E-mail Appends: The Good, the Bad and the Realistic

Done correctly, this once-maligned strategy can be a real boon to your list health.

August 2008 By Catherine Algeri

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As with any new industry, the early days of online fundraising were filled with both success and failure. Some organizations quickly found a new stream of revenue … while others found themselves struggling to get out of that black hole known as the spam filter.

Now in 2008, a year where political donors broke every record for online giving — even contributing $10 million on a Web site in one night — organizations can move forward with online outreach knowing that others have blazed the trail before them.

Over the last five years, fundraisers have found a successful model for reaching out to their donors online in the form of the well-coordinated e-mail append.

A definition
The e-mail append at its best takes a portion of your donors and activists — those with whom you have established relationships — finds corresponding e-mail addresses and gives these donors a chance to decide if they want to hear from you via e-mail. It then appends these names to your files.

Common fears
Before I outline the difference between a good e-mail append and the type likely to relegate you to the spam folder for all time, let’s address the immediate concerns most nonprofits raise when considering an e-mail append.

1. I’m afraid an e-mail append will make me spam!
This fear speaks to the difference between a good e-mail append and a bad one. The early days of e-mail append certainly generated a few horror stories. Fortunately, the industry has really learned from its mistakes. Today, most reputable vendors send welcome e-mails on your behalf — on their own servers — and only return the valid e-mail addresses that did not opt out of e-mail communication. This way, when you start e-mailing these addresses, you’re in the good graces of your donors and the Internet service providers.

2. I’m afraid I’ll be wasting my money!
According to the article “Get An Email Address, Generate Income,” in the April 15 issue of The NonProfit Times, the average worth of an e-mail address on your file is $7.86 a year, per Convio’s recently published benchmark study on e-commerce between July 2006 and June 2007.

In fact, many nonprofits bring in $5 to $10 in contributions for every $1 spent on e-mail append processing, according to the article “Email Append: Hot online strategy or too hot to handle?” in NPT’s March 15 edition. Considering that you can append multiple e-mail addresses for $1, there is a low level of investment required to find out how valuable your e-mail addresses will be — and the research is in your favor.

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