Shortcode ActBlue Ingestion Options

What's new?

Switchboard now allows you to customize how much of your ActBlue data will automatically flow into your new account. By default, your Switchboard account is backfilled with all of your historical ActBlue donation data (making it easy to build audiences with up-to-date information about all of your donors).

Why do I need this?

If you are running a short code program and you want more control over which donations and associated phones are showing up in your Switchboard account, you can customize how much of your ActBlue data shows up in your Switchboard account with any of our new webhook modes and settings:

Mode 1: All Donors

This is our default mode for new Switchboard accounts. This will bring in all your donation data regardless of opt-in status of the donation.

Mode 2: Opt-in or Unknown Statuses

Bring in any phone number associated with a donation that has either an opt_in or unknown status from ActBlue. This would exclude any phone numbers only associated with opt_out statuses.

Mode 3: Opt-in Status Only

Only bring in a phone number associated with a donation that has an opt_in status. This would exclude phone numbers associated with donations that only have opt_out or unknown statuses.

Timeframe Settings: On top of your choice of mode, you can also choose how far back you want us to backfill your donation data. For example, if you know that you applied the proper compliance language on your forms starting June 1, 2024, we can backfill your donation data just to that date.

For Mode 2 and 3, if a donor donates one time, provides their phone number and successfully opts in, and then later donates again but does not provide their number and/or unchecks the opt-in box on your ActBlue form, their number would still show up in your Switchboard account.

What happens if a phone number has both an opt-in status and an opt-out status on their donations?

Once a phone number opts-in to a program, they need to reply back via text to the short code number with "STOP" or any other opt-out keyword to successfully opt-out. We will not remove phone numbers from your Switchboard account until someone opts-out via text. If a donor in the future decides to not provide their number on an ActBlue form that is not an explicit opt-out.

What is an "unknown" status?

An unknown status could mean any of three things from ActBlue:

1. A donor not logged-in and/or not using Express Lane did not provide their phone number when they first donated, then later provided their number.

2. A donor not logged-in and/or not using Express Lane provided their phone number on first donation, and later did not provide their phone number on the following donation forms.

3. This donation may be older than the ActBlue status, and therefore has a default status of "Unknown"

How do I set this up?

When you are onboarding your short code program to Switchboard, a member of the Switchboard team will ask you how you want your ActBlue data set up in your new account.