How to Bulk Email from Donor Strategy Author: Debbie Nevin Updated: 24 th April 2009 There are several ways in which you can send a bulk email from Donor Strategy. You can use: Listing report for impersonal emails, the same text for everyone Letter report for personalised emails using a Letter Template The Email Options You need to first Run your report then select to send to Email or when the report is in the Cache right-click and select the option to send to Email. When sending a report to Email you will be presented with the following screen:
Distribution List This top left section allows you to select which email address to use. It will depend on who you are emailing as to which you should select. First Column of data will expect the first column of your report to be an email address field. The First populated email address will use the person s email first Person e-mail address if you are emailing people, we would recommend you tick this option to ensure the person s email address is used Individuals work e-mail address if you have related your people to organisations on the database and ticked this as their Main Organisation this option will use the email address entered on the Relationship screen. Company main e-mail address use this if you are just emailing organisations Use own Distribution List this option will display a pop-up window with the list of email addresses that will be used. You can use this option to check the email addresses look correct, you can also add/remove addresses for people who are/are not on the list already. You can save these distribution lists and re-load them by using this option be aware that they will not be updated if your contact email addresses are amended in Donor Strategy. Recipients This top right option defines where you wish the email addresses to appear in the email: To Field only use this option if you want recipients to see everyone else s email addresses. CC Field only use this option if you want recipients to see everyone else s email addresses. BCC Field use this one if you do NOT want recipients to see everyone else s email addresses. This is the usual choice when sending a bulk email. Be aware that some email services block emails where the recipient is in the BCC box if they do not have your email address in their contact list CAUTION: If you are using the BCC Field ensure you do not attach the report as you may send a list of all email addresses to all recipients. Before Sending Email An individual email for each if you are using a letter report this is the option to choose. This allows you to send personalised emails. You would usually use this option in combination with the To Field and Do not show the e-mail. One e-mail to a distribution list use this option to send everyone the same email. You can use this with the Show the e-mail dialog option to write the text in the email window instead of in the Content box below
Content Type You have 3 options here; Use the report as the E-Mail Body this is the option to choose if you are using a letter report to send individual emails. Also, if you are emailing a Donor Strategy report to a list of people you can select this option, e.g. a financial report being sent to a list of your trustees. Use content below and attach report you can choose this option to attach a letter template, or the listing report to the email you are sending, and then type in details for the body of the email in the content box below. Use the content below only you can type the email you wish to send in the content box displayed below. You can also copy and paste text from other applications, e.g. Word documents, but be aware that some formatting will not translate as you may expect. CAUTION: Be sure to choose the right one as you could end up sending your recipients a list of everyone else receiving the email Content Format HTML this will send your email in HTML format, which means things like bold, italics and underlining will be included in the email. Be aware that not everyone has an email application that supports this format. Plain Text use this format for basic text only. Most, if not all, email applications support this format. If you have a short message to send we would recommend using this format. When sending an email for the first time we would recommend you put your email offline and then check the format in your Outbox before sending this way you can delete them and start again if the wrong options have been picked.
Using a Listing Report There are two places to type in the text you wish to email when you send via a listing report, the Donor Strategy E-mail Report Content box or the E-mail application window displayed after selecting the email options in Donor Strategy. Create a listing report with the email as the first field on the list. N.b. You may find that Reports > Contacts > 1. Standard Listing > 9. Email Addresses will do what you need. Copy this report and add the filters you require to extract your email list. Add any relevant filters. Select the report and send to email. Same message to everyone Choose the following options: The appropriate Distribution List, e.g. Person E-mail Address The appropriate Recipient Appears in, e.g. BCC Field The appropriate Type One E-mail to a distribution list Where to type the message? You have two options of where to type your message: Select the Type Use the content below only and then type in the content box Select Show the E-mail dialog and then type into the E-mail application window Attaching a file If you wish to attach a file to an email you are sending, click on the Attachments tab and use the Add Attachments button. You can then attach any required file/document. Be aware that some emails block some file types such as:.exe.
Personalised emails To send personalised emails the best method is to use a letter report. Using a Letter Report Create the letter template and ensure you have included the email field. For example: Hi <<person.firstname>> Welcome to this month s Newsletter. Please keep in touch. Debbie <<person.email>> Create a letter report and select your letter template. Apply all the relevant filters to your letter report. Run the letter report to Email. Choose the following options: The appropriate Distribution List, e.g. Person E-mail Address The appropriate Recipient Appears in, e.g. To Field The appropriate Type Do not show the e-mail dialog An individual e-mail for each Report Format HTML (to ensure any bold, italics or other formatting is included) We would always recommend that if you are using a letter report you send the email to yourself first to see that it has formatted correctly. If you have copied text from a Word document the results can sometimes be different as the formatting codes are interpreted differently. You can do this by selecting the Use own distribution list option. Delete everyone else from the list and type your own (or a colleague s) email address instead and then just send that one. For further advice please contact the Support Team on 0845 226 2544 or email donorstrategy.support@advancedcomputersoftware.com. Thank you.