Moving from NationBuilder to pplCRM
NationBuilder exports your people as a CSV, and pplCRM imports it through a guided wizard. One difference is structural: NationBuilder prices by the size of your database. Here contacts and households are unlimited on every plan, and you pay only for the people you email.
First, get your file out of NationBuilder.
In NationBuilder, filter People down to the set you want (or take everyone) and export a CSV.
NationBuilder exports carry dozens of columns. The wizard matches the common ones — first_name, last_name, email, mobile, city, state, zip — automatically; columns it does not recognize get a dropdown, and anything left unmapped is simply left out.
A very large export can be split into smaller files and imported one after another.
Menus move. If an export step has drifted, NationBuilder’s own help docs will have the current path — the CSV the export produces is what matters here.
What maps to what.
Where each part of a NationBuilder export lands — including the parts that have nowhere to land.
| In NationBuilder | Lands in pplCRM as | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| first_name / last_name | The person’s name | Matched automatically. |
| The person’s email address | Also the duplicate key: a row matching an existing person can merge into their record instead of duplicating it. | |
| mobile / phone | The person’s mobile number | |
| Address columns with a primary_ prefix | A household at that address | The prefix is not one of the spellings the wizard guesses — pick Street, City, State and Zip for those columns on the mapping step. Rows sharing an address land in the same household. |
| tag_list | Tags on each person | Map it to Tags on the mapping step; the comma-separated list becomes individual tags. |
| Notes or background columns | The person’s notes | Map the column to Notes on the mapping step. |
| Support level, districts, voter data | No matching field | Support is recorded per campaign here, not imported — see below. |
Then import it, in four steps.
A CSV with a header row — Excel’s save-as-CSV is fine. A very large list can be split into smaller files and imported one after another.
Every column gets a best-guess match you can correct with a dropdown. Unmapped columns are left out — nothing imports by accident.
Rows matching an existing person by email can merge (fills blanks, never overwrites), be skipped, or import as new. You can also tag everyone in the file and add them to a list, so the import stays findable afterwards.
Runs in the background and reports back how many rows landed — with skipped rows downloadable as a CSV that names the reason for each.
Every people import also runs a quiet check on each email address — whether its domain can actually receive mail, and whether it belongs to a throwaway-address provider. Failing addresses stay on the record but are suppressed from sending, so dead addresses from an old export are never sent to.
What does not come across.
Stated here, on the page — not discovered halfway through your move.
In pplCRM, support level and voting status are recorded per campaign — from the person’s record, or from the doorstep in the canvassing companion — so they attach to the campaign you are running now rather than arriving as history from someone else’s race.
There is no donation import in pplCRM. Past gifts stay in your NationBuilder export — keep it as your archive of record. Going forward, offline gifts (cash, cheque, bank transfer) are recorded one at a time on the person’s record, and online giving runs through pplCRM donation pages.
The import creates and updates contacts; it never marks anyone as a newsletter subscriber. pplCRM records consent on each person separately, so after the import people are subscribed one at a time from their record — there is no one-click bulk subscribe — or they confirm themselves through one of your signup forms. Plan for this step before your first send.
NationBuilder is a trademark of its owner. pplCRM is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Also moving from Breeze, Planning Center, Mailchimp?
Run your NationBuilder file on a free workspace.
Start free, import a test file, and see your own people on the screen before you commit to anything. No card required. Stuck on a column? Email us your header row and we’ll reply with what maps.