NPSP stands for Nonprofit Success Pack, which is a set of managed packages developed by Salesforce.org to help nonprofits and educational institutions better manage their operations and relationships with their constituents. It is built on top of the Salesforce platform and provides a range of tools and functionality to help organizations manage fundraising, donor management, program management, and volunteer management.

 

The Nonprofit Success Pack is designed to be flexible and customizable, so that organizations can tailor it to meet their specific needs. It is also free to use for eligible organizations, and can be downloaded and installed from the Salesforce AppExchange. The NPSP has become a popular solution for nonprofits and educational institutions, and has helped many organizations streamline their operations and improve their impact.


Issue: In NPSP, associated households may be orphaned when contacts merged


Learn more: 'Household Account' name changes to 'Anonymous Household' (salesforce.com)


Recommended Salesforce solution to work around this issue is to use NPSP merge Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts (salesforce.com) 


Solution


Replace standard Salesforce merge with the Custom Contacts Merge. Follow these steps,


1. Install DataGroomr NPSP Contacts Merge Handler package https://login.salesforce.com/packaging/installPackage.apexp?p0=04tUc000000mVvxIAE



Note: Select Compile only the Apex in the package under Advanced Options.



Tip: To install in Sandbox replace "login." with "test.": https://test.salesforce.com/packaging/installPackage.apexp?p0=04tUc000000mVvxIAE



2. Navigate to the Dataset in the Dedupe module and Edit dataset. On the Merge tab enable "Nonprofit (NPSP) contacts merge" under the Advanced section.


 


Hit Save.


 

Restore Limitations with NPSP Contacts Merge


When using the NPSP contacts merge feature with DataGroomr's Undo or Rollback functionality, be aware of the following limitation regarding Household Accounts.

When you merge two NPSP contacts that each belong to their own single-member Household Account, the NPSP merge handler performs the following actions:

  1. Merges the duplicate contact into the master contact
  2. Detects that the losing contact's Household Account is now empty (no remaining contacts)
  3. Automatically merges/deletes the empty Household Account

This is standard NPSP behavior designed to prevent orphaned Household Accounts.


Limitation

DataGroomr's Undo and Rollback features cannot restore the Household Account that was deleted by the NPSP handler.

When you attempt to restore a merged contact:

  • ✓ The contact record is restored
  • ✓ Related child records are reparented back to the contact
  • ✗ The original Household Account is not restored

This occurs because the Household Account deletion is triggered by NPSP's internal cleanup logic after the contact merge completes, not as part of DataGroomr's merge operation.


Workaround

If you need to fully restore a merged NPSP contact including its Household Account:

  1. Check the Salesforce Recycle Bin — The deleted Household Account may still be available (Salesforce retains deleted records for approximately 15 days)
  2. Manually undelete the Household Account from the Recycle Bin first
  3. Then perform the DataGroomr Undo/Rollback to restore the contact
  4. Re-associate the contact with the undeleted Household Account if necessary