Documentation sections
How Syncs Work
A sync directly links one monday.com board to a single Mailchimp audience. Each item on your board represents one contact in your audience. When an item changes on monday.com, the sync updates the contact in Mailchimp—and vice versa.
Changes reach your board regardless of where they happen in Mailchimp, including sign-up forms, the Mailchimp mobile app, or connected third-party tools.
How matching works
Items and contacts are matched using their email address. The first time either one is updated, the app looks for the corresponding record with the same email address and links them. Once linked, they stay connected even if the email address is changed later.
To prevent infinite loops, the sync only writes data when a value is genuinely different.
What the sync does
When changes happen on the board
| On the board | In Mailchimp |
|---|---|
| A new item is created | The contact is added to the audience |
| A mapped column changes, or the item is renamed | The contact's profile is updated |
| The email address changes | The contact's email address changes |
| An item is archived or deleted | Nothing. The contact remains in the audience to prevent accidental data loss. |
When changes happen in Mailchimp
| In Mailchimp | On the board |
|---|---|
| Someone subscribes | A new item is created |
| A contact's profile is updated | The corresponding item is updated |
| A contact unsubscribes or is cleaned | The item's status column is updated (if mapped) |
| A contact changes their email address | The address is updated on the item |
Syncing existing data & batch imports
Creating a sync does not automatically copy your entire database over. Furthermore, bulk actions are handled differently than manual updates:
- Batch imports do not trigger the sync: If you bulk import contacts into Mailchimp (e.g., via CSV upload), Mailchimp does not send notifications to connected apps. These contacts will not automatically appear on your monday.com board. They will only sync the next time their individual profile is updated.
- Existing board items are pushed to Mailchimp the next time they are modified (or linked to an existing contact with a matching email address).
- Existing Mailchimp contacts are linked to a board item with a matching email address the next time either is modified. A contact without a matching item will only generate a new board item if they re-subscribe.
How specific values are handled
- Contact status is read-only: The board displays whether a contact is subscribed, unsubscribed, or cleaned. Changing this on the board has no effect, as Mailchimp prevents third-party apps from re-subscribing contacts.
- Phone numbers: Stored in international format on both sides (e.g.,
+49 176 39887766). Numbers entered without a country code are synced exactly as typed. - Birthdays: Mailchimp stores birthdays as Month/Day without a year. The sync pulls the year from your board and will never invent one. Therefore, a new birthday from Mailchimp is only written to a board item that already contains a year. Always map birthdays to a Date-only column. Adding a time can shift the date based on time zones, and the sync will reject it.
- Tags: Because tags are separated by commas in the backend, a tag containing a comma in its name cannot be synced.
- Location: Cannot be cleared. Mailchimp defaults empty locations to
0, 0, meaning a blank location cannot be synced back.
Error handling: When Mailchimp rejects a change
If Mailchimp rejects an update (e.g., due to an invalid email address or incompatible value), the board owners will receive a notification directly on the item explaining the error. The rest of the sync will continue running normally.