You can connect Mailchimp to Donorfy so that when someone:
Subscribes to a Mailchimp audience.
Updates their preferences in Mailchimp.
Unsubscribes from a Mailchimp audience.
Donorfy updates the matching constituent automatically based on your purposes and tags mapping.
What Updates From Mailchimp Can Do
Once the link is set up, Donorfy can update constituents as follows.
When someone subscribes to a Mailchimp audience
If a Mailchimp subscriber is added or subscribes:
If they do not already exist in Donorfy, a new constituent is added.
The email channel is opened (allowed).
Communication purposes are allowed and/or tags are added according to your Donorfy–Mailchimp mapping.
When someone updates their preferences in Mailchimp
If a subscriber changes their groups/tags in Mailchimp:
The mapped communication purposes in Donorfy are allowed or blocked.
The mapped tags in Donorfy are added or removed.
When someone unsubscribes from a Mailchimp audience
If a subscriber unsubscribes in Mailchimp:
Any communication purposes mapped to that Mailchimp audience are blocked in Donorfy.
Any tags mapped to Mailchimp remain on the constituent in Donorfy.
The email channel status is not changed in Donorfy (it is not automatically blocked).
Each update from Mailchimp:
Adds a history item to the preference centre for the channel and purpose updates.
Adds an Activity to the constituent’s timeline.
Important Limitations And Notes
Custom forms populating Mailchimp via its API
If your website uses custom forms that send data into Mailchimp using the Mailchimp API (rather than Mailchimp’s own forms/popups):
You cannot use Mailchimp webhooks to update Donorfy from Mailchimp.
This is because you must not tick the “via the API” option in the webhook (see setup section), so changes made via the API will not trigger the webhook.
In this case, updates from those custom forms will not flow back to Donorfy via the webhook.
Tags behaviour
Important: Adding or removing a Tag on a Mailchimp subscriber does not, on its own, trigger the Mailchimp webhook.
Mailchimp does not fire the webhook when only tags are changed, so Donorfy will not automatically pick up those changes unless another qualifying event also occurs (e.g. profile update, subscribe/unsubscribe).
If someone is added directly to a Mailchimp audience and tags are set at that time, when the webhook runs those tags will overwrite any Donorfy tag of the same name. Any extra fields on that Donorfy tag will be removed.
Prepare Donorfy–Mailchimp Mappings
Before you create the webhook, you must define how Mailchimp data should update Donorfy.
Donorfy purposes and tags can be added or removed based on Mailchimp groups and tags.
In your Mailchimp configuration in Donorfy, set up the mapping between:
Mailchimp audience groups/tags, and
Donorfy purposes/tags.
These mappings control how Donorfy updates purposes and tags when Mailchimp sends a webhook for subscribe, update, or unsubscribe events.
Set Up The Webhook In Mailchimp
You now need to create a webhook in Mailchimp so Mailchimp can send changes to Donorfy.
Get your Donorfy API key
In Donorfy, go to Settings, then select Account.
Click Donorfy Settings, then locate your Donorfy API key.
Copy it – you will need it when you enter the callback URL in Mailchimp.
📌Note:
This is not your Mailchimp API key. The Mailchimp API key was used earlier to link Donorfy to Mailchimp; here you need the Donorfy API key.
Create the webhook in Mailchimp
Log in to Mailchimp with your admin account.
Go to the audience you want to link (or create a new one first).
From the Manage Audience drop-down, choose Settings.
In the Settings area, select Webhooks.
Click Create New Webhook.
4.3 Set the callback URL
In the Callback URL field, enter:
https://api.donorfy.com/api/MC/YourDonorfyAPIKey
For example, if your Donorfy API key is ABC123, the URL would be:
https://api.donorfy.com/api/MC/ABC123
Paste your actual Donorfy API key at the end of the URL.
Choose which events to send
In the webhook settings:
Select all updates except “Campaign sending”.
Make sure you do not tick the “via the API” option.
Click Save to create the webhook.
The link between Mailchimp and Donorfy is now established.
⚠️Important:
If you mark the “via the API” checkbox, changes made by your custom forms or other API calls will trigger the webhook.
The integration requires that updates made via the API are not sent, which means webhooks cannot be used where your website is populating Mailchimp via its API.
How The Link Works
When a subscriber subscribes, updates their profile, or unsubscribes, Mailchimp sends a webhook call to Donorfy.
Donorfy then:
Matches the email address
Donorfy tries to find existing constituents with that email address.
If one or more constituents have that email address, all matching constituents will be updated.
If no constituents have that email address and the event is a subscribe, Donorfy adds a new constituent.
Updates the constituent(s)
For new subscribers and profile updates:
Opens the email channel (ensures it is allowed).
Allows communication purposes based on the mapping between Mailchimp audience groups and Donorfy purposes.
Adds tags based on the mapping between Mailchimp tags/groups and Donorfy tags.
For unsubscribes:
Any communication purposes mapped to that Mailchimp audience are blocked.
Any tags mapped to Mailchimp remain on the constituent.
The email channel status in Donorfy is not changed (Donorfy does not automatically block the email channel).
Logs the change
Adds a preference centre history item for the channel and purpose updates.
Adds an Activity to the constituent’s timeline summarising the Mailchimp update.
Items To Note
Existing Mailchimp subscribers
If you use an existing Mailchimp audience, the webhook will not automatically import all of the current subscribers into Donorfy.
To get existing audience members into Donorfy:
Export the Mailchimp audience to a CSV file.
Upload it into Donorfy using the File Uploader.
The same applies to contacts that have been manually imported into Mailchimp – the webhook only handles future events, not historical lists.
To Be Resolved list
Sometimes Donorfy needs your help, typically when:
The email address in the Mailchimp webhook matches more than one constituent in Donorfy, and Donorfy cannot determine which should be updated.
These cases appear in Donorfy under:
Integrations, Mailchimp, To Be Resolved tab.
For each item:
Review the candidates Donorfy has found.
Choose the correct constituent or decide how the situation should be resolved.
Use these options to resolve conflicts and keep your data consistent.
History of updates
You can review what has happened over time via:
Data Management, click Mailchimp Sync, select History tab.
This shows you a log of Mailchimp–Donorfy updates.
Test The Link
Before relying on the integration for live supporters, test that everything behaves as expected.
Add a test subscriber in Mailchimp
Add a test email address to your linked Mailchimp audience.
Set Mailchimp groups and tags as you want them to map into Donorfy.
Check Donorfy
After a short delay (Donorfy queues requests, so allow a few seconds), check Donorfy:
Confirm a constituent has been created or updated.
Check that email channel, purposes, and tags have been updated according to your mappings.
Update the test subscriber’s preferences
In Mailchimp, change the test subscriber’s groups/tags.
Confirm that the mapped purposes and tags update correctly in Donorfy.
Unsubscribe the test subscriber
Unsubscribe the test subscriber in Mailchimp.
Check the Donorfy constituent:
The mapped purposes for that audience should now be blocked.
The mapped tags should remain, and the email channel should not be automatically blocked.
A preference centre history item and a new Activity should appear.
Donorfy Academy
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