To Merge RE Databases or Not to Merge?

I would merge them. However BEFORE doing the merge, I would update your constituent ID's (if possible) to have them indicate the "source". Once you merge them, then all new constituent ID's would have just numbers. I like the constituent ID use because it's "front and center" and not "hidden" in attributes (we have a ton of attributes)

So for example

Database1 - constituent ID = DB01-1001, DB1-1002, etc

Database2 - constituent ID = DB02-1001, DB2-1002,  etc.

After merge - constituent ID = 2020-1001, 2020-1002, etc. 

You can set up all the new cons id's to be automatically generated with a year prefix in business rules.

Our org merged with another one effective January 1, 2020.  One of the first things that we did was merge the two donor databases (although one was not RE).  While we are still cleaning up data (the two orgs tracked donors, gifts, etc very differently), it was the best thing we could have done.  It has allowed us to communicate better with donors and understand which donors/corporations/funders supported both orgs.  I highly recommend the idea of tracking which record came from which database on both constituents and gifts.  For gift records, we added attributes that show which org received the gift.  On constituent records, we added a constituent code to all of the records in the RE database identifying the original org and added a different one to all of the records that came into RE.  This way, as we merged records, fundraisers are able to easily tell which donor/funder supported which org of if they supported both orgs without sifting through attributes.  In addition, we added attributes that tied back to the original database including the ID# they had in the old database.  We are hoping to run reports at 1 year, 3 years and 5 years post-merger on donor retention.


I highly suggest that you begin thinking of how the new org will operate post-merger and develop your database processes and reports to fit.  In our case, it was not just a case of deciding whose processes to keep but how should it be done in the new org.  We went from being two mid-size orgs to one very large organization.  Things like changes in the GL coding (we link directly to FE) all played a part in how gifts and donors are tracked.  It is a great time to start fresh with a new look at how the database is put together.  Almost a year in, and we are still evolving our processes and data management.