You can update a Mailchimp audience from one or more Constituent Lists in Donorfy.
The sync is always manually initiated, so you stay in control of who is sent to Mailchimp and what is updated, rather than automatically sending every change.
This is especially useful when you want to:
Update only a segment of constituents for a specific campaign email, or
Send constituents to a different Mailchimp audience (not just your main one).
⚠️Important:
To update Mailchimp from Donorfy, you must have administrator permission or have 'Can Update Mailchimp' permission allowed under Data lists.
Build the Constituent List
Go to Lists in Donorfy and create or open a Constituent List.
Add any filters you need to define who should be sent/updated in Mailchimp, for example:
Specific campaigns or tags.
Certain Purposes or channels.
Geography or segmentation.
Run the List to confirm it includes exactly the constituents you want to send to Mailchimp.
When you’re happy with the List results, you’re ready to start the Mailchimp update.
Start the Mailchimp Preview Update
At the top of the List results, click the Mailchimp button.
Choose the Mailchimp audience you want to update.
Click Preview Update.
Donorfy will queue the update and begin preparing a preview of what will change.
A note appears above the List name indicating that the process is queued.
Donorfy builds a summary of:
Constituents to be added to the audience.
Constituents to be updated in the audience.
Any that will be unsubscribed or otherwise changed, depending on your mappings.
View the Mailchimp Updates Tab
Open the Mailchimp Updates tab (available from the List / Mailchimp area).
This tab shows the status of your Mailchimp sync preview.
To refresh the status:
Press Ctrl + R (or refresh your browser), then
Re-open the Mailchimp Updates tab.
Once the preview is ready, a summary screen appears showing counts of:
Records to add.
Records to update.
Any issues or conflicts.
Review the Records Before Updating
Before you commit any changes, you can download and review the detailed records.
On the summary screen:
Click the links (for example, “X to be added”, “Y to be updated”).
Each link downloads an Excel file showing the constituents in that category.
Open the file(s) and check:
If the right people are included.
If there are any unexpected records you need to exclude.
This gives you a final chance to confirm everything is correct before updating Mailchimp.
Choose Which Changes to Apply
On the summary screen, you’ll see toggle switches next to each category of change (for example, “Add”, “Update”, “Unsubscribe”):
Set a toggle to Yes if you want those changes to be applied to Mailchimp.
Leave a toggle as No if you want to ignore that category and make no changes of that type.
You can be selective – for example, you might:
Add new subscribers, but
Skip updating existing ones in this run.
When you’ve set all toggles as required, you’re ready to run the update.
Apply the Update to Mailchimp
Click Update Mailchimp to start the update.
Donorfy will:
Add new constituents to the selected Mailchimp audience.
Update existing Mailchimp subscribers with the latest data (names, tags, Purposes, etc.), according to your mappings.
When the update is complete, you will receive an email confirmation showing:
What was changed.
Any issues or errors encountered.
You can also review history via the Mailchimp sync/history options in Donorfy for auditing.
If You Decide Not to Update
If, after reviewing the preview, you decide not to proceed:
Click Delete on the preview to remove it.
No changes will be sent to Mailchimp.
You can then adjust your List or mappings and restart the process when you are ready.
Donorfy Academy
The Donorfy Academy features a learning course for Mailchimp - enrol here.