OpenFundraise Zapier integrationAutomate OpenFundraise with Zapier.
The OpenFundraise Zapier integration gives you 3 triggers, 1 action and 2 searches to move gifts and donor records out of your fundraising platform: new donations start the automation, and other apps can leave notes on a supporter's file.
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What the OpenFundraise Zapier integration is for
It connects OpenFundraise, the platform nonprofits use to run donations, campaigns and their supporter base, to Zapier, a tool that runs automations between apps without code. A gift lands in OpenFundraise, Zapier spots it on its next check and passes it on: to your accounting tool, your mailing tool or your team chat.
Three results nonprofits usually set up first. A thank-you that leaves on time: New Donation sends each completed gift, with its donor, campaign and amount, to the tool that writes your receipts. A monthly-giving program you can follow: New Recurring Donation flags every new regular donor so someone can welcome them properly. A donor file that tells the whole story: Add Supporter Note writes into OpenFundraise what happened elsewhere, a phone call logged in another app or a reply to a survey.
Now the limits. There is a single action, and it only adds notes: Zapier cannot create a donation, a campaign or a supporter in OpenFundraise. The two searches look things up, they do not change anything. And all 3 triggers work by checking at intervals, none is instant, so a receipt goes out after the next check, not the second the card is charged.
If you are weighing Zapier against other tools for this kind of donor workflow, the Make vs Zapier page and the Zapier alternatives page are a fair place to start.
Zapier vocabulary in one minute
Eight words come back throughout this page. Here they are in plain English.
- Zap
- The automation you build in Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every time the trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts the Zap, like a new donation. Once the Zap is on, Zapier waits for exactly that.
- Action
- What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or adds something for you in another app.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completed successfully. The figure on your plan counts these and nothing else.
- Polling trigger
- A trigger Zapier checks on a timer. It asks the app for its latest items and keeps only the ones it has not seen yet.
- Instant trigger
- A trigger the app reports itself the moment the event happens, so nothing waits for a check. OpenFundraise has none of these.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets your condition, and stops it there otherwise.
- Search step
- A step that looks up something already stored in an app, so the steps after it can use what it found.
What it really costs in tasks
Watching OpenFundraise is free. The trigger never costs a task, and neither do the checks Zapier runs to find new donations. Only an action that succeeds is billed; a failed one is not counted.
- Trigger checksFree, never counted
- Each successful action1 task
- Free plan100 tasks per month, two-step Zaps
- Using a searchMakes the Zap multi-step, paid plan
One successful action is one task, so a Zap with three actions uses three times what a one-action Zap uses. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and checks every 15 minutes, but it stops at two steps: one trigger, one action. Add a filter, a second action or one of the two searches, and the Zap becomes multi-step, which needs a paid plan. OpenFundraise itself is not reserved to paid plans. The two searches count toward that limit like any other step.
Connect OpenFundraise to Zapier in 3 steps
- 01
Open the Apps page
In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. A connection is your OpenFundraise account linked once, then reused by every step of every Zap that touches it.
- 02
Find OpenFundraise
Type OpenFundraise in the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. Zapier opens a separate tab for the sign-in. Keep it open: the next step happens there, not in the dialog you just used.
- 03
Sign in and grant access
Sign in to OpenFundraise in that tab and let Zapier access the account. Pick a login that can read the donations and supporters your Zaps need, including records other staff members manage.
Your first Zap: log every gift on the donor's file
GoalEach completed donation finds its supporter in OpenFundraise and leaves a note on their file.
- 01
Pick the trigger
Create a Zap, choose OpenFundraise as the app that starts it and New Donation as the event. Only completed donations reach the Zap.
- 02
Test the trigger
Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent donations from your account, so the next steps are mapped on a real gift rather than a blank sample.
- 03
Find the supporter
Add a search step with Find Supporter, and fill the Search box with the donor's name or email taken from the donation. This makes the Zap multi-step, so it needs a paid plan.
- 04
Write the note
Add Add Supporter Note, point Supporter to what the search found, and compose the note from the gift's amount and campaign.
- 05
Test, then publish
Run each step once and open the supporter in OpenFundraise to read the note. When it looks right, click Publish to switch the Zap on.
The 3 OpenFundraise triggers
3 events start a Zap when something happens in OpenFundraise. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.
New Donation
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a completed OpenFundraise donation is created, including donor, campaign, amount, payment, and attribution details.”
Hands your Zap every completed gift, with the donor, the campaign, the amount, the payment and where the gift came from. That last part matters if you track which appeal or channel brought the money in.
New Recurring Donation
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a completed recurring OpenFundraise donation is created, including donor, campaign, amount, and subscription details.”
Reacts to recurring gifts only, with the donor, campaign, amount and the details of the subscription behind them. Monthly donors are the backbone of many nonprofits, and this trigger lets you treat them apart from one-off givers.
New or Updated Supporter
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when an OpenFundraise supporter is created or has new donation activity, including lifetime value and recurring donor status.”
Fires on two occasions: a supporter is created, or an existing one shows new donation activity. The record carries their lifetime value and whether they give on a recurring basis, which is what segmenting a donor list usually needs.
The OpenFundraise action
OpenFundraise gives you 1 action. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Add Supporter Note
ActionIn Zapier“Adds an internal CRM note to an OpenFundraise supporter after activity in another app.”
Writes an internal note on a supporter's file in OpenFundraise, so what happened in another app is visible to whoever opens that donor next. A Pinned option is there too, if you want the note to stand out.
The 2 OpenFundraise searches
2 search steps look for data that already exists in OpenFundraise, so a later step can use it.
A search step does not change anything in OpenFundraise: it looks up an existing donation or supporter and hands it to the steps that follow. In the editor, searches sit at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH. Three settings decide what happens when the result is not the one expected.
Find Donation
SearchIn Zapier“Finds an OpenFundraise donation by donation ID, including donor, amount, campaign, payment, and attribution details.”
Pulls up one donation by its ID, with its donor, amount, campaign, payment and attribution, so a later step can use the full picture.
Find Supporter
SearchIn Zapier“Finds an OpenFundraise supporter by name, email, or supporter ID for CRM, email, accounting, and follow-up workflows.”
Looks up a supporter from a name, an email address or their supporter ID, typed into a single Search box.
The three settings every search exposes
- Successful if no search results are found?Left on its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap there and the steps that depend on it are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on with empty hands.
- Create X if it doesn't exist yet?On apps that offer it, this box turns a search into find-or-create. OpenFundraise exposes no find-or-create variant for its two searches.
- If multiple search results are found?Three ways out when several items match: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or pass all of them on at once.
When an OpenFundraise Zap breaks
Zapier attaches no help article of its own to OpenFundraise, so the failures you will meet are the ones every Zap shares.
They are easy to avoid once you know them, and most come from how polling triggers behave. If a Zap still acts up, the Zapier troubleshooting page picks up from here.
Last year's donations never show up
A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Gifts received before stay out of it, and moving that history is a separate job.A Zap that sets itself off
A Zap that writes into the very place its own trigger watches starts itself again and again, and eats your task count fast.A big import that seems ignored
After migrating donors or importing a batch of gifts, the trigger can return a huge batch at once, and Zapier's flood protection may hold it back.Why a gift never fires twice
Zapier remembers what it has already seen on a polling trigger, so the same donation does not start your Zap a second time.
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