How to Merge Duplicate Constituent Records

When the same person or organization ends up with more than one record, merging combines them into one so your history and totals stay accurate. Merging is permanent, so review carefully first.

When to merge

Merge when you find true duplicates, for example a person entered separately as a donor and a volunteer, an imported record that duplicates an existing one, or two records with different spellings of the same name.

The merge wizard. Pick the record to keep and the one to remove.

Merge duplicate constituents

1. Go to Constituents (CRM) > Constituent List and click Merge Duplicates. This opens the merge wizard.
2. Find Duplicates: use Manual Selection to pick the two records yourself, or Auto-Detect Duplicates to choose a match field (such as email) and let Argenta list likely duplicate groups.
3. In Manual Selection the two search boxes are Record to Keep (Primary) and Record to Delete (Duplicate). Each one takes a constituent name or an ID. In Auto-Detect Duplicates you choose a Primary Match Field (Constituent Name, Email or Cell Phone) and click Find Duplicates.
4. Click Next: Compare Records.
5. Compare & Resolve: review the two records side by side and choose which details the surviving record keeps.
6. Confirm & Execute: confirm the merge. The kept record absorbs the other's history, and the duplicate is removed.

The constituent list, with search, filters and bulk actions.

Before you merge

• Decide which record should survive (usually the one with more complete information or more history).
• Double-check you have the right two records; the merge cannot be undone.

When Argenta will not let you merge. Neither record can be set to view only, and a locked record can only be merged by a Master Admin. The records Argenta keeps for your Stripe and PayPal payments cannot be merged at all. You also need more than view-only access yourself, and if your own permissions are limited to a chapter, division, department or precinct, both records must sit inside it.

After the merge

• The surviving record carries the combined giving history, and its Donor Level is recalculated from that new total, so the band can move up. See What are Donor Levels in Argenta?