The Action Network can sync with Salesforce, providing two-way communication on your group’s email list subscribers, including their action histories, donation data, and custom fields. The sync runs about every hour in both directions.

Access to Salesforce sync is a feature only available to paying partners. To become a partner, please visit actionnetwork.org/partnerships.

Contents:

How does the sync work?

What is synced from Action Network to Salesforce when I set up the sync?

Setting up the Salesforce Sync

Maintaining the Salesforce sync and FAQs

How does the sync work?

We will automatically create a master Action Network Subscribers Campaign in Salesforce when you set up the sync. This campaign will house all the data synced between Action Network and Salesforce and is where you will manage the data.

What is synced from Action Network to Salesforce when I set up the sync?

- Activists on Action Network → Contacts on Salesforce

• Some Action Network core fields (first name, last name, email address, street address, city, state or province, zip/postal code) are synced. Country and language are not synced. 
• Any custom fields you choose to sync. There are several requirements:
• The custom fields must already be created on Salesforce
• The custom fields must be "Text Area (Long)" type in Salesforce
• The custom field names must match on Action Network and Salesforce
• The custom field names must not contain spaces in their names

        Notes:

• Contacts without an email address (or a malformed email address, like jsmith2gmail.com) will not be synced.
• Activists without a last name on Action Network will have their email address used as their last name in Salesforce.
• At this time, we cannot sync other Salesforce "core" fields like phone number, country, etc.
• Activists with only a mobile number, and no email address, will not be synced

 

- Subscription status on Action Network →  Membership in the Action Network Subscribers Campaign on Salesforce

• A contact in the Action Network Subscribers Campaign is subscribed to receive emails in Action Network.

 

- Action history on Action Network → Campaigns on Salesforce

• Each action is synced as a Campaign on Salesforce
• Contacts are added to the corresponding action’s Campaign when they take Action on Action Network

NOTE: Uploads, ticketed events, and event campaigns on Action Network are not synced as Campaigns on Salesforce.

 

- Donations in Action Network → Opportunities on Salesforce

• We will automatically create the Action Network Donations account. Each donation is stored as an Opportunity in this account
• The activist who made the donation is stored in the Contact Roles section
• Recurring donations are stored in the Action Network Recurring custom field. Note: You may have to customize your view to see this field.

NOTE: Ticketed event purchases on Action Network are not synced as Opportunities.

 

Setting up the Salesforce Sync

Step 1: Before you get started, decide which custom fields you want to sync to Salesforce. Create these custom fields in your Salesforce environment, based on these requirements:

• The custom fields must be Text Area (Long) type in Salesforce
• The custom field names must match on Action Network and Salesforce. You can see your custom field names by going to the Details tab in the Start Organizing menu, and clicking Questions and Custom Fields.
• The custom field names must not contain spaces in their names. If you want to sync custom fields that have spaces on Action Network, we recommend you download data from one custom field, upload it into a new custom field with a new, sync-friendly name, and hide the first.

Step 2: Go to the Details tab of the Start Organizing menu and click API & Sync in the column on the right. Select your group from the drop down menu.

 

NOTE: Do not link more than one Action Network group with a single Salesforce installation. This includes groups with the ‘Networks’ feature -- you may only choose one group.

 

Step 3: Click the “Install Salesforce Package” button in the center of the page. This will bring you to Salesforce and prompt you to install the Action Network package on Salesforce. The installation process will take a minute or so.

 

Step 4: When that is complete, click the “Connect Salesforce Account” button. You’ll be prompted to allow Salesforce access to Action Network.

 

Note: You cannot connect with Salesforce sandbox accounts.

 

Step 5: You’ll be redirected to Action Network, where you’ll decide what custom fields to sync. Follow the directions on that page to list your custom fields.

 

Step 6: It will take about a day for your Action Network data to show up in Salesforce and vice versa (though it can be longer, depending on data volume).

 

During this time, we will create the a master Campaign in Salesforce called Action Network Subscribers. We automatically sync first name, last name, email address, street address, city, state or province, and ZIP code, any custom fields you’ve selected, subscription status, action history, and donation history. Please see the section above for more details.

Maintaining the Salesforce sync and FAQs

How often does the sync run?

After the initial sync set-up, the sync runs approximately hourly and runs in both directions, though actual run times can depend on data volume and other factors.

 

Where does my Action Network information in Salesforce go?

• Everything is in the Action Network Subscribers campaign
• Donations are tied to the Action Network Donations account

 

How do I subscribe contacts?

• Add the Contact to the master Action Network Subscribers Campaign in Salesforce.
• We will subscribe these contacts to your Action Network group using the “Salesforce Users” action in your Action Network group. You can target these activists in emails and reports by selecting that “Salesforce Users” under the Actions category.

 

How do I unsubscribe contacts?

• Remove the contact from the master Action Network Subscribers Campaign in Salesforce

How do I add action history to an activist from Salesforce?

• For a new campaign:
• You can ‘create’ an action in Action Network by creating a new campaign under the master Action Network Subscribers Campaign
• Add the Contact to both the master Action Network Subscribers Campaign and the new campaign
• For an existing Action Network action:
• Add the Contact to both the master Action Network Subscribers Campaign and the existing campaign

• Note: You cannot add Contacts to Letter Campaign or Fundraising actions

• Note: Removing a Contact from a campaign will not remove the action from the activist’s record on Action Network

  

How do I add donation history to an activist from Salesforce?

• Create an Opportunity for the donation, and add it to the Action Network Donations account. You can optionally use the Action Network Recurring custom field to mark this donor as a recurring donor. You may need to edit your layout and views to see this field.
• Add the donor in the Contact Roles section. Add the Contact to the Action Network Subscribers campaign
• We will add the donations to your Action Network group using the “Salesforce Donations” action in your Action Network group. You can target these activists in emails and reports by selecting that “Salesforce Donations” under the Actions category.

• Note: You cannot edit or remove donations from Action Network after they have been synced. Even if you change details, change the Account, or delete the Opportunity in Salesforce, the data will not update on Action Network.
• Note: You cannot backdate donation dates. The date recorded will be the date of the sync.

 

How do you match activists in Action Network and Contacts in Salesforce?

• We match people based on email address. Email address is a required field on Action Network
• If an activist cannot be matched to a contact in Salesforce, a new Contact will be created. If a Contact cannot be matched to an activist in Action Network, a new activist record will be created.
• Contacts without an email address (or a malformed email address, like jsmith2gmail.com) will not be synced.
• Activists without a last name on Action Network will have their email address used as their last name in Salesforce.
• Contacts in Salesforce without a zip code will not be geocoded in Action Network.
• Activists with only a mobile number, and no email address, will not be synced

 

How do you sync edits to the Contact/Activist record?

• Any edits you make to Contacts will sync with Action Network and vice versa, EXCEPT email address. Changing an email address on Salesforce will break the sync for that contact/activist

 

What will stop the sync?

• Changing a Contact’s email address on Salesforce will stop the sync for that activist
• Changing any Opportunity in Salesforce will not sync or update in Action Network
• Deleting, remaming, or removing duplicates of any object will cause unpredictable sync behavior. We do not recommend renaming Opportunities, Accounts, Contacts

 

Can I delete or rename objects?

• Be very careful deleting or renaming any Contacts, Opportunities, Campaigns, and Accounts that are syncing with Action Network. This will generally cause unpredictable sync behavior that can affect the entire Action Network Subscribers campaign.

 

I have duplicate Contacts on Salesforce with the same email address. How do I handle this?

• You cannot have duplicate email addresses sent to Action Network, since we deduplicate and store activists based on email address. On the first sync, we will randomly pick one Contact to sync with.

 

What happens if an activist unsubscribes, bounces, or submits a spam complaint on Action Network?

• The Contact will be removed from the Action Network Subscribers campaign.