Merging Duplicate Donors
You can merge donors within the Manage Donors screen, accessible from the sidebar menu.
Note: you need to select the 'Donor Details' view to merge duplicate donors.
How to merge donors
From the manage donors screen (donor details view only), click the 'Merge Duplicate' button as shown above.
In the popup that appears, select the two donor records to be merged. The popup makes it clear which donor record is to be kept, and which will be deleted.
You should only merge duplicate donors IF the donors selected are the same donor. It is not possible to undo this action. This is why the popup requires you to select the 'yes' radial button to go ahead and submit.
What data is merged and what data is kept?
When you merge two donors:
- ALL of the donor details of the 'Donor to be kept' are kept (including donor details, Gift Aid declarations, donor comms, donor engagement details, and donor pledges).
- ALL of the donor details of the 'Donor to be removed' are permanently removed (including donor details, Gift Aid declarations, donor comms, donor engagement details, and donor pledges).
- ALL Donations allocated to the 'Donor to be removed' are automatically reassigned to the 'Donor to be kept' (the fund, category, transaction group etc. will NOT change).
It's therefore important to ensure the donor that is being kept has the correct details (and the donor being removed doesn't have any additional details you wish to keep) before the donors are merged.
Once merged, if the donor being kept is eligible for Gift Aid, then if the donations that have been reassigned to that donor are eligible (usual rules apply) then the donations will automatically appear on the Gift Aid Claim screen.
Note: it's NOT possible to remove a donor via merging donors if the donor has donations that have had Gift Aid claimed on them (instead, you will need to deactivate the donor rather than merge the donor).
To better understand the Manage Donors module, please view the module overview here.