Add and edit donors

Most donor records create themselves when someone gives, buys a ticket or signs up for something. Add someone by hand when you've met them offline, or before you record a check from them.

Add a donor

1. In the sidebar, go to Donors and select Add Donor.
2. Enter their First Name, Last Name and Email. Phone (optional) can be left blank.
3. Select Add Donor. You're taken back to the donor list, where you can open their profile.

Every donor needs an email address, and no two donors in your organization can share one. If the address is already in use, you'll see A donor with this email already exists. Search the donor list for it: that person is already on file.

Edit contact details

1. Open the donor's profile and find the Contact Information card.
2. Change their First Name, Last Name, Email or Phone.
3. Select Save Changes.

If the new email belongs to another donor, you'll see Email already used by another donor and nothing is saved.

Text message opt-in

The SMS opt-in (receives text campaigns) checkbox is on the Contact Information card, not on the Add Donor form, so add the person first and then tick it on their profile. Tick it only when the person has agreed to receive texts from you. Text messages go only to donors who have this ticked and have a phone number.

How donors are added automatically

Occam adds or finds a donor whenever someone gives, buys a ticket or registers for an event, registers to bid or uses Buy It Now, joins as a member, makes a pledge, orders from your store, signs up to volunteer, starts a fundraising page, or signs up for your newsletter on your Occam website. Imports add donors too. See Import donors.

Each time, Occam looks for a donor in your organization with the same email address:

• Same email: the gift, ticket or sign-up goes on the existing record. The name you have on file isn't changed.
• New email: Occam creates a new donor, even if the name matches someone you already have.

When you take a cash or check gift at an event, or make an in-person store sale, without an email address, Occam creates a new donor for it each time, named Walk-up Donor or Walk-up Customer unless you enter a name.

Good to know

• There's no postal address field on a donor. If you need to keep addresses, an admin can add a custom donor field for them in Settings.
• Occam can't merge two donor records, and you can't delete a donor. To keep one person to one record, search the donor list before you add someone, and update their email on their profile when they tell you it's changed.
• If you change a donor's email and they later give using the old one, Occam creates a new record for that gift.