While I sympathize with your situation, you need to understand that SPAM, or unsolicited email is a problem. The fact that the motivation of the sender may be charitable does not make the mail "solicited". Your humanitarian message may be viewed as "begging" by someone else.

And compliance with CAN SPAM is to be commended, but CAN SPAM as I understand it does not give anyone the "right" to send unsolicited email, but only sets rules for the sending of unwanted emails to people you don't know.

Many organizations and companies have a false sense of security when sending spam because they are CAN SPAM compliant, or the lists they have received are said to be "opt-in" or "3rd party opt-in" when in fact they are not.

More than CAN SPAM, those that are considering sending bulk email need to be aware of the TOS (Terms of service) and/or AUP (acceptable use policy) of their Internet service provider, since they generally have a strict and crystal-clear policy about the sending of spam and it is generally this: SPAM is not allowed and will be grounds to close your account.

I'm spelling all of this out not so much for you since you have already bumped into this problem, but other others who may still be on the beginning of the learning curve.

My recommendation to you is to consider contacting the people on your list and ask them to sign up for your mailing list. This can not only get you the opt-in list you need, but also allow you to present your organization's message on a very personal level, and also to hear feedback from the people you contact. If you are short-handed you can ask for help as part of your message. Just getting some people to help get your message out will return great benefit to your cause with a small investment of time. Working a list this way with take considerable time, but I am sure the quality of the results will be worth it, if your organization is one worthy of support.

The other option is to work with your email vendor, or find another one, and tell them you want to do a one-time email send.

In this email you let people know who you are and what your goals are and ask them to sign up for your list. You explain that once this mailing has been done, ALL EMAILS WILL BE DELETED. The only way they will hear from you again is if they sign up for your list and they can unsubscribe at any time.

If an organization sends me spam asking for me to subscribe, then I may do it or not, but I am unlikely to report them. Yes, I do still consider this spam, but it's really your only option in my opinion to get the opt-in list you want on a large scale with a minimum or effort in a short time. Just keep in mind there may still be those that are offended and may report you.

Very good explanation, Christian. The fact is that "Opt-In" is the standard for providers of bulk email services, including those that work primarily or exclusively with non-profits. I frequently have to explain to staff in my organization just exactly why we can't send emails to that list that we acquired from another organization - that if we do, we could have our account shut down.

I do understand that spam is a problem and I take it very seriously. There are many FTC requirements that need to be met to be in compliance with CAN SPAM – my organization is in compliance with all of them. As I mentioned in my original post, I actually spoke to someone at the FTC on Friday to discuss this very issue. I explained our situation and how we send our Emails - the FTC representative told me that our actions are not in conflict with the CAN SPAM act. She confirmed for me that the permission-based Email list requirement is something that was instituted by VR, not by the FTC – it is, in fact, one step further than what’s required.

I do admit that I was, however, not fully aware of VR’s terms of service. I was not working in this position when the decision was made to use VR two years ago. This is not meant as an excuse – it is definitely my responsibility to be in compliance with VR’s terms of service. VR did agree to let me send out a message to our list to get them to opt-in for future Emails and I am very appreciative of their help. I also have a plan for dealing with any lists we may get in the future so that this does not happen again. I did confirm with VR that they had not received any direct complaints from folks accusing us of spamming them.

The reason for my initial post was to find out how other nonprofits handled the issue of meeting their organization’s mission while dealing with the TOS of Email marketing companies, which can restrict what nonprofits are able to accomplish. It seems that Email is an ideal way to reach out to people to offer them services that could help them in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, the negatives involved with electronic communications create a barrier for nonprofits just trying to get work done.

I’m still open to hearing how other organizations have handled this issue.

Mike -

Does your organization do outreach? If so, what strategies have you used to continue doing so, considering the TOS for Email marketing providers? Do you just use snail mail? Have you been using web 2.0 strategies?

What I'm looking for are concrete ways to deal with the limitations I've encountered. I'm sure that others could benefit from hearing what you've done in response to Email restrictions. I’m totally open to creative solutions.

Thanks,
Elissa

Elissa:

We actually do quite a bit of outreach using email, through a mass email service - different from Vertical Response, but with the same requirements about opting in to emails. We haven't really done much Web 2.0 yet, but we're in the process of a website redesign, and Web 2.0 usability is one of the factors going into the redesign.

Our organization signs up supporters primarily face-to-face, and by giving us their email addresses when they sign up, supporters are opting in to receiving emails from us. We don't use email lists obtained through any third parties. Some of our organizers have wanted to, and I've had to explain to them why we can't.