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Are EINs missing preceding "0's" in your exports?

Cause IQ workaround for a formatting error in Excel


Cause IQ customers brought to our attention that the EINs for organizations in their exports were displayed incorrectly at times. This issue arises because of the way Excel processes numbers in CSV files. To Excel, an organization's EIN is simply a number, and for standard numbers, Excel removes any preceding "0's" that are included in a cell. We have identified a workaround for our customers! To make sure the organizations you export correspond with the proper EIN, follow these steps:

  • Step 1

    Access your Cause IQ CSV export file

    Choose "Download file" from the in-site blue pop-up box, download the file from your dashboard, or access your export file from the email attachment.

  • Step 2

    Highlight the EIN column in Excel

    Click on the column header to highlight the entire EIN column. For both "Organization details" and "Personnel, with organization details" exports, the EIN column is column "A".

  • Step 3

    Custom format the EIN cells

    Select "Format" from the toolbar, then "Cells...", and choose "Custom" as your category on the left. In the "Type:" text box, type in "00-0000000" or "000000000". Use the first option if you want a dash included in the EINs of your exported organizations, or use the section option if you don't want the dash. Once you type in the appropriate option, click "ok".

Once you custom format your EIN cells, any preceding "0's" that were removed by Exel are added back to the EINs that were formatted incorrectly. Here's a summary video of how to add preceding "0's" back to your EINs: