Funds for campaigns — a campaign priority's funds are the values in that same fund column.

Don't need a column? Set it to Ignore in review and it isn't stored at all.

Careful: we remove columns whose names or values look personal, but a free-text column such as Notes, Comments or Acknowledgment text can still contain a name in among other words. Set columns like these to Ignore in review, or leave them out of your export.

A sample file

Here's a complete gift file you could upload as it is. Copy it into a text editor and save it as gifts.csv, or open it in Excel.

transactionid,constituentid,date,amount,type,fund,appeal,capacity
T-100231,C-004518,2026-09-28,250.00,Recurring,General Operating,Monthly Giving,
T-100232,C-004519,2026-09-29,1000.00,One-time,Building Fund,Spring Appeal,250000
T-100233,C-004520,2026-10-01,50000.00,Pledge,Building Fund,Capital Campaign,
T-100234,C-004520,2026-10-15,10000.00,Pledge payment,Building Fund,Capital Campaign,
T-100235,C-004521,2026-10-20,100000.00,Planned,Endowment,,
T-100236,C-004522,2026-10-22,1500.00,In-kind,Gala,Gala 2026,
T-100237,C-004519,2026-10-23,-100.00,One-time,Building Fund,Spring Appeal,

What happens to it:

All six type values (Recurring, One-time, Pledge, Pledge payment, Planned, In-kind) are matched for you. T-100237 is a $100 refund of part of C-004519's $1,000 gift: it has its own ID, so it's imported, and C-004519's money received comes to $900. All seven rows are imported.

How personal information is removed

You don't need to clean names and contact details out of your export. As we read the file the first time, we remove every column that looks like personal information — by its header, and by what's in it. A removed column's values are never stored, and it can't be switched back on.

Columns removed by their name

A column is removed when its header contains any of these (spaces, underscores, hyphens and periods count as spaces, and capitals don't matter):

• email or e-mail, phone, mobile, cell, fax;
• address, street, city, zip, postal, postcode;
• birth (birthdate, birthday), DOB, SSN, social security, tax ID;
• salutation, addressee, spouse, nickname, maiden, honoree, tribute name, in honor of, in memory of;
• a name: first name, last name, middle name, full name, given name, family name, surname, donor name, constituent name, contact name, account name, household name, org or organization name, company name, employer name, recognition name, display name, sort name, legal name — or a header that is just “Name”.

In review these show as Removed · Looked like personal info · not stored, with Not shown in place of a first value.

Columns removed by what's in them

A harmless-looking header can still hold personal information — a column called “Contact” full of email addresses, say. So we also look at the first 1,000 rows of every column, including ones you might set to Ignore. If at least 60% of a column's filled-in values look like one of these, the column is removed:

Plain runs of digits such as 5551234567 aren't treated as phone numbers, so numeric IDs are safe. But this check applies to every column: if your constituent IDs are email addresses, that column is removed too, and you'll need to export your CRM's own donor ID instead.

What we keep, and when the original file is deleted

From each imported row we store the transaction ID, constituent ID, date, amount, your type label and the type it's matched to, the capacity rating if you used one, and the values of columns you kept as details. For the upload itself we keep the file name, the column headers, the first value of each column you kept, and the list of rows left out (row number, transaction ID and reason).

The original file is deleted as soon as the import finishes — or as soon as we find it can't be used. A file you never finish reviewing is deleted after 24 hours. You can't download the original from TruePyramids, so keep your own copy. More about what we store: Data, privacy and deleting.

Uploading a file

1. Open Upload new file from Uploads, or choose Upload transactions (or Use a different file) on a pyramid. Starting from a pyramid links the file to it, and the pyramid uses it as soon as the import succeeds.
2. Make sure Upload a file is selected at the top (the other choice, Connect your CRM, is covered in Connecting your CRM).
3. Under What's in this file?, choose Gifts or Asks.
4. Drag the file onto Drag your CSV, Excel or ZIP file here, or choose Choose file. The upload starts straight away.
5. A progress bar shows the file being sent. Keep the page open until it finishes; you're then taken to the upload's own page.

While we read your file

The upload's page shows Reading your file… while we match your columns, remove personal information, settle the date format and count your type values. The page updates by itself, and you can leave it — the upload waits for you in Uploads with the status Needs review. Remember that an upload you never review is deleted after 24 hours.

No rows are stored while we read: this first pass only looks. Gifts are stored when you choose Import gifts.

The review step

Review is where you confirm what each column is and what each gift type means. Nothing is imported until you choose the button at the bottom.

Excel files with several sheets

If your workbook has more than one sheet, a Sheet menu appears at the top of review, set to the sheet we read (the first one with data). Choose a different sheet and press the button at the bottom: we read the file again from that sheet and bring you back to review.

Review your columns

The heading tells you how many rows we read, how many columns we kept as details, and how many we removed as personal information. Below it, one line per column:

Your column

The header from your file. The date column also has the Read as menu.

First value

The first filled-in value in that column, so you can tell what it holds.

Used as

What the column becomes: transactionid, constituentid, date, amount, type, capacity (optional), Keep as detail or Ignore.

If you change any Used as (or the sheet), the button reads the file again with your choices before anything is imported — the page says “Changed a column? We'll read the file again first.” You come back to review with fresh first values and type values. Any gift types you matched yourself are kept.

Before we can build: problems and notices

If something stops the import, the page lists it under Before we can build: (Before we can import: for an asks file) when you press the button:

Some messages are notices rather than problems — they don't stop the import:

• Lots of different type values. The type column has more than 500 different values. That almost always means the wrong column is used as type (a fund or appeal column, say). Check Used as.
• For asks files, Lots of different outcome values. and Some outcomes aren't ones we know. — see Reviewing and importing asks.

Gift types and matching

Every gift in TruePyramids is one of six types. The type decides whether a gift is money you received — which is what pyramids count as giving — so every value in your type column needs one before you can build.

The six gift types

Note: a pledge row on its own adds nothing to a donor's giving. Include each pledge payment as its own row, typed Pledge payment, so the money counts when it arrives.

How values are matched for you

Common labels are matched as we read the file. Capitals, spaces and punctuation are ignored, so In-Kind, in kind and IN_KIND all match In-kind.

Matching the rest

Under Match your gift types you see every value in your type column, with the most common first:

Your value

The label exactly as it appears in your file. Values still needing a type are shaded.

Rows

How many rows have that value.

Matches

The type it's matched to. Choose from the menu; Choose a type… means it has none yet.

Labels like Gala Ticket, Membership, Grant or Matching Gift aren't matched for you, because organizations count them differently. Choose the type that fits how you count them — for example One-time if you count event tickets as giving. You can also change a match we made for you.

Duplicate transaction IDs

Each transactionid can appear once. If several rows share one, we keep the first of them (the one nearest the top of the file) and leave the others out with the reason “Duplicate transactionid”. IDs are compared ignoring capital letters, so T-1 and t-1 are the same ID.

Duplicates usually mean the export repeated rows (a gift listed once per fund, say) or a refund reused its gift's ID. If the left-out rows matter, fix the IDs in your file and upload it again.

Rows left out of the import

When the import finishes, the upload's page says either “Every row was used.” or how many rows were left out, with a Download left-out rows (CSV) button. The download lists each left-out row by its row number, its transactionid and the reason — never any other values. Row 1 is the first row under the headers.

Uploading an asks file

An asks file lists solicitations and how they ended. TruePyramids compares how many asks you made at each gift level with how many were won, and suggests a prospect ratio beside each level in a gift pyramid's Edit levels panel — “your asks suggest x4 at this level”. How the suggestions are worked out is in Prospects: ratio hints, and the file itself is described from the planning side in Prospects: asks file.

1. Open Upload new file and choose Asks under What's in this file? (this link starts with Asks already chosen).
2. Upload a CSV, Excel or ZIP file, as for gifts.
3. Check the four columns in review, then choose Import asks.

Asks file columns

An asks file's other columns aren't needed and are never stored: they're set to Ignore and can't be kept as details. They're still checked for personal information, and columns that look personal are removed just as in a gift file.

Outcomes

Each outcome is read as won, lost or open. Capitals, spaces and punctuation are ignored, so Closed Won and closed-won are the same.

A row with any other outcome (Deferred, say) is left out of the import.

Reviewing and importing asks

Review works as for gifts, with Used as choices of constituentid, ask date, ask amount, outcome and Ignore, and no gift types to match. If some outcomes aren't ones we know, a notice says how many rows have them and gives examples — “12 rows have outcomes we don't recognise (“Deferred”). They'll be left out.” You can import anyway, or fix the labels and upload again. If the outcome column has more than 500 different values, the notice Lots of different outcome values suggests the wrong column is used as outcome.

After Import asks, the page says “Imported 212 asks.” and “Prospect ratio suggestions now appear in Edit levels.” Rows left out are listed in Download left-out rows (CSV) by row number and reason:

• No constituentid · Value longer than 100 characters · Ask date not readable · Ask amount not readable · Ask amount not above zero · No outcome · Outcome not recognised: (the value)

Note: suggestions come from your most recently imported asks file. Asks files aren't combined, so put all your asks in one file.

The Uploads list

Uploads lists every upload in your organization, newest first — files and gifts pulled from a CRM alike. Asks files are marked · Asks.

An upload's page

Choose a file name to open its page. What you see depends on where it is:

• Reading or importing — progress, which updates by itself. While importing it shows a progress bar and the number of rows; you can leave the page.
• Needs review — the review step, with Delete this upload if you're allowed to delete it.
• Imported — how many gifts were imported, how many rows were left out, and buttons to build pyramids or go back to the pyramid it was uploaded for.
• Couldn't read — what went wrong (see Troubleshooting), “Your file has been deleted. Nothing from it was kept.” and Upload a different file.

Gifts pulled from a CRM have their own page with Refresh and the pull summary — see Connecting your CRM.

Uploads you never review are deleted after 24 hours

An upload that hasn't been imported 24 hours after you started it — still uploading, being read, or waiting in review — is deleted, along with its file. We check every hour. Uploads that were imported, or that couldn't be read, aren't affected.

Building pyramids from an upload

When an import finishes, its page shows what to do next:

• If you uploaded from a pyramid, Back to (the pyramid's name). The pyramid already uses the file: a gift pyramid counts its prospects, and a donor pyramid or True Pyramid fills in live as donors are placed. (For a donor pyramid or True Pyramid the button in review reads Build Donor pyramid or Build True Pyramid and takes you straight to the pyramid.)
• Otherwise, Build a gift pyramid from it, Build a donor pyramid from it or Build a True Pyramid from it.

One upload can feed as many pyramids as you like. Not sure which to build? See which pyramid answers which question.

Uploading again with newer data

An upload never changes once it's imported. To bring in newer gifts:

• Gift pyramid — open it and choose Use a different file beside “Prospects from …”. Upload the new file; when it's imported, the pyramid switches to it and counts prospects again. (For a campaign priority, the campaign's file is shared by every priority.)
• Donor pyramid or True Pyramid — upload the new file and build a new pyramid from it.

Upload the whole history again, not just the new gifts: a pyramid uses one upload at a time. Once nothing uses the old upload, you can delete it. If you'd rather not export files at all, connect your CRM and refresh with one click.

Deleting an upload

While an upload is in review, its page has Delete this upload. Imported uploads are deleted from Settings › Data.

Careful: deleting an upload deletes every pyramid built from it, with their history. It can't be undone. Pyramids still waiting for the upload go back to asking for transactions.

The owner can delete any upload. A member can delete the uploads they added, unless a teammate's pyramid is built from one. Full details: Deleting uploads, pyramids or everything.

Troubleshooting

The exact messages you might see, and what to do about each.

The file won't upload

These appear on the upload page, under the drop area:

We couldn't read your file

These show as a panel on the upload's page. The file has already been deleted; fix it and choose Upload a different file.

Stuck in review

• A column I need was removed. Its name or values looked personal (see How personal information is removed). Removed columns can't be brought back. If it's your constituent ID column and the IDs are email addresses, export your CRM's donor ID instead.
• The first values look shifted or wrong. Check the right sheet is chosen, and that the first row of the file holds the headers.
• Dates are read the wrong way round. Change Read as on the date column before you import.
• The button just reads the file again. That happens once after you change a column or sheet. Review the new values and press it again.
• For each message under Before we can build:, see problems and notices.

Fewer gifts than rows

Download the left-out rows and look at the reasons (see Rows left out). The most common causes are a refund or adjustment reusing its gift's ID (Duplicate transactionid), blank constituent IDs on anonymous or batch rows (No constituentid), and a few dates in a different format from the rest (Date not readable).

Advanced: exact parsing rules

CSV and text files

• The delimiter — comma, tab, semicolon or pipe — is detected from the header row.
• Values with the delimiter inside them must be in double quotes, as spreadsheet programs write them: "$1,000.00".
• Every value is trimmed of spaces at both ends; an empty or all-space cell is treated as empty.
• Lines starting with # are data, not comments, so a # of gifts header or a #1001 transaction ID is read normally.
• Headers are trimmed too. A column with a blank header is set to Ignore.

Tip: if accented letters in your type labels or detail values look wrong in review, save the file from Excel as CSV UTF-8 and upload it again.

Excel workbooks

• Without a sheet chosen, we read the first sheet that has a header row; every sheet is listed in the Sheet menu.
• Cells formatted as dates are read as dates, whatever their display format. Other numbers are read as plain numbers with up to 12 decimal places and no thousands separators.
• Cells holding formula errors (#N/A, #REF!) are read as empty.
• IDs stored as numbers lose any leading zeros in Excel itself, before we see the file. Format ID columns as text before you export if your IDs start with zeros.

Header and role rules

1. Blank headers → Ignore.
2. Headers that look personal → Removed (see the list).
3. Each remaining header is lowercased and stripped of everything but letters and digits, then compared with the recognized names. The first column to match a role gets it; later matches for the same role are kept as details.
4. Everything else → Keep as detail in a gift file, Ignore in an asks file.
5. The first 1,000 rows of every non-removed column are then checked for personal values (60% threshold); matches → Removed.

Your changes in review can reassign any column except a removed one. When the type column is changed, type values are counted again; matches you chose yourself are kept for values that are still there.

Date detection

The filled-in dates in the first 1,000 rows of the date column are tried against every format in this order: YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD, MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, MM-DD-YYYY, DD-MM-YYYY, DD.MM.YYYY, YYYYMMDD, MM/DD/YY. Anything from a T or a space onward is ignored first. A date only counts if its year is between 1900 and 2100. The format that reads the most sample dates wins; on a tie, day-first loses to the others. Day and month may have one or two digits (9/8/2026). Every row is then read with that single format.

Amount parsing

An amount is read as US currency first — dollar sign, thousands commas, a leading minus or accounting parentheses — and failing that as a plain number with a period for decimals. Amounts are stored to the cent.

Type values

• Type values are counted across every row of the file (rows later left out included), which is why Rows can add up to more than the gifts imported.
• Up to 500 different values are listed for matching; past that, review shows the Lots of different type values notice.
• For automatic matching, labels are lowercased and everything but letters is removed before they're compared with the table above.

Row checks, in order

At import, each row is checked in this order, and the first failure is the reason it's left out: transactionid present → constituentid present → type present → none of those three over 100 characters → date readable in the file's format → amount readable. Capacity and detail values never cause a row to be left out; a capacity that's unreadable or not above zero is simply ignored, and detail values over 400 characters are cut to 400.

Duplicates are found after that: among the rows that passed, the first row of each transactionid (by position in the file, ignoring capital letters) is kept.

How rows are counted

“We read N rows” counts every row under the header row. After import:

Constituent IDs are matched ignoring capital letters too: C-1 and c-1 are the same donor in every pyramid.

Large files

• Your browser sends the file in 8 MB pieces, straight to our storage, and retries each piece up to three times before giving up. Nothing about the file is checked in your browser; it's read on our servers.
• The link your browser uses to send the file works for two hours. On a slow connection, ZIP a very large file so it finishes in time.
• If you close the page while the progress bar is still moving, the upload stops. Start again — the unfinished one is deleted after 24 hours.
• Once the file is sent, reading and importing happen on our servers. Large files import in batches with a progress bar, and you can leave the page.

Questions

My export has donor names and emails in it. Do I need to delete them first?

No. Columns whose names or values look like names, emails, phone numbers or addresses are removed the first time we read the file and are never stored. The one thing to watch is free-text columns such as notes or comments, which can mention people in passing — set those to Ignore in review.

Which ID should I use as the constituent ID?

The ID your CRM uses for each donor record — Constituent ID, Donor ID, Account ID or Lookup ID. Use the same kind of ID in every file, so a donor is the same constituent across uploads and asks files. Don't use an email address: that column would be removed as personal information.

How many years of gifts should I upload?

All you have, if you can. A gift pyramid's default prospect rule looks at five years of giving, a donor pyramid needs two or more full years to show who moved between tiers, and True Pyramids learn more from longer histories.

Should I include soft credits?

No. Every row counts toward its constituent's giving, so a soft credit row would count the same money twice — once for the donor and once for the person credited. Export hard credits only. (When you connect a CRM, soft credits are left out for you.)

Why can't I build until every gift type is matched?

The type decides whether a gift is money received. A value without a type would leave its gifts out of every total without telling you, so we ask you to decide. It only takes a moment: most values are matched for you.

Why were fewer gifts imported than the rows in my file?

Some rows were left out — missing values, unreadable dates or amounts, or duplicate transaction IDs. Choose Download left-out rows (CSV) on the upload's page to see each row number and reason.

How do I update a pyramid with newer gifts?

For a gift pyramid, choose Use a different file and upload your full, current export. For a donor pyramid or True Pyramid, build a new pyramid from the new upload. Or connect your CRM and use Refresh. See Uploading again with newer data.

Can I combine two files into one upload?

No — each upload is one file, and a pyramid uses one upload. Combine the rows into one file before uploading (with the same columns), or ZIP the combined file if it's large. A ZIP with two files in it is refused.

Can I download my original file again?

No. We delete it as soon as the import finishes, so keep your own copy. You can still see the imported gifts in View records on any pyramid built from it.

I uploaded a file yesterday and now it's gone. What happened?

It was probably never imported. Uploads that aren't imported within 24 hours of starting — including ones left waiting in review — are deleted with their file. Upload it again and finish the review.

Can a member delete my upload?

Only the owner can delete an upload someone else added. A member can delete the uploads they added themselves, as long as no teammate's pyramid is built from them. See owners and members.

My constituent IDs lost their leading zeros. Why?

Excel drops leading zeros from cells stored as numbers, before we ever see the file. Format the ID column as text in Excel (or export to CSV straight from your CRM) and upload again. Mismatched IDs would make one donor look like two across files.

I uploaded my asks as gifts. What now?

Delete the upload from its review page (or from Settings › Data) and upload it again with Asks chosen under What's in this file?. The choice can't be changed after the upload starts.

Where do the suggestions from my asks file show up?

In each gift pyramid's Edit levels panel, beside each level's multiplier (“Your asks suggest x4 at this level (38 asks).”), and in Settings › Pyramid defaults as your overall history. They use only asks that were won or lost. See ratio hints.