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How to Fix a Supporter Created as the Wrong Type

Sometimes a supporter gets created as the wrong type: an organization entered as an Individual, or a person entered as a Company. The Supporter type field is locked once a record exists, so you can’t correct it from the edit screen. The fix is to merge the record into a new supporter of the correct type.

Why merge instead of moving payments

You could create a new supporter and change the Supporter on each payment one at a time, but that has two drawbacks:
  • It only moves one payment at a time, which is slow for a long giving history.
  • It does not work for recurring plans. A recurring plan’s supporter can’t be changed, so a supporter with active plans can’t be emptied out this way.
Merging moves everything in one step, including recurring plans.

Steps

  1. Create a new supporter of the correct type (Company or Individual) with the correct name and contact details.
  2. Open the old, wrong-type supporter. In the Actions menu choose Merge supporter. (You can also open Merge Records from Settings and choose Supporters as the record type.)
  3. Set the Merge Record to the old, wrong-type supporter. This is the one that will be removed.
  4. Set the Master Record to the new supporter of the correct type. This is the one you keep.
  5. On the Select Information step, leave the choices on the master record’s values (Keep all master values), so the new record keeps its correct type and name. Pick a value from the old record only for a field you specifically want to carry over, such as an email address or a phone number.
  6. Review the summary and confirm the merge.
You need the permission to merge supporters to see these options. If you don’t see them, ask an organization administrator.

What carries over

Merging a company and an individual works the same as merging two records of the same type. Everything attached to the old record moves to the master, including one-time and recurring giving, soft credits, pledges, tags, notes, event registrations, logins, and any connected CRM identifiers. See How to Merge Duplicate Records in WeGive for the full list.

After the merge

  • Open the master record and check that the name fields read the way you want, particularly if you chose values from the old record.
  • Merging cannot be undone, so confirm you have the Merge and Master records the right way round before you confirm.
  • If you use a connected CRM, merge there first where possible. Merges started in WeGive don’t sync up to your CRM. The merge article above explains how.

Need help?

If the supporter has a lot of history, or you aren’t sure which record should be the master, contact WeGive Customer Success and we can review the two records with you before you merge.
Last modified on November 13, 2026