When a contact passes away, you should be mindful and ensure you do not continue to send communications (especially solicitations) to them.
The article below outlines several steps you can take to update their contact record and remove them from all mailing lists.
Step 1: Remove them from all e-mail lists
From the contact's record, click the 'Edit' button in the upper right corner of the page.
This will bring you to the page where you can edit the contact record. Scroll down to the section labeled 'What is this contact's information?'.
Inactivate the contact's 'Primary Email' by using the toggle to switch off that function.
Scroll down, and click the 'Update & Save' button to apply this change.
Step 2: Remove them from all direct mailing lists
You may also want to remove the contact's mailing address so direct mailings cannot be sent to them by accident. You can do this by clearing out the information in the associated fields.
Scroll down, and click the 'Update & Save' button to apply this change.
Tip: If, for whatever reason, you want to keep the contact's mailing address on file, you can add it as a 'Note' on the contact record.
Step 3: Update their status in the system
Use the toggle to switch on the 'Deceased' indicator on the contact's profile.
Step 4: Use filters, custom fields, or groups
Updating contact records also makes it easier to run a filter later on and exclude them from receiving communications.
For example: You can update a deceased contact’s first name to 'Deceased' and enter their full name in the 'Last Name' field.
You can also create a custom field to indicate if a contact record is deceased.
Removing a 'Deceased' contact's record completely
You can delete a deceased contact's record entirely. However, we strongly discourage this.
Deleting a contact record requires deleting all other information attached to the record. This includes deleting their donation records, communication records, pledges, etc. before you can delete the contact record. Additionally, removing donation history can impact the overall integrity of your data within 'Donor Management' and affect other aspects of your reporting.
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