Custom Fields

A Custom Field in Levitate is a personalized data field that you can create to store specific information about your contacts that goes beyond the standard contact fields. These custom fields can then be used as merge fields in your communications.

Note: To create a custom field, first consult your Success Specialist or the Levitate Support team. They will need to add the field itself (the category) so that you can then use that category as a column on a spreadsheet upload.

Once the custom fields have been added by Success or Support, you're able to import a spreadsheet to add the data or add the data manually through each contact's profile on Levitate. To edit a value on a contact, open their profile, hover over the Custom Fields section, and click the pencil icon. Until at least one custom field has been added to your account, custom fields don't appear anywhere in Levitate.

For spreadsheets, the column header will simply be the Custom Field name— the row for each contact under that column will be the Custom Field you want to identify specifically with that contact.

You'll see Custom Fields appear on the contact's profile once uploaded.

Once the Custom Field, and the value for the Custom Field, have been added, they can be used as a merge field when sending to these clients.

For some more clarity, here, the Custom Field = Favorite Color and the Value will be the contact's actual favorite color.

Here's what it looks like on a contact profile:

To add a custom field to an email, open Merge Fields in the email editor and choose Contact. Your custom fields are listed under Custom Fields:

Custom fields are also available as merge fields in texts and newsletters. In texting, open Merge Fields → Contact; your custom fields are listed below Misc. In the newsletter editor, they're in the Contact group.

FAQs

Q: How many custom fields can I add?

A: You can add up to twenty-five custom fields.

Q: When I do a contact export, will custom fields pull to the spreadsheet?

A: Yes! Custom Fields associated with each contact will show on the spreadsheet that is created when contacts are exported from Levitate.

Q: Can I search by Custom Fields in Levitate?

A: You can filter contacts by a custom field's exact value. In the advanced filters (for example, on the People page or when choosing email or text recipients), open the Custom Fields section, pick the field, and enter the value. Matching is exact and not case-sensitive. Partial matches and keyword search across custom fields aren't supported. Some field types, such as file uploads, notes, addresses and names, can't be filtered, and neither can hidden fields. If none of your custom fields can be filtered, the Custom Fields section doesn't appear in the filters.

Q: Can I add a donation amount field to contacts without connecting a donor management platform?

A: Yes. You can store a donation amount on a contact by creating a custom field (your Success Specialist or Support team adds the field category) and then uploading a spreadsheet with that field as a column. Each contact row holds the value you want to record — for example, a dollar amount or a gift date. The value appears on the contact profile and can be used as a merge field in your communications.

If you need full donation tracking — amounts, dates, multiple gifts per contact, and rollup reporting — use the Donations Board instead, found on the Data Boards page. It's Levitate's dedicated donation-tracking tool and provides reporting features that a custom field alone cannot replicate. The Donations Board must be enabled for your account, so contact your Success Specialist if you don't see it. A custom field is best for simple, single-value storage; the Donations Board is best when you want to manage and report on donation history. See Donation Boards for details.