Deduplication

Why it matters

Duplicates creep in from online forms, event sign-ups, imports and typos. They cost real money: two thank-yous to one person, a lifetime total split in half so a major donor looks small, and retention numbers that count one returning donor as one lapsed and one new.

Check for duplicates after every import and on a regular schedule. Match first on email, then look at similar names by hand, and when you merge, keep every gift and carry over any do-not-contact flag.

How Steward shows it

"Merge duplicates" in the Donors menu finds people with the same email or a similar name and shows them side by side. You choose which profile to keep. Gifts, conversations and tasks move across, blank fields fill in from the other profile, and a do-not-contact or deceased flag is always kept.

When you import a file, people already on file are matched rather than added twice, and each match has an Undo.

Related terms

• Household Household means a group of donors who live together, such as a married couple, linked in your donor system so they can be thanked, counted and asked together rather than as strangers.
• NCOA NCOA (National Change of Address) is the US Postal Service's database of people and businesses who have filed a change of address. Running your mailing list through it updates addresses for donors who have moved.
• Soft credit A soft credit recognizes a person who influenced or arranged a gift that someone else legally made, such as a spouse, a peer-to-peer fundraiser, or the donor who recommended a donor-advised fund grant.