Edit, delete, or archive a contact

An up-to-date database is essential for effective contact management.

This article explains how to keep your contact database healthy and usable. Learn how to:

• Edit a contact's information
  • Who can edit this information?
  • How to edit it?
• Update multiple contacts at once
• Manage duplicates
• Archive a contact
• Restore an archived contact
• Permanently delete a contact

Edit a contact's information

Who can edit this information?

As an Administrator

You have access to all information entered on a contact record and can edit it at any time in the platform.

From Community > Settings, you can define which fields end-users can view or edit on their contact record. Click the Edit pencil icon for a field, choose who can view or edit the information using the "User can edit this information" option, then save.

When someone already in your database signs up through a Membership Campaign or Donation Campaign, fields they've already filled in won't be shown again. If needed, they can update them directly from their profile.

As a contact

Only fields the nonprofit has marked as "editable" can be changed by a contact when they update their information.

If you can see a field in view mode on your profile but not in edit mode, it means the nonprofit has not granted permission to modify it.

This article provides more details on field settings.

How to edit them?

You are a Platform Administrator

To edit the information saved on a contact's profile, go to Community > Contacts.

Find the member whose information you want to update using the search and sort tools. You have two options:

• Option 1: click the Pencil icon on the row to edit the contact's information directly;
• Option 2: click the Eye icon to view the contact's profile.

This opens the profile editing page with all configured fields. From the "General" or "Profile" tab, click the "Update profile" button to edit them.

Make your changes and click the Update profile button again to save them.

You are a member of a nonprofit using Springly

Log in to the nonprofit's website with your credentials. Then click My account > View my profile (top right), and then the Update profile button.

Once you've updated your information, click the button again to save your changes.

Of course, a contact can only access their own information — not that of other contacts in the platform.

Update multiple contacts at once

As an Administrator, you can update multiple contacts in bulk by importing an Excel file. Here's how:

• export your Community contacts to Excel;
• edit the Excel file;
• import it back into Springly.

From Community > Contacts, export the contacts you want to update. You can select your entire database or just a subset. Full details are available in this article: Export your Contacts and/or Structures database to Excel

Then edit the information you need in the exported Excel file.

Important: if you add a new information field (i.e., a new column) to your Excel file, you must also create that field in Springly under Community > Settings.

Once you've finished editing the Excel file, go back to Community > Contacts and click the +Add button. Then select Import persons.

The process is the same as described in the article on adding multiple persons.

To avoid duplicates and update an existing profile without creating a new one, make sure to include the unique identifier column (email, contact ID, or specific identifier) in your import file.

Manage duplicates

A duplicate detection system runs automatically when a new account is created. It checks two criteria to determine whether the new contact is the same person as an existing one:

• first, the new contact's first and last name;
• then their email address and/or zip code.

Here's how it works:

If both conditions are met, the duplicate is detected and no new contact is created, since it's the same person. However, there are cases where you may end up with two accounts for the same person — for example, if they signed up twice using two different email addresses.

If you spot duplicates, you can merge the two accounts as explained in this article.

Archive a contact

Go to Community > Contacts. Check the members you want to archive, then click "More options". Select "Archive selected persons", then click Confirm.

Archived contacts can be found under Community > Settings, in the Advanced options tab.

Archived contact information is not lost. You can restore or permanently delete them from this page.

Archived contacts do not count toward your contact quota and are not billed in the same way as active contacts.

Automatic unarchiving of a contact

What happens if an archived contact rejoins?

Automatic behavior

1. ✅ Detects that this contact already exists (even if archived)
2. ✅ Automatically unarchives their profile
3. ✅ Preserves their full history (past memberships, activity, personal data, etc.)
4. ✅ Creates the new membership or sign-up on that existing profile

Why does it work this way?

• Avoid duplicates: no "Jane Smith" and "Jane Smith (2)" in your database
• Keep a complete history of your relationship with that contact
• Maintain a continuous view of the member's journey within your nonprofit
• Easily retrieve past contact details and information

Real-world example

• ❌ The system does not create a new "Jane (2)" profile
• ✅ The system automatically unarchives her existing profile
• ✅ Her profile now shows: membership 2022–2023 + new membership 2026
• ✅ All her previous information and history is preserved

Restore an archived contact

Accidentally archived someone? You can restore them and bring them back into your Community.

Go to Community > Settings and open the Advanced options tab. Find the archived contact using the search bar, then click Restore selected persons.

Due to a technical limit, only the first 1,000 archived contacts are displayed. However, you can easily find any archived member using the Search tool.

Once restored, the contact will reappear in your community's contact list and will count toward the number of contacts that affect your billing.

Permanently delete a contact

There are two ways to delete a contact:

• Archive first, then delete: once the member is archived, go to Community > Settings > Advanced options, find the "X archived contact(s)" section, check the contact you want to delete, and click Delete selected persons.

• Delete directly from the contact's profile: go to the contact's profile via Community > Contacts > Pencil icon. In the Advanced account actions section, click the Delete account (irreversible action) button. The contact will be deleted immediately, without going through the archive step.

Warning: permanently deleted contacts cannot be recovered.

Information linked to a deleted contact — such as book entries and transactions made through ticketing — will still be accessible. However, a "user deleted" label along with the contact's ID will appear in place of the user's name.

We recommend exporting your contact list before deleting any contacts, so you can retain their contact IDs.

Archive or delete: which should you choose?

Learn more:

• Export your Contacts and/or Structures database to Excel
• Merge two profiles when a duplicate is detected