The system administrator at a nonprofit wants to use Advanced Mapping for regular data imports...

Advanced Mapping in the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) is a powerful tool that allows admins to customize how data from the NPSP Data Import staging object is pushed into target records. However, it operates within a specific architectural framework.

Key Architectural Considerations:

Object Relationships: Advanced Mapping is designed to handle the core "Nonprofit Triangle" of data: Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities. For any additional or custom object to be eligible as a target in Advanced Mapping, it must have a direct lookup or master-detail relationship to one of these three primary objects. This is because the NPSP Data Importer logic relies on these "anchor" records to establish context and maintain data integrity.

Mapping Groups: The tool organizes mappings into Object Groups. When you create a new group for a custom object (e.g., "Volunteer Hours"), the system validates that the custom object is related to a Contact or Account so it knows which record to link the new data to.

Field Type Support: Contrary to Option A and C, Advanced Mapping supports a wide variety of field types, including Checkboxes, Picklists, and Lookups. The restriction isn't on the field type, but on the object's position in the data hierarchy.

Custom Object Support: While the question asks about "NPSP objects" (Option D), Advanced Mapping can map to custom objects created by the organization, provided they follow the relationship rules mentioned above.

Understanding these relationship requirements is essential for a consultant during the data migration or integration design phase. It ensures that the staging file can successfully populate multiple related records in a single execution without custom Apex code.