Why this happens
If you’re preparing a file for bulk upload, for example adding a label to multiple Facebook fundraisers in one go, you might notice that Facebook fundraiser campaign IDs appear to change after exporting a file from GivePanel.
This is usually down to how Excel handles long numeric values in CSV files.
When a CSV is opened or edited in Excel, Excel tries to interpret long values as numbers.
Because Excel only supports up to 15 digits of precision, longer values such as Facebook fundraiser campaign IDs can sometimes be altered or truncated.
This happens during the file editing stage in Excel, before the file is uploaded back into GivePanel.
To avoid this, we recommend using one of the options below when preparing your file.
Option 1 (recommended): Extract the Facebook campaign ID from the fundraiser URL
Facebook fundraiser campaign IDs are very long numeric values, which makes them particularly prone to being changed by Excel.
Facebook also includes the campaign ID within the Facebook fundraiser URL itself. Because URLs are treated as text, this avoids Excel reformatting or truncating the ID.
If you’re preparing a file for bulk upload in GivePanel, you can include the Facebook fundraiser URL in your export and extract the campaign ID from the URL using a formula.
Why this works
URLs are treated as text by Excel
The campaign ID is preserved in full
This avoids Excel’s number length limitations entirely
Recommended Excel formula
If your Facebook fundraiser URL is in cell B2, use the following formula:
=RIGHT(B2,LEN(B2)-FIND("@",SUBSTITUTE(B2,"/","@",LEN(B2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(B2,"/","")))))
This formula:
Finds the final
/in the URLExtracts everything after it
Returns the Facebook fundraiser campaign ID only
Once extracted, export the file as a CSV and proceed with your bulk upload as normal.
Option 2: Import the CSV into Excel as text (Get External Data)
You can instead import the CSV into Excel in a way that prevents Excel from reformatting the campaign ID column.
Rather than opening the CSV file directly, use Excel’s import functionality and force the campaign ID column to be treated as text.
Steps
Open Excel and create a new blank workbook
Go to Data → Get Data → From Text/CSV
Select your exported CSV file
In the import preview, locate the campaign ID column
Change the column data type to Text
Complete the import and make your edits
Save the file as a CSV and upload it back into GivePanel
This ensures Excel does not attempt to reinterpret or truncate the campaign ID values.