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Renee Smith
Renee Smith
Explorer
Mar 16, 2026 8:11 PM UTC
Solved

Import Creating Dupe Accounts

We import workplace gifts monthly. Unfortunately these imports always create duplicate accounts . Anyone have this issue and have a solución? Thanks

      Charles Case
      Charles CaseAnswer
      Community Manager
      Mar 16, 2026 8:19 PM UTC

      Hi! Great questions. When doing an import that features existing contacts (or if someone is mentioned in your spreadsheet more than once), you need a unique identifier to recognize that it is that specific person. An easy unique identifier is an email address. So if someone is in my spreadsheets with 10 donations, their email address is listed with each donation. You can also use Mobile Phone or Mailing Address. If you don’t have any communication options to provide, there are two other options:

       

      1. If you are important NEW contacts, you can create an External ID column. Then assign everyone a unique ID of your choice (e.g. Javier Bardem is 123, Penelope Cruz is 124).
      2. If you are adding information to EXISTING contacts, you can run an export from your software and grab the Id field. This is an internal ID that is only accessible when doing an export. You can use that Internal ID to ensure existing contacts are getting new information and not having duplicate contacts created.
      Charles Case (they/he)
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      4 replies

      Kathleen Caccavale
      Kathleen Caccavale
      Mar 16, 2026 8:12 PM UTC

      Would love to know the solution you mentioned Liz.

       

        Charles Case
        Charles CaseAnswer
        Community Manager
        Mar 16, 2026 8:19 PM UTC

        Hi! Great questions. When doing an import that features existing contacts (or if someone is mentioned in your spreadsheet more than once), you need a unique identifier to recognize that it is that specific person. An easy unique identifier is an email address. So if someone is in my spreadsheets with 10 donations, their email address is listed with each donation. You can also use Mobile Phone or Mailing Address. If you don’t have any communication options to provide, there are two other options:

         

        1. If you are important NEW contacts, you can create an External ID column. Then assign everyone a unique ID of your choice (e.g. Javier Bardem is 123, Penelope Cruz is 124).
        2. If you are adding information to EXISTING contacts, you can run an export from your software and grab the Id field. This is an internal ID that is only accessible when doing an export. You can use that Internal ID to ensure existing contacts are getting new information and not having duplicate contacts created.
        Charles Case (they/he)
          Liz Ragland
          Liz Ragland
          Mar 16, 2026 8:37 PM UTC

          The thing to remember here with imports is that you need a unique, one of a kind piece of data to properly identify the donor when doing an import. Kind of like when you call your insurance company they ask for your mobile number or something to identify you because mobile numbers are unique but names are not. 

          Name is not a unique Identifier because you may have 5 contacts with the name ‘John Smith’ in your donor management system. 

          While people can have the same name, they cannot have the same email address, so email is a good way to make sure the Donor Management System knows which John Smith gave this donation.

          People also cannot have the same mobile number, so that’s another good ID.

          And no two contacts in the system will ever have the same Contact ID so that’s another good unique identifier. 

          You will need to format your spreadsheet something like this (although I will let ​@Charles Case chime in if I have overlooked something) 
          Column A UNIQUE IDENTIFER (email address for example) 
          Column B First Name/Full Name 
          Column C Last name (if not using Full Name) 
          Column D donation amount 
          Column E Date 
          Column F Payment Method 

          My next question is, how do you get a list of the workplace gifts? Is it supplied to you in a spreadsheet? do you have email address in that spreadsheet? or is it just name and gift amount? If this list doesn’t include mailing address, email address or phone number you will have to do some extra work to format the sheet to include a unique ID so duplicates don’t happen. 

          Liz at Bonterra
          Kali B
          Rising Star III
          Kali B
          Rising Star III
          Apr 16, 2026 1:00 PM UTC

          I would HIGHLY suggest figuring out what these people’s internal ID is. You can only find this when doing an export. If you are exporting contacts this export field is called ID, if you are exporting donations the export field is called Donor/Purchaser ID. You can also find this ID in the URL when you are on the contacts profile

          . 

          I do several imports a month. It took us a long time to find this ID. NFG suggested that we use an email as a unique identifier. Our problem was we just didn't have an email for a LOT of our contacts. Since using the Internal ID, I still get a duplicate here and there but it has drastically decreased. I really hope this helps. I can explain further if needed. This was such a huge help for our organization when we started using this method for importing. 

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