Changing a Contact's Email Address or Merging Two Contacts Together

Step-by-step guidance for updating donor email addresses and resolving duplicate contact records in Zeffy

The instructions below will guide you through the process of updating a contact’s email address and merging duplicate contact records in Zeffy. Depending on 

Some important notes

• The email address is the primary identifier in Zeffy. All donor-related transactions and receipts are tied to an email so changing it also changes the donor account (regardless if activated or not) a transaction can be accessed in.

• If a donor has already activated their Zeffy account, only the donor can update their email address. Non-profits cannot make changes in such cases.

Updating a Contact's Email Address

1. Navigate to Contacts > My Contacts in the Zeffy dashboard.
2. Search for and select the donor’s contact profile.
3. Locate the email address field within the contact details and replace it with the corrected email
4. The change should save automatically with a green success message in the bottom right of your screen. 

What if the email address is greyed out?

If the email address is greyed out and cannot be edited, that means the donor has already activated their Zeffy account and is using it. If a change is necessary, it will have to be done on their end. 

In that case, the donor can: 

1. Go to zeffy.com/login and log in using their email address and password (using the reset password feature if necessary.
2. Once in their account, they can click on "settings" > "my account" > "personal information".
3. They will be able to update their email and confirm the change.
4. The change will then be reflected in your contact list.

What if this person has an existing contact page and I'd like to merge them?

You can merge two contact records only if the donor has not activated their Zeffy account for both email addresses. If the accounts are already activated, the donor must merge their accounts by updating the email on their end.

1. Navigate to Contacts > My Contacts in the Zeffy dashboard.
2. Search for and select the contact profile for the email address you would like to remove/replace.

3. Replace the email address on the secondary contact profile with the email address of the primary profile.

4. If successful, the system will automatically combine the two profiles into a single record under the updated email address.

5. If unsuccessful, please submit a contact merge request using the form at the bottom of this page. 

What if I receive an error that this email is already taken?

1. This error indicates that the email address you’re trying to use is already in use in Zeffy.
   1. Note: This error can arise even if you don't have a contact with this email address in your own contact records but the donor has used it with a different non-profit in the past.
2. Even if the email is not visible in your contact records, it might still exist in the system. This is normal behavior.
3. If you encounter this issue, please fill out the support form at the bottom of this page for assistance.