PhoneRaise Zapier integrationAutomate PhoneRaise with Zapier.
The PhoneRaise Zapier integration gives you 4 triggers, 6 actions and 8 searches on the two things PhoneRaise tracks: donors and touchpoints. Here is what each one does, what it costs on your plan and where it tends to break.
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What the PhoneRaise Zapier integration actually does
It links PhoneRaise, the moves management app fundraisers run from their phone, to the other tools you use through Zapier. Something happens to a donor or a touchpoint, Zapier notices it on its next check, and it writes the result somewhere else. Or the other way round: another app feeds PhoneRaise.
Three results people build first. A donor list that stays in step: a contact lands in your CRM, and Create Donor adds them to the PhoneRaise campaign, with Find Donor by Email checking first that they are not already there. A follow-up that never gets lost: New Donor fires, and Create Touchpoint puts the first outreach step on the fundraiser's list. A report that writes itself: New or Updated Touchpoint sends every logged call or meeting to a spreadsheet the board can read.
What Zapier does not do here matters just as much. None of the four PhoneRaise triggers is instant: Zapier goes and asks PhoneRaise for news at the interval of your plan, so a donor added now shows up in the Zap a little later, never on the spot. Every update and delete works by ID, which means the Zap needs that ID from an earlier step. And a Zap never goes back in time: donors already in PhoneRaise before you switch it on stay where they are.
If you are still weighing tools, the Zapier review and Make vs Zapier pages sit next to this one.
Zapier words, in plain English
Seven words come back on every line of this page. Here they are once, so the rest reads easily.
- Zap
- The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event takes place.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts the Zap. Once the Zap is switched on, Zapier waits for that event and nothing else.
- Action
- What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or moves something on your behalf in another app.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills you for: one action your Zap completes successfully. The number on your plan counts those, nothing else.
- Polling vs instant
- A polling trigger is checked on a timer, Zapier asking the app for new items. An instant trigger is reported by the app itself, the moment it happens.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap carry on only when what arrived meets the condition you set, and quietly stops it the rest of the time.
- Search step
- A step that looks up something already stored in an app, so the steps after it can use what it found, like a donor's ID.
What a PhoneRaise Zap really costs
Zapier bills tasks, and a task is one action that worked. The trigger never costs anything, however often Zapier checks PhoneRaise for new donors.
- Free plan100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps
- Zap size on freeTwo steps: one trigger, one action
- Trigger checksFree of charge, at any interval
- Premium appNo, PhoneRaise works on the free plan
A Zap with three actions eats three times what a one-action Zap eats, because each successful action counts on its own. An action that fails is not counted. PhoneRaise is not a premium app, so it runs on the free plan, with one catch: the free plan only builds two-step Zaps, one trigger and one action. Add a filter, a search or a second action and the Zap becomes multi-step, which needs a paid plan.
Connect your PhoneRaise account to Zapier
- 01
Open your connections
In Zapier, go to the Apps page of your account and click + Add connection. A connection is your PhoneRaise account linked once, then reused by every step that touches PhoneRaise.
- 02
Pick PhoneRaise
Type PhoneRaise in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. You need an existing PhoneRaise account: Zapier does not create one for you.
- 03
Sign in and grant access
A new tab opens on PhoneRaise. Sign in, then allow Zapier into the account. If the campaign belongs to someone else, check you have read or write rights on it before you build anything.
Your first PhoneRaise Zap, step by step
GoalEach new donor gets a first touchpoint, but only when they match the condition you choose.
- 01
Create the Zap and pick the trigger
Start a new Zap, choose PhoneRaise as the app and New Donor as the event, then select the PhoneRaise connection you just added above.
- 02
Test the trigger
Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent donors of the account, so you map the next steps on a real record, not on an empty one.
- 03
Add the filter
Click the plus icon, choose Filter, then set the field to look at, the rule and the value. Keep text rules for text: a number rule on a text field never passes. This step makes the Zap multi-step, so it needs a paid plan.
- 04
Add the action
Add PhoneRaise again, pick Create Touchpoint, and map what the trigger brought back into the touchpoint. Leave Is Complete off: this one is still to do.
- 05
Test, then publish
Test the action once and open PhoneRaise to read the touchpoint it made. When it looks right, Publish the Zap to switch it on. Donors that existed before stay untouched.
The 4 PhoneRaise triggers
4 events start a Zap when something happens in PhoneRaise. Zapier checks for them at the interval your plan allows.
New Donor
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new donor is found.”
Starts the Zap each time a donor appears in PhoneRaise for the first time. Only brand new records count: a donor you edit later does not set it off again, which keeps a welcome sequence from running twice.
New Touchpoint
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a new touchpoint is found.”
Fires when a touchpoint is added to PhoneRaise, whether a fundraiser logged it on the phone or another Zap created it. That makes it the natural hook for a running log of outreach outside the app.
New or Updated Donor
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a donor is created or updated.”
Reacts to two events at once: a donor created, and a donor changed. Use it whenever the copy of your donor list elsewhere has to follow every edit, not only the arrivals.
New or Updated Touchpoint
Polling triggerIn Zapier“Triggers when a touchpoint is updated.”
Watches touchpoints as they move: one is edited, ticked as done, or rescheduled, and the Zap starts. It is the trigger to pick for reporting on progress rather than on plans.
The 6 PhoneRaise actions
PhoneRaise gives you 6 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Create Donor
ActionIn Zapier“Creates a donor in the campaign.”
Adds a donor to your PhoneRaise campaign from whatever the trigger brought in: a form entry, a CRM contact, a gift recorded elsewhere.
Create Touchpoint
ActionIn Zapier“Create a touchpoint in the campaign.”
Puts a new touchpoint on the campaign, the next step a fundraiser should take with a donor. The Is Complete field lets you log a contact that already happened instead of one still to do.
Delete Donor by ID
ActionIn Zapier“Deletes a donor by their id.”
Removes a donor from PhoneRaise for good, using the mandatory Donor ID. Pair it with a search on email or phone when the other tool does not know PhoneRaise IDs.
Delete Touchpoint by ID
ActionIn Zapier“Deletes a touchpoint by its ID.”
Erases a single touchpoint, identified by the mandatory Touchpoint ID. The donor stays, only that step of the plan goes away.
Update Donor by ID
ActionIn Zapier“Updates a donor by ID.”
Changes an existing donor, located by the Donor ID you hand it. That ID is mandatory, so the Zap has to carry it from the trigger or from a search placed just before.
Update Touchpoint by ID
ActionIn Zapier“Updates a touchpoint by its ID.”
Edits a touchpoint that already exists, found by its mandatory Touchpoint ID. Its Is Complete field is the handy part: a Zap can close a touchpoint once the matching event happens in another tool.
The 8 PhoneRaise searches
8 search steps look for data that already exists in PhoneRaise, so a later step can use it.
A search looks up a donor or a touchpoint already in PhoneRaise and hands it to the next steps. In the action event list, the searches sit at the bottom, under the SEARCH heading. Every one of them also has a Find or Create line in the editor: that is the same search with creation switched on, not an extra operation. Three settings decide what happens when the result is not the expected one.
Find Donors
SearchFind or createIn Zapier“Retrieves all donors”
Brings back the donors of PhoneRaise without asking for a specific key, so it suits a Zap that wants the whole list rather than one person. In the editor, Find or Create Donor on this same search adds the creation box.
Find Donor by Custom Donor ID
SearchFind or createIn Zapier“Retrieves a donor by their custom donor ID.”
Looks a donor up by the Custom Donor ID, the mandatory identifier that usually comes from another system such as Salesforce or Bloomerang. Ticked as Find or Create Donor, it creates the donor when the ID is unknown.
Find Donor by Email
SearchFind or createIn Zapier“Retrieves a donor by their email.”
Finds the donor behind an email address, given in the mandatory Donor Email field. It is the easiest bridge from a form or a newsletter tool. Its Find or Create Donor line creates the donor if no one matches.
Find Donor by ID
SearchFind or createIn Zapier“Retrieves a donor by their ID.”
Retrieves one donor from the PhoneRaise Donor ID you supply, a mandatory field. Useful when a previous step only carried the ID and the next one needs the donor's details. The Find or Create Donor variant reuses this search with creation ticked.
Find Donor by Phone
SearchFind or createIn Zapier“Retrieves a donor by their phone number.”
Matches a donor from the number in the mandatory Donor Phone Number field. On an app built around phone outreach, it is often the only key two tools share. With Find or Create Donor ticked, an unknown number becomes a new donor.
Find Touchpoints
SearchFind or createIn Zapier“Retrieves all touchpoints from campaign.”
Returns the touchpoints of the campaign as a set, with no key to fill. Set the multiple-results option to pass all of them on if every item matters. Its Find or Create Touchpoint line adds creation to this same search.
Find Touchpoint by Donor ID
SearchFind or createIn Zapier“Retrieves touchpoint by donor ID.”
Pulls the touchpoints tied to one donor, from the mandatory Donor ID. It answers the question what is planned for this person. As Find or Create Touchpoint, it opens one when the donor has none.
Find Touchpoint by ID
SearchFind or createIn Zapier“Retrieves a touchpoint by its ID.”
Gets a single touchpoint from the mandatory Touchpoint ID, so a later step can read its state before acting. The Find or Create Touchpoint variant is the same search with creation switched on.
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 needed its result are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on empty-handed.
- Create X if it doesn't exist yet?Ticking it turns the search into a find-or-create: the setting above disappears and Zapier asks for what it needs to create the missing donor or touchpoint.
- If multiple search results are found?Several matches: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or pass all of them on at once.
When a PhoneRaise Zap breaks
Zapier publishes no help article for PhoneRaise and no PhoneRaise specific limit. What breaks is what breaks on any polling app, and four cases cover it.
Each case below comes from how Zapier itself works. When a run fails anyway, the Zapier troubleshooting page is the place to start.
Old donors are ignored
A Zap reacts only to what happens after you switch it on. Donors already in PhoneRaise never pass through it; moving that backlog is a separate job.The Zap that feeds itself
A Zap that writes where its own trigger watches, such as updating the donor that New or Updated Donor watches, sets itself off repeatedly and drains your tasks.A bulk import gets held back
When a trigger suddenly returns a huge batch, after an import or a migration, Zapier's flood protection can hold it back instead of running everything.No double runs on the same item
On a polling trigger Zapier remembers what it has already seen, so the same donor or touchpoint does not start the Zap twice. An edit, though, is new for an update trigger.
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