Two donors appearing with the same phone number are either genuinely different people who happen to share a number, or they are the same person entered twice. The right action depends on which situation applies.
Decide which situation you have
Open both donor profiles and compare names, addresses, employer, and donation history. Ask:
Do the names differ significantly? A husband and wife at the same address sharing a cell number are two real people.
Are the names nearly identical (typos, middle name variations, missing suffix)? That is likely one person entered twice.
The duplicate detection system flags pairs where the same phone number appears on two records with the same last name ("same phone number and last name" rule). If the two records have different last names but share a number, the system still surfaces them under the lower-priority "same phone number" rule. Both appear on the Merge Duplicates page.
If they are genuinely different people
Do not merge them. Instead, link the two records so the shared number is visible in context.
Open either donor's profile.
Scroll to the Related Contacts section.
Search for and select the other donor.
This creates a bidirectional link between the two records. Neither record is altered or deleted.
When placing calls, the dialer will dial the number associated with the specific record you are calling, so two linked records with the same stored number will result in both calling that number. Review whether one record should have the number removed or replaced with a direct line.
If they are the same person entered twice
Merge the duplicate to consolidate donation history, notes, interactions, and list memberships onto a single record.
Go to Merge Duplicates in the main navigation.
Find the pair. You can filter by the "Same phone number and last name" or "Same phone number" rule to narrow the list.
Review both records side by side. The merge preview shows which field values will be kept.
Select which record to keep as the primary (surviving) record.
Confirm the merge.
The losing record is soft-deleted. All donations, pledges, interactions, tags, SMS history, and list memberships from the losing record are reassigned to the surviving record. The phone number is carried over if the surviving record does not already have it.
A note on future duplicate flagging
After a merge, the surviving record holds the phone number once. Future duplicate detection will not re-flag it unless another record with the same number and last name appears in your database.
If two distinct people legitimately share a number long-term (a shared campaign phone, a spouse's line), neither will be flagged as a duplicate of the other after you link them, but both records will remain separately dialable.