Imagine you're at a fundraiser. People are giving money to your campaign, and when you're done you want to tag everyone who donated as a donor in VAN. The problem is, there's a long list and not everyone exists in VAN. How can you accomplish this? 


Enter Process Volunteers. This tool allows you to load a list into VAN without VANID's, and either match them to an existing myCampaign profile or create a new one with certain codes or responses already filled in. 


To use process volunteers, first email your list as an excel file or a csv to voterfile@dfl.org. Include as much information as possible, ideally including:

  • First and last name
  • Address (full or partial)
  • Phone number
  • Email
  • Anything else that might help you match them to existing profiles


Also include any tags you want to apply or survey responses you want to use.


Once the data team loads that file into VAN, find the Process Volunteers tab on the Main Menu on the myCampaign side of VAN. The number next to the tab shows the number of individual records you need to process.



On the left-hand side of the screen under "New Person" is any information coming from the source file. Below that information is a box that will show matching records if they are available. 




Try to find a match on at least two fields - name and then one of the following: email, address, phone number.


If a match is listed, click the radio button next to the voter's name, then click "Update My Campaign Database." The voter's profile is now updated with the relevant tag/response. You'll be taken to the next record and you can start again. In this case, there is no match available, so continue with the steps below.


If there's no immediate match, click "Search My Voter File." This will bring in records from the myVoters side of VAN. 


Once again, see if there is a match to at least two of the fields from the source file. If a match is listed, click the radio button next to the voter's name, then click "Add Person to My Campaign." Use the one with the icon next to the text, not the button at the bottom of the list. VAN will create a myCampaign profile for that voter (carrying with them any data from the myVoters side of VAN) and the relevant tags/response will be added. You'll be taken to the next record and you can start again. 




If there's no match on either side of VAN, click the "Add the Person to My Campaign" button at the bottom of the list. This will create a brand new myCampaign profile for the voter, and it will fill in as much info as it can from the source file. It will also apply the relevant tag/response. You'll be taken to the next record and you can start again. 



If you don't feel comfortable matching someone to an existing profile or creating a new profile, there are two options. You can click "skip this Person," which will keep the record in Process Volunteers, but will push it o the end of the list; or you can click "reject this Person" which will remove the record from Process Volunteers and you will lose that person's data. 


Continue this process through each record, and once you're done you will have everyone in myCampaign with the desired tags/responses.


                                                                                                                                                                                                


Questions or feedback? Please email us at voterfile@dfl.org


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