Contact Auto Merge

Overview

Kindful has the capability to automatically detect and present to you potential contact duplicate pairs. In some cases, outlined in this article, we can automatically merge contact records. Read on for further insight into this tool.

To enable this feature on your Kindful account, please contact Kindful Support. 

Linked articles:

- Contact Duplicates FAQ

- Using the Contact Duplicates Tool

- Merge Contact Duplicates

Auto Merge Rules

When a donor give to your organization, Kindful first attempts to automatically merge them with an already existing record with a confirmed donor account. If no match is found with the new donation to a previously confirmed donor account, we will then look to your Contact Auto Merge Strategy (outlined below). If the record fails to meet the Contact Auto Merge Strategy requirements, Kindful will identify the records as potential duplicates, which are still available via the Contact Duplicate Tool.

Contact Auto Merge is found by navigating to Settings > Contact Settings > Auto Merge Rules.  Please contact our Support Team (link at the bottom of this article) if you do not see this feature on your account.

By default, Auto Merge will be OFF. You must first turn it to ON and then select your Strategy.

The first auto merge will run within approximately 24 hours, and then once every 24 hours until or unless it is disabled.

There are two approaches to how you can setup your Auto Merge function. Merge Strategy 1 is the safer of the two; however, it is not as effective as Merge Strategy 2. Read on below to learn more about each approach.

Merge Strategy 1

The following rules are applied for contacts to be Automatically Merged when using Strategy 1:

Contacts must be of the same contact type. For example, you must have two Person-Type records or two Organization-Type records to be able to merge. You cannot merge a Person with an Organization.

For Person-Type Contacts

• The First Name field cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• The Last Name field cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• Middle Name can be blank, but if it is filled in, the Middle Name must be present on both records and it must match exactly on both records

For Organization-Type Contacts

• Organization Name cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records

For All Contact Types

• Email cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• Country cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• State cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• City cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• Address Line 1 cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records

Merge Strategy 2 

The following rules are applied for contacts to be Automatically Merged when using Strategy 2. This strategy is a bit more lenient in how it works, so we recommend using it with caution. Note in this Strategy the three bullet points "For All Contact Types" which make this approach more lenient.

Contacts must be of the same contact type. For example, you must have two Person-Type records or two Organization-Type records to be able to merge. You cannot merge a Person with an Organization.

For Person-Type Contacts

• The First Name field cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• The Last Name field cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• Middle Name can be blank, but if it is filled in, the Middle Name must be present on both records and it must match exactly on both records

For Organization-Type Contacts

• Organization Name cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records

 For All Contact Types

• Email cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• Country cannot be blank and must match exactly on both records
• State can be blank, but if is on the contact profile, it must match exactly on both records
• City can be blank, but if is on the contact profile, it must match exactly on both records
• Address Line 1 can be blank, but if is on the contact profile, it must match exactly on both records

A status will be present showing the most recent Auto Merge that was completed regardless of whether or not Auto Merge is ON or OFF.

Automatic Merges With Online Donations

When donors give online via one of the following Kindful fundraising solutions, we can automatically merge their records:

• Main Donation Page
• Campaign Donation Page
• Crowdfunding Team Member Page
• Crowdfunding Page
• Donation Plugin
• Events Ticket Registration and Purchase

If a donor matches with an already existing record in Kindful in both of the ways below, we will automatically merge the two records.

1. The contacts share exactly the same Email Address stored on the Email field on a contact profile
2. If both are a Person-Type record, they share exactly the same First Name and Last Name; OR, if both are an Organization-Type record, they share exactly the same Organization Name 

Of Note: For these automatic merges to happen, the existing contact in Kindful prior to the online donation must have a confirmed donor account. Additionally, capitalization does not matter in names, e.g. SMITH = Smith = smith.