How to Use the Donor Profile Merge Utility

The Donor Profile Merge utility, when used consistently, will help you eliminate data errors (e.g., donations attributed to the wrong record) and keep all your donor records synced and up-to-date (e.g., avoiding duplicate donor records for the same person).

ProTip! If you have not already done so, you must set up a general alert so that you (and others on your development team) may be alerted whenever BigSIS detects that a donation has been made by a person, with an existing record in the system, who may have accidentally created a new donor and person record for themselves when they made their donation. To set up this alert, go to System > Settings > Alerts (if you do not have access to this tool, you may need to contact the super admin at your school). Add a new alert and select "Donation with Matching Donor Profile Submitted" in the Alert On field. Complete the rest of the alert settings. If you have already completed these steps, proceed to the next step to continue with the Donor Profile Merge utility.

Using the Donor Profile Merge Utility

1. Go to Donations > Other Tools > Donor Profile Merge Utility
2. Important: You are using the donor profile merge utility, the following is a list of helpful instructions and tips:
   • Matches
     • Each individual row lists a possible match between two donor profiles (the left profile and the right profile).
     • The Matched On column lists the item found in both profiles that BigSIS used to identify the possible duplicate.
   • Type of Merge (the type of merge used is determined by the number of members in each profile)
     • Simple: One (or both) of the profiles contain only a single member.
       • How does BigSIS merge them? This kind of merge will attempt to merge two things: (A) Person Records and (B) Donor Profiles. You select a donor from one profile that matches a donor from the other profile, if any. The 'match' you select will be merged into (A) a single Person Record and (B) that person record will then be added to the merged Donor Profile. If there is no match or you select 'None' then no person records will be merged, instead, all donors will simply be added to a single donor profile.
     • Complex: Both profiles contain multiple members in each profile.
       • How does BigSIS merge them? All members are moved into a single merged profile. If any members in the new merged profile are duplicated, you must manually go merge them from the people table.
   • Other tips
     • The utility can display a maximum of 50 possible matches at a time. To view more, you must first resolve some of those currently displayed by marking them as duplicates or non-duplicates.
     • If you are looking for a specific record, use the search field to find possible matches for that record.