Your eTapestry database is the central donor management and fundraising platform for your organization, but eTapestry likely isn’t the only app that you use day to day.

You might be using:

• QuickBooks Online for accounting
• MailChimp for email marketing
• Eventbrite for event registration
• Shopify or WooCommerce for your online store
• Gravity Forms as part of your website experience
• Slack for team communication
• PayPal for payment processing
• G Suite or Office365 for daily email and calendars
• …or other apps, possibly even a combination of many apps

Instead of spending hours each month manually entering data between two or more systems or running tedious spreadsheet imports, let automation do the work for you.

We’ve connected eTapestry to Zapier and Zapier connects to 1,500+ other apps. The combination of eTapestry + Zapier offers an all-in-one integration platform for automating your eTapestry tasks.

During this webinar, you will learn:

• Why integrations are essential to your eTapestry experience
• How eTapestry + Zapier makes integration with any app possible
• Which integrations are most popular for accounting, communications, productivity, events, and website/ecommerce
• How to get started with eTapestry + Zapier

 

 

Webinar transcript (not including Q&A):
Welcome to today’s webinar, “eTapestry + Zapier: Automated Integration with Any App.” Thank you for joining us.

[SLIDE]

My name is Jeff Haguewood. I am an eTapestry consultant at Sidekick Solutions.

Sidekick Solutions is a Blackbaud Integration Partner, specializing in eTapestry. We help new and existing eTapestry users make the most of eTapestry. We also develop automated integration systems for eTapestry, which is the focus of today’s webinar.

[SLIDE]

We believe that automated integrations are essential to your eTapestry experience; or any donor database for that matter.

[SLIDE]

First, you likely use other software in addition to eTapestry. While eTapestry is your central donor database, you also need tools for:

Email marketing
Event coordination
Online giving
Major gift pipeline
Volunteers
Accounting
Email and calendars
Tasks and to-dos
Peer to peer
Reporting and analytics

…and even that likely isn’t a comprehensive list.

But if all of your tools aren’t integrated, you’re left spending hours each month managing data between multiple non-integrated systems. This means dealing with spreadsheet imports or grinding out data entry tasks manually one at a time, both of which are a complete waste of time.

There isn’t a perfect all-in-one tool, and eTapestry is no exception. If you use a mix of tools that are the best fit for your specific use case, then you should expect that they integrate with eTapestry.

My goal is to show you how our eTapestry connection to Zapier makes all of these integrations possible.

[SLIDE]

We will explore

What is Zapier and why we connected eTapestry to it
Popular integrations for QuickBooks Online, Eventbrite, MailChimp, and Shopify and how they work
A grab bag of automations that aren’t app specific but make eTapestry easier to use and more capable in your day-to-day work
How you can get started with Zapier-enabled integrations for eTapestry

Then we will wrap with Q&A at the end. If you have questions during the presentation, you can send them through the chat or questions panel. I’ll stay as long as needed after the presentation to make sure all questions are answered.

Alright, let’s dive in.

[SLIDE]

We developed an eTapestry module. We call it the eTapestry API Wrapper, or “Wrapper” for short.

The genesis of the Wrapper and technical details of the Wrapper aren’t the focus of today’s webinar. If you have questions how the Wrapper came to be or how it works, feel free to add a question and I’ll be sure to circle back on that.

In short, the Wrapper is an adapter for eTapestry.

So that begs the question, “If we have an adapter, what should we connect to eTapestry?”

[SLIDE]

We decided to connect eTapestry to Zapier.

So you might be thinking…why Zapier?

If you built an adapter, why didn’t you connect eTapestry directly to MailChimp or QuickBooks Online or Eventbrite or “insert your favorite app here.”

Fair question.

[SLIDE]

We connected eTapestry to Zapier because…

First and most important, Zapier is already connected to 1,500+ apps, which means it is a true 1-to-many solution. By connecting eTapestry to Zapier, you get integrations with all apps in a single platform.

[SLIDE]

In addition to getting 1,500 for one…

Zapier provides you the visibility to see how your integrations are running, including successful tasks and errors without needing to know a line of code. You don’t need a developer to monitor and manage an integration.
Zapier allows you to build integrations with custom mapping for any use case so you aren’t stuck with a cookie cutter integration that doesn’t match your workflow.

[SLIDE]

Admittedly, those reasons are a bit technical and if you’re thinking I am a bit of a data slash tech nerd, you wouldn’t be wrong.

Which is why this webinar will focus on use cases and examples. We want to share what’s possible.

So let’s start that exploration by looking at how actual eTapestry users connect to Zapier today.

Our users currently…

Run integrations with 22 other apps. That list includes QuickBooks Online, Eventbrite, Shopify, Mailchimp, PayPal, Stripe, Slack, Google Sheets, WooCommerce, Gmail, Gravity Forms, Excel 365, Constant Contact, Klaviyo, Send With Us, Mailgun, Office 365, Outlook, Xero, Wufoo, Square, and Bcc email to journal contact

Before this webinar we took a look at the eTapestry Ideas Portal. Zapier-enabled integration with eTapestry also…

Covers one-third of the top 30 ideas in the eTapestry ideas portal some of which we’ve already implemented. If one of those ideas is yours, there now is a solution for it.

Additionally, Zapier…

Supports integrations that incorporate more than one app in a single workflow with an ability to scale task volume. We have users that run Zaps with 3-5 apps and task volume ranging from less than 100 tasks per month to over 10,000 tasks per month.

Side-note, could you imagine running imports weekly or monthly for 10,000 items?

An eTapestry connection to Zapier makes eTapestry one of the most integration-ready solutions for small and mid-sized, and growing nonprofits.

[SLIDE]

The most popular eTapestry integrations to date have been:

eTapestry to QuickBooks Online
Eventbrite to eTapestry
eTapestry to MailChimp and MailChimp to eTapestry
Shopify to eTapestry

Let’s look at how each integration works, and then we will explore some other automations that might be on your wishlist.

[SLIDE – QuickBooks Online]

QuickBooks Online integration for eTapestry has one goal: sync transactions so that development and accounting are on the same page.

[SLIDE]

When we started developing the Wrapper for eTapestry, QuickBooks Online integration was our number one priority. Because our clients were frustrated with double data entry and the inability to reconcile eTapestry received amounts with QuickBooks Online income totals.

Without integration, we are left with few options and none are ideal.

Entering data in eTapestry first and then manually entering the same data into QuickBooks Online (that’s what we call “double data entry”)
Enter data in eTapestry and then exporting data to Excel to then be imported into QuickBooks Online daily, weekly, or monthly
Run a report from eTapestry to calculate deposit totals and then manually enter deposits into QuickBooks Online

Automated integration is a must-have for the connection between eTapestry and accounting.

[SLIDE]

The general workflow looks like this. Each step is configured in Zapier starting with a trigger and then proceeding with a series of actions to complete the data entry task into QuickBooks Online.

Let’s look at each step in more detail.

[SLIDE]

The workflow starts when a new received journal entry is added to a query. The query can be set up for any criteria. Generally, based on newly created gifts, recurring gifts, pledge payments, and split transactions with a received amount greater than $0.00. However, you can customize the criteria so only those transactions you want in QBO are sent through. If you want to finalize items in eTapestry before sending them to QBO, no problem the query can be set up to do that. If you want to filter out items with a specific Fund designation, no problem the query can be set up to do that too. You decide what goes through with a query in your eTapestry database and then the integration takes care of the rest.

You can see here in this screenshot that our Zapier app asks for a Query Category and Query Name to configure the trigger.

[SLIDE]

From there, we generally need one or multiple custom mapping steps to convert eTapestry Fund, Campaign, Approach, Gift Type, and user-defined field values into corresponding income accounts, classes, and payment methods. You can map any field from eTapestry to any field in QuickBooks Online, so even if you do things differently in eTapestry Zapier supports custom mapping for any use case.

In this screenshot, you can see that we are converting the eTapestry Campaign value into a set of Class codes for QuickBooks Online.

[SLIDE]

With the mapping fully defined, the integration find or creates a customer profile. This is generally done with a duplicate check in QuickBooks Online of the Customer Name.

[SLIDE]

And then the integration appends a sales receipt to that customer and tagged with the proper income account and class. By default sales receipts added to QuickBooks Online go to the Undeposited Funds asset account awaiting deposit.

[SLIDE]

At which point, when you’re ready to make a deposit, you can select sales receipts to deposit, subtract and fees deducted from payment processors, and now your deposits will reconcile with your bank statements every month.

[SLIDE]

In summary, with this integration…

There is no more double data entry, sync in real time
Map any field from eTapestry to Class and Income Account, not limited to a cookie cutter setup
Deposit and statement reconciliations are faster and easier
Reporting can be run immediately from both systems
Accounting and development will have the same data

Accounting integration generally comes with a list of questions, so it might be worth covering a few of those quickly.

How does the integration handle credit card fees? – Gross amounts are sent to QBO and then batched into deposits. You would then subtract processing fees from deposits made by payment processors, which will reconcile deposits net fees with your bank statement.
How does the integration handle refunds? – The integration is a one-way sync and will only write items to QBO once. If refunds are common, we recommend setting up an email notification in Zapier to alert you when a refund is made in eTapestry so updates can be made in QBO manually.
We log in kind gifts to QBO, can we integrate those as well? – If you log in-kind gifts to QBO, a separate Zap can be configured for gifts equal to $0.00 recieved and a Fund of In Kind. The same is true if you log deductible and non-deductible amounts separately in your books or if you book pledges as receiveables.

The benefit of Zapier-enabled integration for eTapestry is that we can allow for exception handling and special formatting to address any custom requirements.

[SLIDE – Eventbrite]

Next is Eventbrite.

Managing events can be a mess. Your eTapestry database doesn’t come with the tools to manage events well on its own; and we find that most eTapestry users default to spreadsheets, paper forms, and manual procedures to manage events by applying sheer brute force of will.

[SLIDE]

Without integration, manual data entry, spreadsheets, and imports are default options for getting event data into eTapestry. Even if you use DIY forms for event registration, guest data and custom entry for meal preferences or seating leave much to be desired.

That’s where we look to other tools to support the event management process and integration to connect with eTapestry. Eventbrite is an obvious choice.

[SLIDE]

Zapier-enabled integration with Eventbrite generally includes three Zaps, each handled in real-time based on new entry in Eventbrite.

Zap 1 – New purchase
Trigger: New order in Eventbrite
Action: Find or Create Constituent in eTapestry
Action: Create Gift for the Purchaser

[SLIDE]

Zap 2 – New attendee registered (including guests)
Trigger: New attendee registered in Eventbrite
Action: Find or Create Constituent in eTapestry
Action: Create Journal Contact (for registration), which includes guests

[SLIDE]

Zap 3 – New attendee check-in
Trigger: New attendee check-in
Action: Find or Create Constituent in eTapestry
Action: Create Journal Contact (for attendance)

[SLIDE]

Zapier offers three triggers in its Eventbrite connection, each of which starts one of the three workflows with eTapestry.

New order
New attendee registered (which includes guests)
New attendee check-in (day of event attendance)

These are what start the Zaps.

[SLIDE]

Our eTapestry app in Zapier lets you search for an existing constituent in eTapestry using a standard duplicate check. You can map in the registrant name and one or more other pieces of contact information to complete a duplicate check. Optionally, this Zapier action can create a constituent if none are found.

[SLIDE]

The event order is appended to the found or created constituent account with mapping for both standard and custom fields. If multiple ticket types are purchased, one gift can be logged per type so that proper Fund, Campaign, Approach, and User-Defined Fields are logged to eTapestry for reporting.

[SLIDE]

For registration and attendance, contact records are logged to the journal, even for guests. This allows you to run reports in eTapestry on complete event rosters and those that registered but did not attend. Custom mapping is available for standard and custom fields so you can identify the event name, participation type, whether the record is a registered or attended record, and even who purchased the ticket for a guest.

[SLIDE]

In total…

There are no more post-event imports or data cleanup projects
Log both the primary registrant and guests as separate accounts in eTapestry (if you run events with guest registration, you’ll likely agree that creating accounts for guests in eTapestry is a gamechanger)
Use mobile apps for registration and check-in
Start reporting on registrations immediately
Manage paid and free events all with Eventbrite and a single automation system in Zapier

[SLIDE]

But the power of Zapier-enabled integration doesn’t stop there. In addition to the core Eventbrite setup, you could also tag subscribers in Mailchimp as registered and attended, add registrants to a real-time roster report in Google Sheets, notify staff of new registrations in Slack, send custom confirmation emails to each registrant, and draft invoices in QuickBooks Online for registrations that are sponsorships all within the same integration workflow.

It is hard to over emphasize how powerful this tool can be when we consider multi-app automation in Zapier.

[SLIDE – MailChimp]

Although eTapestry comes with a mass email feature, many eTapestry users send email campaigns through a third-party email marketing platform like MailChimp, and syncing lists between eTapestry and MailChimp is a real hassle.

[SLIDE]

We find that organizations either manually enter data back and forth, run weekly or monthly imports to MailChimp and eTapestry, or keep the two lists exclusive and separate. All of these options are inefficient, so our goal with integration is to make our email marketing efforts more efficient, more timely, and more targeted.

Zapier-enabled integration between eTapestry and Mailchimp offers a broad canvas of options.

[SLIDE]

From eTapestry to MailChimp

Send accounts with emails in eTapestry to MailChimp as subscribers. This is what we would call basic list sync.
Send accounts in eTapestry to MailChimp with groups, tags, and custom fields for sending one-off campaigns. This keeps your data up to date in real-time so you can log into MailChimp and send one-off campaigns efficiently with no need to scrub the data.
Send accounts in eTapestry to MailChimp with groups, tags, and custom fields for enrollment in automated campaigns. This option gives you all the tools needed to run automated drip campaigns to your constituents with segmentation.

[SLIDE]

Here are a few ideas for automated email campaigns.

Add new donors to a 6-month drip campaign
Send automated birthday notifications to donors
Send automated lapsed donor reminders annually
Follow up on membership renewal dates automatically
Invite donors with a local address to register as a volunteer

…and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

[SLIDE]

In addition to integrations from eTapestry to Mailchimp, you can also integrate from Mailchimp to eTapestry.

Send new subscribers in MailChimp to eTapestry as a constituent account
Log unsubscribes in MailChimp as journal contacts in eTapestry
Log preference changes in MailChimp as journal contacts in eTapestry

Send, open, and click data are not options to sync using Zapier but there are simple ways to run attribution reporting between Mailchimp and eTapestry if you want to dig into multi-channel constituent engagement. The backbone of that reporting still starts with list management and segment automation.

[SLIDE]

Efficiency and scale are the primary benefit of this integration…

No more updating data manually between both systems or dealing with imports
Ability to scale your email marketing efforts with automated campaigns
Ability to segment subscribers automatically and accurately for targeted campaigns

[SLIDE – Shopify]

We are finding more and more organizations running online stores. Or, they want to start running a store.

Whether you are selling tangible or intangible products, an online store is a great way to boost your online giving experience beyond a simple donation form.

Shopify is a great option because it provides the best in ecommerce functionality and a fully customizable look and feel.

[SLIDE]

But without integration you are stuck wondering how to get transaction data into eTapestry for purchases made in Shopify. This is especially true if you need to sync purchase data with eTapestry and accounting. Even more challenging if you log shipping, tax, and item prices in eTapestry to account for each type of revenue. The data gets too dense to manage manually and friction generally ensues.

[SLIDE]

Zapier-enabled integration can automatically create constituents and gifts in eTapestry for new orders in Shopify. This is done in near real-time and the number of gifts entered in eTapestry per order depends on your preferences for mapping the data into eTapestry.

Since a purchaser could select more than one item per order, we can write one order as a single gift to eTapestry or each item as separate gifts to eTapestry. We recommend one gift per item and then mapping the appropriate Fund, Campaign, Approach, and user-defined fields (UDFs) for each item purchased.

The workflow looks something like this.

Trigger: New Paid Order or Updated Paid Order
Action: Find or create constituent in eTapestry
Action: Create gift in eTapestry for shipping (if applicable)
Action: Convert order into separate items
Action: Create gift for each item in eTapestry

[SLIDE]

Zapier-enabled Shopify integrations can account for Shipping, Tax, Discounts, multi-item, single item, and custom mapping to any field set in eTapestry on the account and gift.

You can…

Write granular item detail in eTapestry plus report on total received per constituent across all gifts
Use scalable mapping so that additions to product list flow through eTapestry dynamically
Upgrade your online giving experience by selling physical, digital, or symbolic products

[SLIDE – Automation systems]

When we think about integrations for eTapestry, we generally think about single apps and the primary need to integrate that one app.

For example, I need QuickBooks Online integration for accounting.

Although most users have a presenting pain point when it comes to integration, peeling back the layers generally finds other gaps and an opportunity to create multiple layers of automation.

[SLIDE]

What initially looks like a need for QuickBooks Online integration presents other opportunities to save time and let your software do more of the work for you.

In this case…

Shopify and PayPal write gifts to eTapestry via automation
Those gifts in eTapestry are then immediately sent to QuickBooks Online for deposit and reconciliation
When gifts are greater than $1,000 we send emails to the Executive Director and Board Chair to call or email the donor personally
All donors are also added to MailChimp and those that are new donors get a 6-month automated drip campaign cultivating a longer-term donor relationship

So while today’s presentation identifies capabilities for individual app integration, Zapier is a platform for building automation systems among multiple apps and the possibilities are nearly limitless.

The limitless possibilities are a product of Zapier’s 1,500+ app connections and the eTapestry functions we’ve exposed through our Wrapper.

[SLIDE]

Zapier works like building blocks. Zaps start with a trigger and then proceed to complete actions in order based on the workflow.

Triggers – Events in one app that start a Zap (workflow)
Actions – Tasks completed in another app

[SLIDE]

Our eTapestry API Wrapper exposes two triggers and five actions (although two of them are commonly paired together for finding and creating a constituent).

New account in query and new journal entry in query are list builders that trigger when a new item is added to a query list. That means you can build any list in eTapestry to trigger an integration.
Actions are fairly straight forward letting you write records to eTapestry for constituents, gifts, contacts, and notes, all with the ability to write user-defined fields.

[SLIDE]

This means that any app in Zapier’s directory can be integrated with eTapestry using our Wrapper’s triggers and actions.

[SLIDE]

If we didn’t cover an app during today’s presentation go to zapier.com/apps, look up the app you want to automate with eTapestry. If it’s listed we can integrate. If not, there is still a chance we connect it with eTapestry but you will need to contact us to explore the options.

We’ve covered what we call the Big 4 of integrations that are most popular for eTapestry and how Zapier supports those workflows. In addition, we’ve covered how you can create nearly any integration with Zapier-enabled workflows for eTapestry.

At this point, I am just piling on but I want to note a few more opportunities available with Zapier + eTapestry automation because, again, it is hard to over emphasize how powerful this is.

Here are 15 more use cases…

[SLIDE]

Send follow-up reminders via email to staff members
Notify a Board member of major gifts made by donors
Set calendar invites for actions that occur in eTapestry
Run real-time dashboards in a spreadsheet
Publish giving data on your website

[SLIDE]

Automate acknowledgement letters with mail merge
Log emails to an account’s journal as a contact
Receive notifications when a credit card expires
Set task to thank donors that give over certain amount
Send automated pledge reminders

[SLIDE]

Send campaign updates via social media
Process gifts through third-party payment processors
Customize donation forms to match your website
Collect form responses to surveys and applications
Sync donor contacts to Google Contacts or Outlook

[SLIDE]

Big list and I actually had to cut it down to keep us on track today.

So the big questions…

How do you get started and what does it cost?

First, if you are considering automation for your team, we recommend three steps.

Step 1: What are your automation goals or top integration challenges?
Step 2: What is the opportunity value of saving time or building capacity with automation?
Step 3: Compare cost-to-benefit of the status quo versus your future with automation

If the cost of automation is not less than the cost of doing the task manually or automation doesn’t help you scale by building capacity, it’s not worth doing. While we don’t often find cases where automation costs more than the alternatives, I will be the first to tell you not to pursue automation if the math doesn’t line up.

[SLIDE]

Automation systems enabled by Zapier and our Wrapper start at $50 per month plus $825 for one-time setup.

This is not per app.

Starting price is an estimate of total investment and is dependent on your task volume, workflow criteria, and mapping requirements.

We will open up for questions shortly, but will limit questions to functionality only. If you have questions about pricing or want to talk through your integration and automation goals, send me an email. We can schedule a 1-on-1 call to review your requirements and develop a custom quote.

That concludes our presentation today.

As a reminder, a recording of today’s webinar and the slides will be made available to you following today’s session. Please be on the lookout for an email with those resources.

Let’s open up for questions?