sending out Mass e-mail

[amd25]

My boss wants to send out a mass e-mail through our database program to all the members in the church (600) about a church event we are having this Sunday. This is the first time we are doing this. I told him we should not send e-mails out advertising church event unless we have a sign up for those people what want to receive e-mails about church events. He said since they gave their e-mail addresses to us already, they should expect receiving any type of e-mail from us. I call the FTC, they said that ethically we should do a sign up, don't assume since we have thier e-mail address we should just send out anything to them. They also said we need to have an opt out option if the don't want any further e-mails. Showed my boss this, his response was, the law is only for commercial orgs and not non-profits. So he said this law doesn't apply to us. Because we are not advertising, we are just informing them of the spaghetti dinner coming up. We are not selling anything, but we are doing a $10 donation per person.
I said it's advertising.

Any feelings on this? Do you feel we should make it specific that we are going to send them e-mails about event without them knowing up front this is one of the reason that we have thier e-mail address?

[[Admin] danroth]

I think your pastor is both ethically and legally correct here.

If the email addresses had come from somewhere other than people voluntarily giving them to the church, that would be a different issue.

I definitely give people an option to "opt out" from future email notices.

[Pastor Tim]

Depends on how many members you are trying to lose.

Seriously, don't even consider this unless you have a sign up to receive announcements via e-mail and an opt-out option on each mailing. This is an area where you will annoy people and, unlike the anonymous spam they are used to, in this case they can actually get back at the people spamming them. This is very thin ice, in my experience.

Pastor Tim

[Pastor Tim]

Dan beat me with a response, but something needs to be clear both for his answer and for mine. When you collect an e-mail address (say as part of your "welcome to our church" card) you *should* ethically, have a written use policy for that information. In most cases that type of data collection is assumed to be intended for one-on-one contact. If you specifically stated somewhere that this is for "communications and announcements from the church" you may be clear, but I would want to be very, very, clear about it before taking the chance.

For some reason people get much more upset over a bulk e-mail than they do over a postcard in the mail. Don't ask me why, but I have seen it and just feel that it is an area where you want to be very careful to avoid offending.

Pastor Tim

[wvpv]

We started a double opt-in newsletter list using mailchimp.com and i argued against sending blanket e-mails to the masses without their permission. I hate it when people do that, so why would I want that for everyone else?

I'd rather build up the list by talking about it and announcing it and letting people subscribe if they desire.

We handed out business cards with the sign-up URL, announced at the end of a service and made it part of our before and after service announcement loop. I believe it's in the bulletin and on the website. Our church isn't that big, but our newsletter grows by a couple of people every month.

[[Director] Joseph B]

What were they told when they gave you their e-mail address in the first place?

[amd25]

When they become a member , they fill out a form. Name Address phone, e-mail. They are not told anything specific. They are just asked to fill out the form.

[Pastor Tim]

Given that form, I would think that my original scenario would apply. The assumption in that case is that this is for the purpose of one-on-one communication from an individual representing the church and should not be considered a blanket permission to broadcast a newsletter to all the e-mail addresses you have.

Legally you are OK, ethically maybe a bit more shaky, but in terms of keeping people happy and not offending, I'd err on the side of caution.

Pastor Tim

[daver2]

Given what I have read in this thread I would **NOT** send a mass spam to everyone as this will probably annoy more people than it will not - I certainly would not like Church spam sent to me in this way.
Start a new list for people to 'opt into' (not opt out of) for the express intent of sending them Church-based activity announcements. You are then covered (both legally and morally) and it will not take too long to accomplish. You would probably spend more time discussing the legality and ethics about Church spam using the current list than creating a new list for that specific purpose anyhow!

[tedanderson]

When it comes to mass emailing there is a very well-defined line between being informative and abusing your captive audience.

So given this notion, I think that it's perfectly OK to email the members of the church as to upcoming church-sanctioned events. Anyone who gives out their email address does it in expectation that they will receive emails from that person or organization. But mass emailing becomes a problem when this list is utilized to promote anything that is not associated with it.

A good friend of mine runs a very respectable business that finances her charitable organization for battered women. She uses Constant Contact to send out her monthly newsletters about the business and the charity. Over the course of a year she had built up a list of nearly 400 people and nobody seemed to have a problem with getting her mass emails. Somewhere along the line she thought it would be a good idea to help out a friend of hers who started a new career in real estate. Long story short- over half of the people on her list opted out that week.

Overall it was foolish to put a real estate advertisement inside of an email from the "Battered Women's Ministry" but the result of this mistake is indicative of the reasons why people generally don't like mass emails. People don't have a problem with the mass email itself. But when their email address is used for purposes other than what they thought they were giving it out for, then it becomes a problem.

It's much like being invited over someone's house for a friendly get-together only to be blindsided by one of those multi-level pyramid presentations. You might not get angry with that person but we all know that this will be the LAST time that you will ever accept an invitation from them.

[rkresge]

Another thought on this subject. We learned the hard way that when you send out email "blasts", sooner or later someone will flag and report your emails as spam. Guess what? Your email server winds up on one or more of the public blacklists. If you're going to do it, use a bulk mailer service (we've used Bravenet for a long time, but I think they're discontinuing their bulk email service in the near future), but don't even THINK about doing it directly from your own email server. That's a formula for disaster.

Also, I think the opt-out requirement of the Can Spam law applies. Although I'm not a lawyer.

Blessings!

Roger

[greg4god]

Daver2: If you filll out a membership form that asks you for your e-mail address, what DO you expect it to be used for?

Depending on how many contacts you have, and someone there has, you may want to go through a service to manage the mailings for several reasons.

1. Instant handling of opt out responces, and more likely to be up on the regulations on mailings.
2. They have the servers to handle it, where as your ISP/hosting may not depending on how many you have.
3. Your hosting/isp may take the spam reports serious and shut down your account with too many complaints.
4. Easier grouping of e-mails (people can sign up for "topics")
5. The valid issue of getting put on blackllists, professional mailing systems are better set up to prevent this.
6. good reporting systems to monitor the results. (to a limit)

While Constant Contact is a very popular one, and one we use at work, I'd (personally) give Vertical Response a try, as I read an article on the company, and liked what I read. (Quick look I just did to make sure I have the company name correct, and notice they do offer Non Profit services worth look into.

Now, some things to keep in mind. No matter what steps you do, there will always be someone who does not remember signing up, and will complain.

In regards to the list you have. Unless you have have just recently obtained them, I think I would use them, but have the first mailing that goes out be a reminder that they signed up, that you are finally starting to use it for events, and that they can now opt out.

Hello [Name],

You are receiving this mailing from [ChurchName]. This email address was provided on the membership form you filled out at our church.

While up till now we have not been using e-mail notifications, we are exploring the use of a them soon for informing membership of upcoming news, events, and activities.

If you do not wish to continue recieving these, you can opt out of regular mailings by following the instructions at the end of this message.

If you have any questions, or need to update any of your conatact information, please contact [CONTACT INFO].

Nice, simple, to the point. I do prefer to specify where you obtained their e-mail, but don't go over details, becasue, if they are going to complain, they are not going to read about that anyhow.

To the question of "advertising". Just becasue something is advertised, does not mean it is commercial. Are we not advertising the gift of life Jesus offers?

I'll try to not to go too far down the road to my peeve with the idea of items/serivces that are for a "set" donation amount or "love offering". I just dislike that terminology. Don't get me wrong, there are legalities that bring up that need, but still it gets me. Should be able to flatly say "Dinners cost $10, and all profits go towards XXX".

-Greg