Exporting from your Organizer account generates a file containing selected data related to an Organizer Community. Exports are limited to 500,000 records, and the exported file will be in Comma-Separated Variable (CSV) format.
CSV files store data in rows or lines, with individual values separated by commas in each row. Each row of the exported CSV file represents an individual record for one person, and each value represents a data field such as phone number, date of birth, or address associated with that person. The data fields are in the same order in every row. For example, if a person's last name is the second value in the first row, it is also the second value in all other rows.
Exporting allows you to use the data in your Organizer account with third-party vendors to help with your campaign outreach efforts. For example, you could export a CSV file that includes the Community you want to reach with a mass text message. A third-party texting vendor of your choice could then use that CSV file to send out that message.
To export data from your Organizer account, follow these steps:
- Go to My Universe > Export and click Export in the right-hand corner. Select to CSV. This will open the Create Export workflow.
- Name the export in the Export Name field. Tip: This will become the file name of the resulting CSV, so make sure to give it a clear and explanatory name that will be useful in the future. Optionally, you can add a description to the export.
- Choose whether to export Outreach Activity or Profile Data, then click Next.
- Outreach Activity: Select the Outreach Type (Forms, Emails, Phone Banking, Canvassing, or Scripts).
- Profile Data: Select to export a Community or Imported Data. Communities include lists and segments. Imported Data allows you to export data for profiles associated with a specific file import.
- Select the specific data to export:
- For Outreach Activity, you can select one or multiple efforts, with the exception of Forms and Scripts, which supports only one per export. Select Next to continue.
- For Profile Data, you can select one community or imported file. For communities, you can select a list or segment. Segments which contain unsupported data and would not contain profiles are marked with an alert symbol
. Select a segment without the alert symbol in order for your export to process.
- In addition, you can opt to Group Profiles. Group Profiles creates one row per contact attribute and presents the data in columns for that contact. For example, you may group by physical address and your exported file will contain one row per address with separate columns for the names of each person with that physical address. When grouping profiles, you can select from Physical Address, Email, Phone Number. Select Next to continue.
- Select which attributes you would like to include in your export. Each attribute will become a column of the CSV file. You can use the Search for Attributes field to find an attribute by its name or category. Selecting the category automatically selects everything within the category.
- Click Create Export to generate the export.
When you initiate an export, status notifications will display throughout the platform while you continue doing other work. These notifications will indicate the following, as appropriate:
- Export Processing
- Export Completed
- Export Failed
Exports you initiate will also appear on the Exports page, with icons indicating their status. When an export is ready, you will be notified in Organizer and by email, and the status on the page will change from Exporting to Complete. You may then Download the CSV file either on the Exports page or via the link in your email.
FAQ and Troubleshooting Exports
-
I opened my export CSV in a spreadsheet program and zip codes that start with 0 are missing the first number. Why is this happening and what can I do to resolve it?
- This is most likely caused by the spreadsheet program you are using. Spreadsheet programs automatically try to assign a type to the cells in your CSV when you open it. Those zip codes have likely been assigned a number type. Numbers in computer applications typically do not start with zero so the spreadsheet application will hide those zeros at the beginning of a number. You can check this by opening the CSV in a text editor like NotePad. You should see the zeros there, if not, the support team can help you troubleshoot.
- You will need to format the cells in the spreadsheet application you are using to open the CSV. How to do this will vary depending on what application you use. Some common spreadsheet applications and how to format zip codes in them are listed below. NOTE: We do not produce or manage these applications so these instructions may be incorrect in the future if the companies that make these products make changes.
-
Google Sheets
- Select the column with zip codes.
- Click on Format in the menu bar, then hover over Number, and choose More Formats followed by Custom Number Format.
- In the custom format field, type 00000 for five-digit zip codes.
- Source: Google Docs Editors Help
-
Excel
- On the Home tab, click the Dialog Box Launcher Button next to Number.
- In the Category box, click Custom.
- In the Type list, type *0 followed by the postal code format that you want to use.
- For example, for a 5-digit postal code, type *0#####.
- Source: Microsoft