Just ran into this issue where we have just decided to switch to Give Butter and about 100 of my contacts failed to import because it was requiring both first and last name (many had first but not last or vice versa). This is crazy and isn't how marketing platforms or CRMs generally work. We respect the information that the contact provides us.

This may cause us not to switch to the platform. How am I supposed to do it when i can't import hundreds of contacts?

It is best practice to only ask minimum info for function, e.g. an email address to sign up for updates. This is to reduce friction (=success rate), and people provide more personal info as they gain trust.

All major email mail merges (mailchimp et al) know to simple "leave it blank" if there isn't a name in a field ... which is why in email marketing we teach folks using dynamic fields to not write "Dear {first name}" and simply write Hi {first name}!

I do believe that donations should have a first and last name required, along with required contact info such as address for receipting. But this comes when someone makes their first donation, not before!

I just realized that I cannot import contacts without a first AND last name -- even when I'm just updating records already in Givebutter.

This was super annoying because I was importing a list of contacts that unsubscribed via Mailchimp, so I could set their Email Subscription flag to false.

Some of Mailchimp's contacts didn't have full names, so I had to populate them with something to unsubscribe them.

I imagine I might also have other potential donors who, on a whim, might want to give us $10 or $20 but don't feel like giving us their full name or even their email address for a receipt. I'd still like to track them.

I'd suggest making EITHER their email, first, or last name a requirement... but not all three. And if Givebutter only has their email address, then show the username part (before the @) as if it were their name in reports and dashboards.

Yes, please!

yes please

yes please