Radical Concept: Asking the Donors to Decide

The title of the email was bland: "Help us Serve You Better." I opened it anyway, and the first words from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Foundation caught my interest: "The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) strives to communicate with you in a timely manner to keep you abreast of our efforts..." It went on to ask,"

Please take two minutes to complete our seven-question survey to help us better serve you. Your answers will enable us to modify the type and frequency which we send information to our supporters and subscribers.

We aim to provide only the information you wish to receive and in the format you choose. Participating in this survey today will allow us to better serve your needs through direct communication.

Please click here to begin the survey and thank you, in advance, for your participation.

So I did. It asked me what kind of information I wanted to receive, via what channels (hard copy, email, RSS, or "I'll would prefer go to the web site on my own to get updates" (which is so much nicer than saying, "Don't call me, I'll call you"). The survey went on to collect a little bit of interest and demographic information.

We preach this all the time. It's so nice to see someone doing it. I was tempted to submit a few different submissions just to see how the different answers are used. That's the hard part, of course. It's easy to ask your email supporters their preferences. It's another thing to be prepared to truly delivery on them.

Convio isn't the only one "opening" their system

I really wanted to make a joke about the security breach at GetActive this week. I wanted to say that it appears some hacker has done for GetActive what no one at Convio or Kintera seems to be able to do -- let users export their donor data.

However, it's no laughing matter. CARE is one of 92 organizations whose contact email file was breached. They had to send an email to their list on Tuesday telling them about the breach. That can't help online donations.

It's important to understand how hackers pick their targets. No doubt they were working on Kintera and Convio platforms, too, and couldn't figure out how to get inside. They're working on the big platforms because that's where the largest files of email addresses are. I'd be surprised if they're not trying to get into the Obama, Hillary, and now even Ron Paul sites. Not only would they be able to harvest hundreds of thousands of emails addresses, but they'd be able to embarass a public figure.

Internet security is something to be taken seriously. As much as expose the flaws in the major online fundraising platforms, they're probably safer than something your staff cooked up alone. Yes, they also higher profile targets, but they probably have more staff just working on security than you have working on your whole site.

It's also worth commending CARE and others like them who swallowed hard and did the right thing -- telling their most valuable online contacts that there was a serious breach, and giving them hints on how to protect themselves from any phishing that may result.

Rick...

Purging email data?

According to their website, "Blue Sky Factory is a leading provider of products and services designed for online marketing communications." As an online marketer, I subscribe to their newsletter to keep up with the industry. Apparently I was not active enough so I've been unsubscribed. Here is the email they sent me:


Hello from Blue Sky Factory!
We noticed that you've never clicked on a copy of our Factory Direct monthly e-newsletter.

Was it something we said?

In order to respect your privacy, we have now removed you from our Factory Direct mailing list. If you would like to continue to receive your copy of Factory Direct, chock full of industry news, email marketing tips and so much more, please click here to re-subscribe.

Otherwise, we are certainly sad to see you go! If you have any comments or suggestions you'd like to share with us, please email us.

Sincerely,
Team Blue Sky Factory

Last time I checked it just doesn't cost that much to store an email address. But, email marketing is their business... So now I wonder what the goal of this act is? To clean up data? To reengage those really interested?

Is this a good practice? What do you think?