Adding and Managing Individuals

Last updated: April 10, 2026

Individuals are the core supporter records in WeGive. Each individual represents a person who has donated, registered for an event, or otherwise engaged with your organization. This article covers how to add new individuals, manage their profiles, and work with them at scale.

Adding a New Individual

From the Dashboard

To create a new individual, navigate to the Supporters section and click the option to add a new supporter. When creating an individual, you will be prompted to fill out a form with the following fields:

Required fields:

Type — Must be set to "Individual" (selected by default).
First Name — The only required profile field for individuals.

Optional fields available at creation:

Middle Name and Last Name
Gender, Birthdate, and Anniversary
Email addresses — Up to three email fields are supported, with a preferred email setting (defaults to "Personal").
Phone numbers — Mobile, Home, Office, and Other, with a preferred phone setting (defaults to "Mobile").
Mailing address and Billing address
Communication preferences — Including opt-in/opt-out settings for email, SMS, and physical mail.
Avatar — You can upload a profile image at creation. If an image is provided, it is uploaded immediately after the record is saved.
Custom fields — Any custom fields your organization has configured for donors will also appear on this form.

Once you submit the form, WeGive creates the individual record via the API and redirects you to that person's profile page.

Via CSV Import

You can also add individuals in bulk using the import tool under Data → Imports. Imports support three actions:

Create — Add new individual records.
Update — Modify existing records using a unique identifier.
Tag — Apply tags to existing supporters in bulk.

Import requirements:

File format must be CSV.
For creating individuals, First Name is the only required field (Last Name is recommended but not enforced).
Maximum of 50,000 records per import for performance reasons.
Available fields for mapping include contact info, addresses, communication preferences, integration IDs (Salesforce, Neon, etc.), and custom fields.

The import process follows four steps: select the import type, upload your CSV, map your columns to WeGive fields, and review before confirming.

Important: Turn off any triggered messages (like welcome emails or journey automations) before importing to avoid sending automated communications to newly imported supporters.

After a successful import, you can bulk-tag all imported records for easy segmentation.

The Individual Profile Page

Clicking on an individual from the Supporters table opens their full profile. The profile page displays a comprehensive view of the supporter organized into several sections.

Overview Section

The top of the profile displays key identity and giving information at a glance:

Name and avatar
Contact details — Emails, phone numbers, and preferred contact methods.
Total Lifetime Impact — Combined donated and fundraised amounts.
Donation metrics — Total given, number of donations, average donation, first and last gift dates.
Largest gift — Highest single donation amount and date.
Service revenue — Total non-tax-deductible revenue, tracked separately.
Soft credits — Total soft credit amount and count.

Active Giving Programs

The profile highlights any ongoing giving relationships:

Scheduled donations (recurring plans) — Shows up to two of the most recent plans, a monthly recurring estimate, the count of active plans, and frequency details.
Pledge plans — Shows up to two active pledges, including amount, installment details, donation count against the pledge, and the next installment date.

Notes

Notes appear in the Info tab of the profile. You can add notes directly by typing into the note field. Notes are useful for recording context like donor preferences, conversation history, or follow-up reminders.

Custom Fields

Any custom fields your organization has configured will appear on the individual's profile. Custom fields are managed separately from the main donor record — they are fetched and updated through their own dedicated API calls. Field types include text, number, date, and boolean. Custom fields can also be used as merge variables in email templates and included in data exports.

Communication Preferences

The profile includes a section for managing how the individual receives communications:

Global opt-outs — "Do Not Contact" is the strongest setting and blocks all marketing communications. You can also set channel-specific opt-outs: "Do Not Email," "Do Not SMS," and "Do Not Mail."
Communication list subscriptions — Each individual can be subscribed or unsubscribed from specific communication lists using toggle controls. If your organization has enabled contact point preferences, donors can also set a preferred email or phone number per list.
Double opt-in — Some lists may require the donor to confirm their subscription via email before they are considered subscribed.

The opt-out hierarchy works as follows: "Do Not Contact" overrides everything, channel-specific flags override individual list settings, and list-level subscriptions control the most granular level.

Household Membership

Individuals can belong to one or more households. Households let families or related groups view consolidated giving history and tax statements while keeping separate individual records. On the profile, you can see:

Which households the individual belongs to.
Their role within each household — either Admin (primary member) or Member.
Invited members who have not yet joined.

You can add an individual to a household, remove them, or designate them as the household admin. Only one member per household can hold the Admin role at a time.

Additional Profile Data

The profile also tracks:

Fundraising activity — Total fundraised, number of fundraisers, and peer-to-peer participation.
Event registrations — Count of events attended.
Portal activity — Login history, session count, and last activity date.
Referrals — Number of supporters this individual has referred.
Favorite designation — The fund they most frequently donate to.

Editing an Individual

To edit an individual, open their profile and modify the desired fields. The update process works as follows:

Basic profile fields (name, contact info, preferences) are saved via the main donor update endpoint.
Custom fields are saved separately through a dedicated custom fields endpoint.
Addresses (billing and mailing) are also updated through their own individual endpoints, and only save if the address has at least partially valid data.

Edits can also be made through inline editing where supported, or by opening an edit dialog (for example, the address edit dialog).

Searching and Filtering Individuals

The Supporters table provides several tools for finding and organizing your individuals.

Search

A global search bar lets you search across supporter records by name, email, or other identifying information. Search is debounced for performance, meaning results update shortly after you stop typing.

Filters

Available filter types include:

Text filters — For fields like email and tracking URLs.
Search/autocomplete filters — For designation, campaign, and fundraiser lookups.
Date range filters — For activity dates like last donation.
Select dropdowns — For donor type, payment method, and status.
Currency range filters — For donation amounts.

Table Views

The Supporters table supports multiple views:

Individuals — Default view showing individual supporters with columns for Name, Email, and Last Activity.
Companies — View for organizational/company supporters with different columns like "Total Donated / Matched."
Recurring — Filtered view showing only supporters with active recurring plans.

Table state (filters, sorts, and views) is preserved in the URL, making filtered views shareable with teammates.

Sorting

Most columns support sorting in ascending or descending order. Sorting is handled server-side for performance.

Pagination

Results are paginated with a default of 25 items per page. Progressive counts are shown by default rather than full record counts — you can request a full count on demand.

Bulk Actions

When you select one or more individuals from the Supporters table (or use "Select All" to capture all records matching your current filters), several bulk actions become available:

Tag — Apply one or more tags to the selected supporters.
Archive — Remove supporters from active views without deleting their records.
Restore — Bring archived supporters back into active views.
Export — Export selected supporter data to CSV.
Generate Giving Summary — Create giving summaries for a specific year or custom date range.
Subscribe to Communication List — Add selected supporters to a communication list.
Remove from Communication List — Unsubscribe selected supporters from a list.
Add to Journey — Enroll supporters in an automated journey.
Pin Post — Pin impact stories to selected supporters' portals.
Remove from Post — Remove supporters from impact stories.
Remove from Impact — Remove supporters from impact numbers/cards.
Re-sync — Trigger a CRM re-sync for selected supporters.

Bulk actions work with both individual checkbox selection and the "Select All" mode, which applies the action to every record matching your current search and filter criteria (not just the current page).

Merging Duplicate Individuals

If you discover two records for the same person, you can merge them into a single record. During the merge process, you will:

Select which record to keep as the master record.
Choose which profile values to preserve from each record — including page settings, profile settings, communication settings, and custom communication settings.
Confirm the merge.

When a merge is executed, all relational data from the old record transfers to the master record, including:

Login access and portal accounts
Transactions and scheduled donations
Fund allocations and soft credits
Event registrations
Communication list memberships and message history
Fundraiser ownership
Campaign donor relationships
Posts and impact cards
Custom question answers
Activity logs

The old donor record is marked as merged and soft-deleted. Merges cannot be undone.

If you use a CRM integration, merge in your CRM first, then in WeGive — and ensure the master record ID in WeGive matches your CRM's master record to avoid sync conflicts.

Archiving and Deletion

Archiving

Archiving removes a supporter from active views without deleting any data. Archived supporters can be restored at any time using the Restore bulk action.

Donor Deletion Requests

Supporters can request account deletion from their donor portal under Profile Settings → Delete Account. These requests appear in your dashboard under Data → Donor Deletion Requests for admin review.

When a deletion request is approved:

The supporter record is archived in WeGive.
Donor portal access is disabled.
Active recurring donations are canceled.
The supporter is removed from all communication lists.
Historical data (past donations, receipts, etc.) is not deleted.
CRM records are not automatically deleted — this must be handled manually in your CRM.