Raise More combines two contacts into one in a couple of different situations. One happens automatically as data comes in. The other only happens when you or a teammate reviews a pair and clicks to merge. This article explains the difference so you can figure out why a pair of your contacts became a single record.
The short answer
Automatic combining as data comes in. When you import a spreadsheet, or when new records arrive from an integration like ActBlue, Raise More checks the incoming record against contacts you already have. If it is confident the incoming record is the same person, it adds the new information to the existing contact instead of creating a second one. This is the only time contacts are joined without anyone clicking anything.
Manual merging that you or a teammate did. Everything else goes through the Merge Duplicates page, where a person reviews each suggested pair and chooses to merge them. The overnight duplicate-detection process does not merge anything on its own. It only builds a review list.
If two of your contacts became one and nobody on your team merged them, it almost certainly happened during an import or when an integration brought in a new record.
Automatic combining at import or from integrations
When records come in through an import or an integration, Raise More tries to avoid creating a duplicate of a contact you already have. It looks for a match using, in order of preference:
An ID from another system, such as a CallTime, Numero, NGP VAN, or ActBlue line-item ID, when the incoming record has one.
Email address. A match on the email address, ignoring capitalization.
Full name, in some cases with ZIP code. The first and last name are normalized (lowercased, with spaces and punctuation removed) and compared.
Phone number plus name. The phone number is normalized (spaces, dashes, and formatting removed) and matched together with the name.
When the incoming record matches an existing contact on one of these, the new details are attached to the existing contact rather than creating a separate one. From your side it can look like two contacts "merged," when really the second one was never created as a separate record.
This is intentional. It keeps your database clean as data flows in. The matching is exact or close to exact. A different spelling or a different phone number will usually create a separate contact, which is what the review page below is for.
Overnight duplicate detection (review only, never automatic)
Once a day, Raise More runs a background process that looks across your existing contacts for pairs that might be the same person but are not certain enough to combine on their own. It checks for:
The same email address
The same phone number and last name
The same full name and state
The same phone number
The same full name
Any pairs it finds are placed on the Merge Duplicates page for you to review. This process never merges contacts by itself. As the page itself says: "Uncertain contact duplicates aren't auto-merged, but placed here instead for your review."
So if a pair showed up as a suggestion but was never actually combined, that is this process working as designed. A pair only becomes one contact after someone reviews it and clicks to merge.
Manual merging on the Merge Duplicates page
To see and act on suggested duplicates:
Open the Merge Duplicates page from the left navigation.
Make sure the toggle at the top right is set to Potential. The other option is Resolved.
Each row is a suggested pair. You can narrow the list with the "Only display matches attributed to:" filter or search by name.
Click a pair to open the Merge Contacts window. You will see both contacts side by side and can choose which value to keep for each field.
Your options in that window are:
Merge + Next to combine the two contacts and move to the next pair. You will first be asked to confirm, because this is permanent and cannot be undone.
Skip to leave the pair alone for now.
Mark As Not Duplicates to tell Raise More these are two different people, so the pair stops being suggested.
Mark As Not Duplicates + Add As Related Contacts to do the same and also link the two as related contacts.
For each field, the window shows whether your choice will replace the other value or whether both values will be kept and combined.
What happens when contacts are merged
When two contacts are combined, the surviving contact keeps the field values you selected. For an import-time combine, the existing values are kept and any new values that were missing are filled in. Records attached to the other contact are moved onto the survivor, including donations, pledges, tags, notes and interactions, call and text history, email addresses and phone numbers, addresses, custom fields, list memberships, and related contacts. The second contact record is then deleted.
Merging is permanent. There is no undo. If you believe two contacts were combined that should not have been, contact support so they can help you sort out the records.
How to tell what happened
A whole batch of contacts was combined right after an import or after connecting an integration: that is automatic combining as data comes in.
One pair, or a handful, were combined and your team had the Merge Duplicates page open: that was a manual merge.
A pair only shows up as a suggestion and was never actually combined: that is the overnight detection process, which is review only.
If a merge was a mistake
Because merges cannot be reversed in the app, reach out to support if two contacts were combined that should have stayed separate. To stop a specific suggested pair from coming back, open it on the Merge Duplicates page and choose Mark As Not Duplicates.
If your account is a sub-account of a parent organization, the Merge Duplicates page will tell you that you do not currently have the ability to review and merge duplicates. In that case, ask your organization administrator for help.