This webinar was part of a series hosted by Bloomerang, a Sidekick Solutions partner.

The connection of Bloomerang to Zapier, an automation platform, enables additional integrations that can be customized to meet your organization’s use case. Utilities in Zapier can support your organization in solving common integration challenges and create automations customized to your use case.

Instead of spending hours each month manually entering data between two or more systems or running tedious spreadsheet imports, let Zapier automation do the work for you. Zapier is an automation platform that connects to 5,000+ other apps and offers an all-in-one integration platform for automating your day to day workflows.

During this webinar, you will learn:

• Intro to Zapier
• When to explore Zapier automations
• Answers to frequently asked questions about Bloomerang integrations, automation uses cases, and Zapier
• Answers to your Bloomerang and Zapier automation questions

Click here to download the webinar slides.

Webinar transcript (not including Q&A):
Good afternoon, and welcome to Bloomerang Academy! Thank you for joining us. My name is Diana Otero, and I am the Product Marketing Manager at Bloomerang. You might recognize me from attending Bloomerang Academy classes or listening to our release and help videos.

Today, we’re hosting an Ask Me Anything session with a Zapier Certified Expert.

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I’d like to introduce our presenter today, Jessie Gilchrist. Jessie is a Zapier Certified Expert and Bloomerang Integrations Consultant at Sidekick Solutions. Sidekick Solutions is a Bloomerang Partner, specializing in system automations for Bloomerang. Sidekick Solutions has been a Bloomerang user since 2013 and most recently was part of the Bloomerang team that launched the Bloomerang Zapier app.

We’re excited to have Jessie here today to share her expertise and explore Bloomerang integrations.

Thank you Diana. Hello everyone! It’s great to be here.

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This webinar is the last in a series that completed an incremental dive into Zapier integrations for Bloomerang.

If you were not able to attend our webinars over the last couple months that explored common automation opportunities for nonprofits and Zapier 101/201 concepts, you can watch the recording in Bloomerang’s Academy or on its YouTube channel.

Our hope is that this webinar series will help you see how you can implement automations across your organization and attain outcomes that drive your mission and goals.

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Our webinar answers common questions from Bloomerang users and provides an opportunity for you to ask your automation questions!

• Intro to Zapier
• When to pursue Zapier integrations
• FAQs
• Q&A

To add your integration question to our queue, please add it into the Q&A, not the chat. This is what we’ll be looking to during the Q&A portion of today’s session.

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Let’s take a quick poll to see how many of you attended the earlier webinars in this series.

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Zapier is automation software. It sits in between your Bloomerang database and any other apps helping them to “talk” to each other. This can even come in the form of Bloomerang to Bloomerang automations to support operational tasks.

Bloomerang’s Zapier app extends the power of your database by enabling integrations with over 5,000 other apps in Zapier’s directory. And, Zapier was designed for anyone to build an integration. You don’t need to be a developer or know code to build an automation.

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Integrations are a key feature of your Bloomerang database and can take your fundraising efforts to the next level. Data should flow in and out of your Bloomerang database, connecting to other best in class tools your organization uses. By keeping Bloomerang as the central hub of your tech stack, you will create a global record of Constituent engagement with your organization and centralize reporting.

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When we talk about Bloomerang integrations, there are two types we should differentiate between: native and custom Zapier. If you attended our webinar last month that explored Bloomerang automation opportunities, this may be a review.

Native integrations, often called “direct” integrations, are built within your Bloomerang software. These are often the most user-friendly form of integration and offer a standardized, templated sync of data between two systems.

The other option is pursuing custom integrations using Zapier. Zapier allows you to build custom workflows that align with your organization’s use case. Make sure to check out the upcoming Zapier 201 webinar for a deeper dive into how you can customize your Zapier automations.

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Organizations pursue a custom Zapier integration when:

• No native integration exists
• Native integration does not align with organization’s use case
• High level of customization required
• Desired functionality is not provided in native integration
• Multi-app automations

It is a good practice to explore native integrations first, if one exists, and pursue a Zapier integration if a native one does not exist or does not align with your use case.

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We’re going to start by covering some frequently asked questions about Bloomerang automations and Zapier that may not have been covered by the earlier webinars in this series.

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How does the Find Constituent search work?

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• First and Last Name are required
• At least one of address, phone or email are required
• Search is looking for an exact match

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Will Update Constituent overwrite data?

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• Will overwrite all standard and custom fields, except address, phone, and email
• For address, phone, and email…
  • The new (or matched) data will be promoted as primary
  • The previous data will be demoted to secondary (not deleted)

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How quickly does my Zap trigger?

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• Dependent on the plan purchased in Zapier
  • Free Plan: 5 minutes
  • Starter Plan: 1 minutes
  • Professional Plan: 1 minutes

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Can Zapier connect multiple apps in a single Zap?

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• Zaps can be configured to connect one or many apps

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What are the most common automations for Bloomerang

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• Fundraising apps
• Email marketing
• Accounting
• eCommerce
• Event registration
• Reporting dashboards
• Notifications
• Online data collection forms

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What are some of your favorite Bloomerang automations?

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• Bloomerang to Bloomerang
• Dashboards
• Notifications
• Drip email campaigns

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How much does Zapier cost?

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• Tiers based on different task allotments per month
• Average cost is $20-$75/month
• 5% discount available for non-profits
• Upgrade / downgrade as needs change
• Bloomerang Zapier app is free to use!

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What is a task in Zapier?

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• An action your Zap successfully completes
• What counts as a task?
  • Successful action step
  • Filter or path that passes
• What doesn’t count as a task?
  • Trigger steps
  • Failed action step (error or halt)
  • Filter or path that does not pass

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What happens if we hit our task limit in Zapier?

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• Each pricing plan has a different task limit per month
• Zapier will providing notification when you hit 80% of allotment
• Tasks get placed in a “held” status for 30 days
• Can replay tasks when usage resets or subscription is upgraded

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Now we’re going to transition and answer some questions submitted in advance of today’s webinar.

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How do we connect Constant Contact and Bloomerang?

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Bloomerang > Constant Contact

• Triggering events
  • New Constituent
  • Updated Constituent
  • New Transaction
• Actions
  • Find or Create Contact
  • Update Contact
• Cannot map to custom fields

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Constant Contact > Bloomerang

• New Contact
  • Find or Create Constituent in Bloomerang
  • Recommend only syncing when there is a First/Last Name
• New Email Open
  • Create interactions or notes

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Does Zapier integrate with Gmail and place emails as interactions into Bloomerang?

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Yes, Gmail is has an app in Zapier.

• Triggering events
  • New email (in specified mailbox)
  • New starred email
  • New labeled email
  • New email matching search
• Recommend using Bloomerang’s BCC feature

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Do you know of any platform that works well with Zapier where we can send letters via a mail house?

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• Only client who uses Handwrytten
• Others likely available in Zapier’s marketplace

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How can we have donors make pledges online with a payment schedule and have it sync to Bloomerang?

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• Bloomerang API can support creation of a pledge in Bloomerang, but…
  • Cannot set it up to be auto-processed by Bloomerang
  • Can only be created with standard frequencies (i.e., annual, monthly, etc.) not custom
• Alternative is to a pledge/fundraising app and syncing payments only to Bloomerang

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After integrating PayPal with Bloomerang, can the PayPal option appear on my Bloomerang website giving form?

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• PayPal is not a payment gateway option for Bloomerang online forms
• Place PayPal button at the top of webpage where the form is embedded

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When using a PayPal button with two options, how do we enter the correct Fund in Bloomerang?

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• Use a lookup table to convert the selection to the corresponding Bloomerang Fund
• Resources
  • [WEBINAR] Automating Donations from PayPal to Bloomerang
  • [WEBINAR] Zapier 201

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Now we’d like to open things up and answer your integration questions. If you haven’t already, please add your questions to the Q&A so we can get them queued up.

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If you have an interest in learning more about Bloomerang and Zapier integrations, keep your eyes open as these webinars coming later this year.

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Also, we’d like to hear what Bloomerang automation and Zapier content you’d like to see in the future. Go ahead and send a message in the chat to let us know what other use cases or topics you’d like us to cover!

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Thank you for attending today. If you’d like to work with a consultant to set up Zaps or develop a custom Bloomerang integration to address a unique use case, please don’t hesitate to reach out.