Deleting a supporter record is possible through a Supporter Merge process. While a Supporter Merge process is most often used to manage duplicate supporter records, it can also be used to generally delete supporters from the platform.
🤔 Why can't supporters just be deleted?
A supporter can not be deleted in the same way that other records can be deleted because a supporter record is a core record in Funraise — A supporter is linked to almost every other record type (Transactions, Interactions, Subscriptions, Fundraising Pages, etc.). Deleting a supporter record requires complex decisions about how each of these related items should be handled. That's why a Supporter Merge process is required.
If you need to delete a supporter from the platform, and that supporter is not a normal duplicate situation, we recommend the following process:
Create a supporter called
Archive.Merge supporter records into this Archive supporter.
This approach will leave you with a single supporter record (labeled Archive) that will now be linked to all the various other records (Transactions, Interactions, etc.) that were previously linked to the "deleted" supporters.
Good to know
We don't recommend removing real supporters
We do not recommend deleting real, non-duplicate, supporters from the platform. Supporters are your most important asset as a nonprofit. Removing supporters will mean you can no longer use Funraise to email, text message, wealth scan or report on their activity. Removing data also decreases your ability to analyze your organization's fundraising history — making it harder to reveal insights in the future.