Email Appends: Risks and Rewards

A listserv for Annual Giving professionals has been discussing the pros and cons of using email appends. The risks include being labeled a spammer, which can lead to bad relationships with constituents and could result in ISPs blocking email from your domain. The rewards include the ability to (re)connect with constituents who neglected to give you their (new) email address (similar to the post office’s update services), saving money by using electronic mail instead of paper mail, and the ability to find your supporters’ email addresses quickly and relatively inexpensively.

Here is a perspective on this issue from Catherine Algeri: E-mail Appends: The Good, the Bad and the Realistic