We’re making it easier than ever to raise money with the outreach tools you already know and love, like texting and relational organizing. Learn more here about the powerful ways that this integration can benefit your organization, and read on to learn how to set up ActBlue integration to automatically import contacts, measure fundraising performance, and more:
How to Set Up ActBlue Integration
To begin importing ActBlue contacts, measuring fundraising performance, and more, the first step is to initialize the integration between Impactive and ActBlue.
For a short time* as this feature is first launching, the Impactive team will manually set up your integration for you. To proceed, please email [email protected] with the following information:
The name of your Impactive campaign
The name of your ActBlue account
From which point you want to import your ActBlue donors as Impactive contacts (see “How to Import Contacts from ActBlue” below for more details on how they appear). The options are:
Import ALL ActBlue donors from all time in your account
Import ActBlue donors that donated since a certain date in the past - since the beginning of 2024, since last month, or any other past date you desire
Import ActBlue donors only beginning from the day the integration turns on and moving forward, with no historical backfill
After you email us, we’ll reach out to ActBlue on your behalf to request a webhook; you’ll then receive an email from our team within one business day, with ActBlue support CC’d, requesting your approval to set up the webhook. You will need to respond to this email to let ActBlue know that you approve, which we’ll make clear when you receive the email.
After responding, our team will set up your integration within one business day, and you’ll be all set.
* We will soon introduce an update that will allow you to initialize your ActBlue integration on your own - stay tuned!
How to Import Contacts from ActBlue
Your ActBlue donors will be imported as Impactive contacts once you initialize the integration via the process described above. Once that’s done:
You’ll know your integration is working when you see an “ActBlue Contacts” contact list under Contacts > Lists.
If you only requested that donors be imported from the point of your integration forward, a contact will only appear once someone donates for the first time, which may take a while.
This contact list - “ActBlue Contacts” - is where all of your ActBlue donors will be automatically imported on an ongoing basis, forever from the moment that your integration begins working. Therefore, you’ll see the size of the “ActBlue Contacts” list grow over time.
Contacts on this list, i.e. your ActBlue donors, will have the following data points automatically imported from ActBlue:
First Name: The donor’s first name, as inputted when they donated, is imported into Impactive.
Last Name: The donor’s last name, as inputted when they donated, is imported into Impactive.
Phone Number: If the donor entered a phone number, it is imported into Impactive. Note that phone number is an optional field on ActBlue contribution forms, per ActBlue’s policy described here.
Email: The donor’s email, as inputted when they donated, is imported into Impactive.
State: The donor’s state, as inputted when they donated, is imported into Impactive.
ZIP Code: The donor’s ZIP code, as inputted when they donated, is imported into Impactive.
Opt-In Status: The donor’s opt-in status for SMS messaging, as inputted when they donated, is imported into Impactive. Note that to turn on a compliant opt-in checkbox on your contribution forms, you must reach out to the ActBlue support team as described here.
Amount Donated: The donor’s total amount donated to your ActBlue campaign is imported into Impactive.
You can always create more specific segments of donors from within that “ActBlue Contacts” list, just like you can by filtering and selecting contacts in any other contact list; see more information below in “How to Filter Contacts with Donation Data.”
You can use this “ActBlue Contacts” list, or any filtered sub-list you create from it, as a contact list for any Impactive action type: Peer-to-Peer Texting, Broadcast Texting, Phone Banking, and Canvassing.
How to Filter Contacts with Donation Data
Now that your ActBlue donors are being automatically imported as Impactive contacts, you can manage these contacts alongside any other Impactive contacts just as you normally do, including the use of Impactive’s powerful contact filters.
As always, you can access contact filters from All Contacts > Filter, or within a specific contact list page > Filter.
These filters now include the option to filter contacts by ActBlue donation history. The filter for “Donated” allows you to pull lists of contacts with certain attributes:
Basic donor status: Has Ever/Has Never donated, and/or has donated Between or Not Between certain dates.
Specific donation amounts: Whether in combination with above date filters or not, the total amount that the contact has donated - ex. has donated more than $100 total, or donated between $0-$50 in the last month.
Donated from certain actions: Whether in combination with the donation amount filter or not, how the contact donated. If you’ve used ActBlue trackable links in your scripts (see above, “How to Track ActBlue Fundraising Performance in Actions”), contacts’ donor history in the context of certain Impactive actions can be filtered - ex. donated via a specific Broadcast Texting Blast.
How to Track ActBlue Fundraising Performance in Actions
Tracking fundraising performance from messaging actions (Peer-to-Peer Texting, Broadcast Texting, Friends and Family Messaging, and/or Canvassing) is simple:
Create an Act Blue link for your ActBlue contribution form:
In the admin dashboard, visit Data > Links > + New Link.
Choose the tab for ActBlue Links.
Name the link; this name is only for your internal reference. You may want to use the same name as your contribution form name in ActBlue to keep things consistent.
Paste in the URL to your ActBlue contribution form.
Create your messaging action and add the ActBlue link to any script:
Create a new action for Peer-to-Peer Texting, Broadcast Texting, Friends and Family Messaging, and/or Canvassing.
In any initial OR response script for any of those action types, add the ActBlue link you just created by clicking the Link button above the script body, selecting ActBlue links, and selecting your desired link.
The dynamic variable for the trackable link will appear in your script body. Don’t edit that dynamic variable; it will auto-populate with a URL when texts are sent. The URL will show up with this format (not including the spaces): https:// links.impactive.io /t/s8fj2kfj.
Measure results:
The “View Results” dashboard of Peer-to-Peer Texting, Broadcast Texting, Friends and Family Messaging, and Canvassing actions includes a “FUNDRAISING PERFORMANCE” section. The section will be blank if no ActBlue trackable link was used in any script; if an ActBlue trackable link was included in at least one script (initial or response), the section will display results.
The metrics available are:
Total Raised: Sum of all contributions via ActBlue links in scripts for this action.
Average Donation: Total raised divided by the number of total donors who contributed via ActBlue links in scripts for this action.
Link Clicks: Total number of clicks to the ActBlue link(s) contained in either initial or response message scripts for this action.
Donors: Unique donors who contributed via ActBlue links in scripts for this action.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we get fundraising results if we just paste in an ActBlue URL to a script?
No, the only way to get fundraising results in the Impactive action’s results dashboard is to create the ActBlue trackable link under Data > Links, as described above. Of course, you’re welcome to just paste in the direct ActBlue URL - the link will still work and contacts can still donate, but the donation results won’t be captured in Impactive.
Can we use ActBlue links in any script, or only initial scripts?
You can use ActBlue links in any script, initial or response! While many clients include a link in their initial script for a dedicated fundraising text blast, there may be other times when you only include a link in a certain response script, to be sent when a certain contact shows interest in donating in the course of their conversation with your team.
Fundraising performance on the action’s results dashboard will display the total results of all ActBlue links included in that action’s scripts, whether initial or response.
How can we turn off our ActBlue integration?
Reach out to our support team ([email protected]) to stop receiving ActBlue donors in an automatic import into Impactive.