VAN FAQ

• Connecting VAN to Mobilize

• Events and Contacts in VAN

• Activist Codes & Event Types

• SMS, Additional Fields, etc

How do I connect Mobilize to MyCampaign/VAN/LAN/VoteBuilder?

1. Generate a VAN key for Mobilize in your organization's VAN committee -- make sure you specify the key to not expire, if possible.

2. If the VAN settings tab does not appear in your dashboard, request for it to be enabled by Mobilize Support or your Success Manager.

3. Paste the VAN API key into the textbox, and click Connect VAN account.

   

4. Configure the settings for event types to sync to VAN.

I’ve already got events & signups in Mobilize, how do I sync past events to VAN?

Events and signups that predate your VAN x Mobilize installation can be backfill synced. Contact Mobilize Support or your organization's Customer Success Manager.

Is the VAN sync manual? Do I have to click something for data to move to VAN? Do I have to create the event in VAN manually?

Once a Mobilize dashboard has been connected to a VAN committee, the sync is automatic. However, if there are missing events or signups in VAN, Mobilize Support can troubleshoot and manually sync for you.

Why isn’t my event syncing to VAN?

1. Check that the integration is enabled

2. Check that your event types are mapped

3. Check the event type’s location requirements (How can VAN location requirements be enabled or disabled?)

   1. Location requirements must be enabled or disabled for each event type. To check this, you must be logged into your VAN committee.

   2. Click into MyCampaign

   3. Click into Event Types (the search bar on the left console should bring it up for you)

   4. Select the Event Type you'd like to edit

   5. Click into the Locations tab

   6. Check or uncheck Require events to have at least one location

   7. Click Finish

4. Did you delete the event, or move the timeslot?

Can I connect my VAN events to Mobilize Events?

No, you will need to create the Mobilize event first and it will be automatically created in VAN. If you're missing any events or signups, please contact Mobilize Support.

Why isn’t my petition/pledge/interest form syncing to VAN?

New petitions, pledges, and interest forms will now be created with a single shift time spanning from the time of the action's creation to the action's specified end date. This will make it easier to see and search all signups at once. Previously, signups for these long-running "anytime" actions were shown as daily 24-hour timeslots.

As part of this change, petitions, pledges, and interest forms will also no longer sync an Event to VAN for each day the action lasts. Instead, you can configure an Activist Code to be applied for any supporter who signs up for one of these actions in the action's Custom VAN Settings. More about the VAN Integration

If your petition, pledge, or interest form was created prior to June 2021, please create a new one.

Why am I seeing duplicate contacts?

Check with your VAN administrator.

Why is my Activist Code not showing up in Mobilize?

Activist Codes in the VAN committee connected to the Mobilize dashboard should be configured in the following way:

Scope: Public

☑️ Can Be Assigned or Removed

Status: Active

Still not showing up? Check with your VAN administrator.

How do I get more event type options when creating events?

Only event types that are mapped will appear in event creation, you can always add an additional event type to the VAN Settings page.

Why are my event type roles not showing up on Mobilize?

Event Roles must be created in the organization's VAN committee. Still not showing up? Check with your VAN administrator.

Why am I getting invalid type and invalid status errors when configuring my VAN settings tab?

Invalid Status messages may appear when the mapping fields are empty. If they persist after all fields have been mapped, please contact Mobilize Support.

Do SMS opt-ins get synced into VAN?

No. SMS opt-ins can be found in Volunteer or Shift and volunteer feedback exports located in each dashboard's Exports tab.

For dashboards with Mobilize API access, SMS opt-ins are returned with Person objects as "sms_opt_in_status". See API doc.

Do custom fields (aka Additional fields) sync to VAN?

Not currently, but you can give us direct feedback and feature requests: http://mblz.io/exfeedback

Custom field responses can be found in Exports ➡️ Shift and volunteer feedback export.