To upload a new file, choose the Uploads link in the People tab of the Start Organizing menu at the top of the page. If you're a partner, you will have access to this page. Click here to contact us to discuss a partnership.
IMPORTANT: Action Network has a 100% opt-in policy. This means you can only upload emails/mobile numbers of people who have explicitly opted in to receive emails from you. We monitor uploads our partners make and will reach out to all admins in a group if we suspect an upload was not made up of properly opted in activists. This is done to protect deliverability across the platform, helping keep your mass email out of spam folders, and out of respect for our community of activists.
Once on the uploads page, choose the list you want to upload to using the dropdown in the upper right. You can upload to any group you are an administrator of.
After choosing the correct list, you will see a table of all of that list's previous uploads, their upload dates, the number of users uploaded and the number of new users uploaded. Click on the upload and there will be a pop up that gives you more details on the upload type, uploader, tags, advanced upload options selected, and fields uploaded. If you have the Advanced Upload permission, you'll be able to download the list as well.
Click on the "I" icon next to each upload to view more details about it, such as who uploaded it and what options they chose when uploading.
Click the "Add New Upload" button to begin the upload process.
By default, "Upload by Email/Mobile Number" is selected from the upload type tabs at the top of the window, in which case we will match activists in your upload to people on your list by email address and mobile number, automatically deduplicating and adding new activists to your list if no match is found. See here for more information.
However, you can choose "Upload by Unique ID" instead using the tabs at the top of the window to use the unique ID upload type. With this upload type instead of email you will provide the Action Network Unique ID as a column in your CSV. This upload type is useful for matching to other systems and not sharing files with the email address of your activists, for security purposes. See here for more information.
After selecting the upload type, click 'How should I prepare my CSV file?' to learn how to make sure your file has everything it needs for the selected upload type. Click 'What happens after I upload?' to learn how Action Network processes this type of upload. Next, download the sample file if you choose, and then pick the file you want to upload. Give your upload a name -- this name will show up in our targeting system, allowing you to target all activists who were uploaded in this file or all activists who are new in this uploaded file -- and then choose any tags and other options for your upload. You can also schedule the upload to start in the future if you'd like to delay it.
When you're done, click the "Upload & Match Fields" button to upload your file. Your file will be validated. If we detect the wrong file format, we will let you know. If you're uploading a column of tags, make sure to map that column to the Tags field at the top of the dropdown. If you're uploading source codes, make sure to map that column to the Source Code field.
Otherwise, on the next page you'll be able to match columns in your files with fields in your database.
On the left you'll see the columns in your spreadsheet. On the right you'll see fields in our database, including any custom fields you use. We attempt to match things up automatically, but you can edit your choices.
You can choose to ignore a column in your upload file by choosing the "[Ignore Column]" option on the right, at the top of the dropdown menu. Otherwise, each field on the right can be assigned to one and only one column. You must assign a column to email address if you're using the upload by email type, as it is a required field for our system. If you're using the upload by ID type, you must assign a column to unique ID.
If you have permissions to edit custom fields, you can also create custom fields on the fly if you'd like -- click the "Create New Field" button and enter in a title for your custom field for that column. When the file is uploaded, we'll upload that column's data under that new custom field.
Note: If the custom field you are uploading into has validation and the data you are uploading for that activist does not match the validation expression, the data from the upload for that activist will be skipped and not added to the activist's record.
When you're done, click "Finish Upload" to finish the process. You'll see your new upload in the list of uploads. If you refresh the page see a percentage indicating how much of the upload has already been processed. You'll see your new upload in the list of uploads, with a count of total activists, number of activists new to your email list, and number of activists new to your mobile list, updating as the upload process completes. This may take some time, depending on the size of your file. We'll also send you an email notification when your upload is done. When it's finished, if you are uploading by email, all of the activists in your file have been subscribed to the list you chose. If you are uploading by unique ID, all the activists that match will have been processed.
At the bottom of the list, you can click View All Uploads to see the full list of previous uploads you've done in your group.
Note: If you get an error message about a UTF-8 error, please do a 'save as' of your file in your spreadsheet software, then try uploading your file again. If all else fails, try using Google Spreadsheets, which seems to work for most.
Note: If you're uploading by email or mobile number, we automatically de-duplicate and merge activists based on email address and mobile number, so don't worry if your CSV file isn't de-duplicated or if you're uploading a new file that may have emails already on your list. If you're uploading by unique ID, de-duplication and merging is done based on ID rather than email or mobile number. We also require an email address or mobile number for all activists. We validate email addresses and mobile numbers on upload, so activists with email addresses that are obviously not email addresses are also skipped. For example, missing an @ symbol. We also validate mobile numbers, more on that here.
We also merge in new data automatically, so if an activist already on your list doesn't have a first name, but your upload file has one for them, we'll add it. If they already have a first name and the uploaded file has a different value for that activists, we will keep the data we have and ignore the data in the file unless you use the overwrite option, explained here.
We will not blank out any data we have on a matching activist even if the corresponding field is blank in your file unless you use the clear blank values option, explained here.
Finally, we respect subscriptions, so uploading an activist who are unsubscribed from your emails will not add them to the list again unless you specifically check the resubscribe option, explained here.
Alternatively, you can choose not to subscribe new activists you upload. All activists uploaded will maintain their previous subscription status if you check this option, explained here.
If you don't want people in this upload to be triggered into any ladders you've set up, you can check Skip all Ladders. If this is checked during the upload process all activists in the upload will not be triggered into any of the ladders. This is helpful if you’re doing routine uploads and you don’t want to trigger everyone into your welcome series, for example.
Only upload people who have opted in to receive your emails. Subscribing people who have not opted in may get your emails marked as spam and may result in the termination of your Action Network account. Only resubscribe people who definitely want to receive your emails again.
If your upload has failed for any reason, the administrator who uploaded the file will receive an email notifying them of the issue. This email will contain possible issues with the file and things to try to fix it.