The Nonprofit FAQ

Purging Mailing Lists
In September, 1995, Ben Thacker-Gwaltney asked:

Our mailing list has been in existence for over ten years now and has
never been effectively purged of folks who are no longer interested. We
are up to about 6600 people now and growing. Does anyone have any good
ideas how to purge a mailing list like this one, any tried and true
techniques to pass on?

Most of whom responded gave specific advice based on personal
experiences. Walter Nelson wrote:

In one of the organizations to which I belong, I maintain a 1000 or so
person mailing list. This organization puts on periodic events. When a
person attends that event (i.e. buys a ticket or signs in at the event)
we record that fact in his/her address file.

Periodically (once every year or so), I generate a list in reverse date
order, so that the persons whom we have not seen in the longest time are
at the top of the list. I then pick off those whom we haven't heard from
in over two years, and take that list to a meeting of the operating
board. We (the operating board) then review the list to make sure we
aren't dropping some big-wig or special friend, and all those for whom
nobody speaks up are erased from the database.

In all the cases where someone says 'We need to keep him/her on the
list, whether we hear from him/her or not', I put a note to that effect
on the specific person's address file.

Tim Mills-Groninger wrote:

1) Dupe search Index (or sort) the database on ZIP+Last Name+Address.
View as a table and note possible duplicates. The index will place
people in the same zip code (usually a reliable field) and address in
close proximity. Note that "Mills-Groninger" at "6 N. Michigan" and
"Mills-Groniger" at "6 North Michigan" would _not_ show up in an
automated duplicate check because the field contents are different,
although they show up next to each other (or close) in the index. I've
done this in dBase w/ lists of around 6600. It takes about a two working
days w/ the help of a little program code.

2) Eliminate the old and unproductive (names) If there are verifiable
means to find out the last productive contact with some one on the list,
use them as a means to purge. You can archive the names if desired.
Often, there is no mechanical way to identify the names, but if you
print the list and pass it around the office, people can tick off the
people they know are dead or otherwise uninvolved.

3) Verify address Talk with the post office about having the address
verified. Quality varies, but costs are pretty reasonable. Other people
may have suggestions on good vendors for third party list updates.

4) Post card mailing with return address. requested At some point you'll
need to mail to the entire list. Use a postcard to keep expensive down.
Use it as an excuse for some general marketing.

5) Clean up based on the returns.

In response to a criticism of Tim's #4, Jayne Cravens,
jcravens@coyotecom.com, added:

"Return Address Requested" does not require anything on the part of the sendee; it's a Post Office service that returns all pieces of mail with incorrect addresses. You are charged for every piece returned. Doing this once a year can really cut down on bad addresses in your database. It's much more cost
effective than "draft a dozen volunteers to spend a few nights calling your list.

She also wrote:

I just got done doing this at an organization, actually, with a similar
number of records .... Some of the things I did:

-- When I started in February, there was not an automated "date added"
field nor a "date modified" field on the database, so I immediately
added them; the only way to tell who's active and who's not, really, is
with two such fields.

-- Next, I had "Address Correction Requested" added to our company
newsletter, which is mailed to everyone; several hundred were returned,
so it was easy know which addresses to purge (actually, I never purge
addresses; instead, I remove their zip code, and write the word "WRONG"
in front of the first line of their address; then I exclude these names
from all mailings. It's a precaution, in case someone calls and says, "I
know I'm on your mailing list, but I never receive anything").

-- Upon coming onboard, I established the policy that anyone who
inputted information into the database had to do a search on the last
name and company name before inputting anyone into the database, to make
sure they weren't already in there.

-- I double checked press people and elected officials, and deleted all
such names that I could not find in current directories.

-- Finally, I did a search of everyone for whom we had only their name
and address -- no phone number, no company name, no participation
information (event attendance, publication ordering, project
involvement), etc. -- who was added prior to my arrival, and nuked them.
We never got anyone calling and saying, "Hey, I don't receive anything
anymore!"

Francis Martin of Electro Acoustics in
Santa Fe, NM, suggested the following:

1) Search for record creation and "last modified" dates, to generate a
list of old records. Some of these will be "dormant" records, others
will be your best donors,

2) within the selection made from the search above, find the records for
donors who have not given in the last X years and delete only those,

3) use automatic deletion control to delete only those who have never
made a donation or pledge.

You could use the list of records genearated by these techniques to make
labels and an export, and mail to these people asking for a reply (or,
better yet, a donation) if they are still interested. If you do this,
save the search(s) you make above, and after allowing sufficient time
for the cards to come back, generate the list again and manually remove
the records for whom cards were returned. Delete the remainder.

I would caution you to manually review each record before deletion.
While software can shorten the list it is not a substitue for care.

BTW, exporting the records immediately prior to deleting them lets you
keep an archive for tracking and fail-safe purposes.

I also suggest that database managers may want to discuss deletion techniques
with their own software vendor.

Someone suggested:

The most reliable way to purge a list, is to
simply eliminate everyone who has not responded to you in
18 months on 24 months. I don't believe it is in your
interest to continue to mail to them, expecially if this is
a fundraising list, but even if it is an informational
list.

DavydM disagreed:

It's very hard to say whether continuing to mail to people
is not in an org's interest. If the list is used for org. publicity
(newsletter, etc), and if you have address correction etc., you can keep
your list pretty current (and your org. visible). If people DON't want
to hear from you they will let you know. Otherwise, the benefit to being
publicly seen is greater, I feel, than the minor costs of continuing to
mail to people who have no (apparent) interest. You never know when
apparently indifferent folks suddenly might become interested in your
org/services, and perhaps donate or know someone who will ...



A very early discussion from the soc.org.nonprofit UseNet group, now linked with NONPROFIT@rain.org -- PB