Fixing multiple instances of an email address

Amber Snyder · April 2021

We have a lot of records in our system that have the same email address on multiple records (in most cases a spouse or child). LO will not let me remove the email address from the record (email is a required field).

I tried removing the email from Luminate CRM hoping that the sync would update the information, but it did not.

Any suggestions?

Amanda Lee 2 · April 2021

We have multiple "duplicate" accounts as well - 5,000 plus. I was under the impression Luminate was not supposed to allow duplicate records with the same email address so I asked our Renewal Exec. to look into it before we renew our contract. I haven't heard back from him yet on this issue, but if I do, I will post here.

Heather MacKenzie · April 2021

Following because I have the same issue and would like to clean it up if possible before an event later this year.

Robert Pegg 2 · April 2021

There is a setting to force unique emails in the system... however many do not have it turned on because they want to accept many "secondary" registrations under one email address. Requiring a unique email can be a hinderance to a potential registrant or donor. However, without it you need strong processes to constantly go in and merge accounts and delete unnecessary ones. This can be an arduous process. You could likely provide a list of ids to BB and see if they would remove some for you.

You could also take a look at the Duplication Management tools built into LO (under Data Management tab).

When doing mailing, we often take the mailing list (with constituent id) out of the system and do an external "de-duping process" that then pulls the earliest created constituent (lowest id) as the "owner" of the email address. We eliminate the others and then create a group back in LO once we have the ids identified. In this way we avoid multiple emails. The downside, you need to do this every time you want to send an email.

Patti Posey · April 2021

Hi Amber,

I had this same issue. First we had BB check to make sure that the option to not allow duplicate emails when someone is registering was turned on.

There are two ways you can remove the duplicates. I've done both. The one below takes longer but I like this way. The other is creating a query of duplicates, then creating a mail merge to include name, email, constituent ID, member ID, exchange ID. Export the file to excel, remove the duplicate emails and import the records that you remove the email from back in to Luminate and the emails will be removed. Hope one of these helps.

You can create a new Task.

1. Go to Task and create a new Task

2. Select Duplicate Finder

3. Under Criteria, select same email

4. Run Task

5. Once complete click on To Do List and you will see the task you just created. Open it an you will see a list of all the duplicates. From there you just click on the the maginifying glass under action and it will show you all the dups. You can then open each record and delete the email save the record and mark not a duplicate.

Amber Snyder · April 2021

This is great information. Thank you!

I do have a follow-up question. How are you getting around the email requirement? With this, I can now see the potential duplicates. However, when I go into the record and try to delete the email address, it will not allow it.

Amber Snyder · April 2021

Actually, I figured this out. We use LCRM, and we need to delete the email address there and the change will sync back... most of the time

Patti Posey · April 2021

Amber,

When I am working in this tool and opening the records from there, it does not require me to add an email. I don't know why! But I am able to delete the duplicate email and save it. Once you remove the email and get back to the list, dont't forget to confirm that they are not duplicate records (if they are not). Under

Duplicte Record1, click on the box with the red line through it to confirm they are not duplicate records. If they were you would select the middle box and merge them.

Allison Williams 2 · April 2021

In Database Configuration, you can turn off "email" being a required field for administrators working on the back end. I have found this very helpful, especially when I work with records associated with offline Team Raiser participants. By turning this off, you can delete emails from LO records without waiting for information to sync from RE to LO.

If you go to Setup - Database Configuration - then expand the "Email" field. Find whatever you map Email/Primary Email to, and you will see a checkbox that says "Required for Admin". Uncheck it and Save.

Allison

robert badley · April 2021

It's interesting reading through the challenges that others are having with this issue and also the creative workarounds that users have come up with to try to solve this problem. What I find most surprising is that in this age of increasing e-communications and e-marketing we have to develop these rube-goldberg type solutions and that Blackbaud has not offered any easier or more elegant solutions. This is partly why we are looking at alternatives to RE and LO at this time and while I know that every alternative will present it's own challenges this seems like a pretty basic piece of functionality that an online solution should be able to accomodate.

Lorraine Ollson · October 2021

How do you manage constituents who share the same email address? We use the LCRM sync and when an update is made to a record with or without a LO Alt lookup id, the duplicate record do not sync attribute is applied. Being an educational institution, faculty based emails are sent periodically through the year. When a records has a shared email address, it will appear in the exceptions output which are manually reviewed. The shared email address is then added to the group. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Fixing multiple instances of an email address

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