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Mailchimp

Pipe new B1 people, givers, or group members into a Mailchimp audience so the next welcome series, year-end appeal, or volunteer newsletter pulls from a list that's always up to date. The wiring lives entirely in Zapier (or Make) — B1 fires the event, Mailchimp ingests the subscriber.

Before You Begin

  • A Mailchimp account with at least one audience you want B1 people pushed into
  • A Zapier account (the free tier covers small churches)
  • A B1Admin user with Edit Settings permission so you can mint an API key

What You Can Wire Up​

DirectionB1 triggerMailchimp action
B1 → Mailchimpperson.createdAdd/Update Subscriber
B1 → Mailchimpdonation.createdAdd Subscriber to Tag (e.g. "Gave in 2026")
B1 → Mailchimpgroup.member.addedAdd Subscriber to Tag scoped to that group
Mailchimp → B1New SubscriberB1 Create Person

The Mailchimp side exposes lots more (campaigns, segments, automations) — see Mailchimp's Zapier triggers for the full list. Anything mappable from the B1 envelope is fair game.

Setup​

1. Mint a B1 API key​

In B1Admin go to Settings → Developer → API Keys → New API Key. Give it the scopes the Zap needs:

  • settings:write — required for the trigger to register its webhook
  • people:read — so the Zap can read first/last name, email, etc.
  • (Optional) people:write if you also plan a Mailchimp → B1 direction

Save and copy the cak_… string — it's only shown once.

2. Build the Zap​

  1. Trigger: B1.church — New Person. On first use Zapier asks you to Sign in to B1.church; paste the API key.
  2. Action: Mailchimp — Add/Update Subscriber. Map the trigger output:
    • data.contactInfo.email → Email Address
    • data.name.first → First Name
    • data.name.last → Last Name
    • (Optional) data.id → a Mailchimp merge field if you want to keep B1's person id alongside.
  3. Turn the Zap on. Zapier registers a person.created webhook on B1 — verify in Settings → Developer → Webhooks that a row named "Zapier — person.created" appears.

That's it. Add a person in B1Admin to confirm — the new subscriber shows up in Mailchimp within seconds.

Common Recipes​

Tag givers automatically​

  • Trigger — B1: New Donation
  • Action — B1: Find Person (lookup by personId) to get the email
  • Action — Mailchimp: Add Subscriber to Tag (tag Gave-2026)

Drop a group-specific welcome series​

  • Trigger — B1: New Group Member, filtered by data.groupId
  • Action — Mailchimp: Add Subscriber to Tag named after the group; trigger your existing automation off that tag

Two-way: new Mailchimp signups become B1 contacts​

  • Trigger — Mailchimp: New Subscriber
  • Action — B1: Create Person (map First/Last/Email)

Make Alternative​

Make's Mailchimp app covers 44 modules — the wiring is identical, with the B1 Watch Events trigger replacing Zapier's. See the Make overview doc for the B1 side.

Limits & Notes​

  • Mailchimp's free tier caps contacts and audiences — a Zap that floods a free audience past its limit will start erroring with 4xx Member limit reached. Mailchimp's logs make this obvious.
  • Mailchimp deduplicates by email, so re-running a Zap on the same B1 person updates them in place; it doesn't create duplicates.
  • Unsubscribes from Mailchimp don't flow back to B1. If you want Mailchimp unsubscribes to clear B1's "Send Mail" preference, build the reverse Zap explicitly.

Troubleshooting​

  • Zap never fires — check Settings → Developer → Webhooks for the Zapier — person.created row. If absent, the API key was missing settings:write when the Zap turned on. Re-mint, re-connect, toggle the Zap off and on.
  • Member exists warning on Add/Update — switch the action from Add Subscriber to Add/Update Subscriber (the verb matters). The upsert variant is idempotent.
  • First name / last name come through blank — B1's data.name.first and data.name.last are only populated if those fields are set on the person. Map data.name.display as a fallback.

See Also​