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NXT Duplicate Management - Are you using it?

Dariel Dixon

Earlier in 2025 we got the new Duplicate Management tool in RE NXT. I think it's a great improvement on the DBV version. But I'm distraught that I can't use it anymore, as there is some data that isn't capture in the Unified View that is missing from this tool. And that kinda sucks. Otherwise, I think it's a step in more of the right direction. I'll go to the idea bank and add an idea for the missing data.

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Karen Diener

What is the new tool?

Dariel Dixon

@Karen Diener This is the tool I'm talking about.

It's very different than the previous duplicate management tool in DBV, and has been created to be the replacement. However, some of the legacy fields that people are using may not merge correctly, so you are still limited to the DBV duplicate merging tool.

Karen Diener

OK - gotcha. I had heard a rumor that the mass merge utility that Blackbaud provides for a brief time after migrations was going to become THE duplicate management tool. I know it was a Blackbaud person who told me, but I cannot remember the context from there. I was skeptical - and still am - but was curious if there really was something new.

And yes, I completely agree with your concerns. I believe that merging non-webview fields is in the roadmap but we'll see how it looks and works when we get to that point!

Alex Wong

Webview merge is updated to merge all data: including dbview only webview only fields.

I am pretty certain the Duplicate management on webview uses the webview merge mentioned above, so shouldn't have problem on fields not merged.

@Erik Leaver or @Crystal Bruce do you think you can get someone to confirm this with us?

JoAnn Strommen

My experience is that it does not merge the NetCommunity email history that is in dbview.

Austen Brown

@Dariel Dixon what are the fields you're seeing that aren't being moved? It should include DBV only data.

Dariel Dixon

That an excellent question @Austen Brown. I am really worried about some of the Prospect data. We use a lot of financial information which is not editable in NXT. I just ran a test with a duplicate which had information in both records to see if this information would merge successfully, and I'm glad to say it did.

I would love if there was a bit more information if there was data that does not carry over. I don't doubt that @JoAnn Strommen's not seeing the NetCommunity stuff move over. I would like to see a definitive list of what can be merged and what can't.

I'll go back up and edit my post since I see things are different than I expected.

Austen Brown

re: NetCommunity - From a software development perspective, it wouldn't make sense to build in a feature you plan to leave behind. For folks that use NC or have historical data stored there, it will take an additional merge in DBV to combine that data on the target's record.

Bobby Steurer

Dariel, I also agree that it's a step in the right direction (minus your concerns mentioned above). The team members that use it, including me, really enjoy it. Makes managing duplicates a heck of a lot easier, at least from my experience so far.

Ann Van Huffelen

We stopped using the NXT duplicate management tool after discovering that merging constituents in Webview can result in the deletion of TeamRaiser fundraising pages. Luminate Online doesn’t reassign pages from the source record to the target record—even when all fields are selected—leading to lost data and requiring manual rebuilding and donation re-linking.

Until Blackbaud resolves this issue, we must manually review each constituent in Luminate Online and TeamRaiser to identify fundraising pages and determine source vs. target records before merging in Raiser’s Edge NXT. Time-consuming and inefficient, so we stopped using it!

Karen Diener

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/306312#Comment_306312

I remember this being a challenge about 5 years ago. So frustrating to know that it is still an issue!!

John Whitmer

DBV dupe search is still helpful in my workflow. It identifies unlinked spouses as dupes, which is handy for us to link them properly. I wish WV did the same.

Another issue is WV doesn't seem to catch dupe constituents where one has the SSN field populated in DBV and the other doesn't.

Kim Berry

Now I'm confused … how/is this different from Constituents→Data health→Possible Duplicates?

Tatyana Leifman

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/306323#Comment_306323

Agree on the dbv duplicate report. I like it much better than WV. I also find it very helpful both in identifying unlinked spouses as well as children and parents who may share the same address. Sometimes, this has helped me identify deceased donors as their address was changed to forward mail to a child. And I like that it shows if there are any actions or gifts on a record.

Tatyana Leifman

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/306323#Comment_306323

Dariel Dixon

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/306337#Comment_306337

I think the duplicate management link takes you directly to the duplicates with higher confidence…those the system is pretty certain are duplicates. It loads them directly into the merge page.

Dariel Dixon

I must say I'm surprised with @Tatyana Leifman and @John Whitmer's responses. I absolutely abhor DBV duplicate management tool. It finds so many non-duplicates that its stopped being very helpful for me a long time ago. This tool, and the expanded version in the data health center work much better for me.

One of the reason why is that the merged record shows up in my recently accessed records in Unified View (sigh). I hated merging records in the DBV tool and not being able to get back to the record quickly to do the manual cleanup (removing duplicate constituent codes, addresses, etc.) and having to go out of the tool to then search for the record I just merged. This new tool is more efficient in that regard.

That said, I acknowledge there is a benefit to the DBV tool that you mention with finding people who are unlinked. I think this is the best use of the tool in DBV, even more so than it's intended purpose. The biggest takeaway is that I wish I had some level of control over the duplicates it found. If I had the ability to tune the algorithm in the way I would like, it could be awesome.

John Whitmer

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/306422#Comment_306422

Believe me, I have the same feelings about the DBV tool. We are a relatively small shop, which has allowed me to get our dupes to 0 in both WV and DBV (if Deceased checkbox is unchecked). I'm now able to quickly skim the DBV findings and identify the unlinked spouses and grads assigned multiple student IDs from the university (don't ask).

It took me about a year of regular dupe reviews to get to this point. I still get DBV matches that clearly aren't dupes. It seems to match people with the same initials, family members, and those that both have blank phone records.

I'm exploring Power Automate as a tool to identify the people DBV catches that WV can't or won't.