Do they not have enough interaction tracking to tell you how that happened, or at least comment on their policy for opting people in?

I would definitely take a couple of points away from them in my mental tally if I were you

The fact that you fell into that hole speaks volumes.

You’re the best! With your reply, you and Care2 are doing a great job of responding promptly, politely, and appropriately.

I hope that all nonprofit spammers will take note and follow your excellent example.

Many thanks and warm regards from Deborah

P.S. I don’t know why you didn’t get my email, but I’ll resend it to your personal address.

I haven’t received an email from you about this, but did see this post. I’m very sorry you somehow got on to a list that you didn’t intend to sign up for. Care2 doesn’t spam its members/petition signers. We are very careful about that. We’ve ensured that you are unsubbed from all lists.

Regards,

Joe Baker

Just checkin’… (a little humor there…)

(very little)

It does raise the interesting question of whether unsolicited bulk email should be given a free pass, if it is packaged at a “press release.” My answer is no, although perhaps a professional journalist would have a different response.

Best regards from Deborah

Thank you for looking into this, and for your very gracious acknowledgement of a lesson learned. Kudos to you and Boys & Girls Club of America.

I will remove your organization’s name from our list of perps, but keep the comments intact, so that others will have a chance to see that BGCA was willing to scrutinize its bulk email practices and to be responsive to the criticism we offered.

Many thanks and best regards from Deborah

First, I would like to apologize. The information you received did come from Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Our PR team included your contact name in their blog outreach plan. They view blogs as part of the “new” media and, as such, sent two press releases to your attention.

With traditional media, we do not ask permission to send out our press releases. Our PR team is reaching out to bloggers as they would to traditional media. In this case, we will immediately remove your name from our blogger outreach. However, I would like to ask you and your readers if you think of blogging as a subset of media outlets.

Again, I apologize for the confusion. I was reacting from an e-mail marketing perspective and not a public relations viewpoint. We respect your work and what you do.

Lesson learned –

Lori McLemore

Are you receiving electronic communications from Boys & Girls Clubs of America or one of our local affiliates? What is the name of the publication you are receiving?

Please follow up with me at info@bgca.org and I will try to track down the source.

Thank you for your assistance,
Lori

As to your question about why a bulk mail post is included in an anti-spam blog… well, because the incident pissed me off and I thought that the theme of grievance is unsolicited communication by nonprofits who are trying to do well by the world. Is there another post here that talks about bulk mail? I thought I was the only one.

Matt and I have been in touch via email, and I have submitted documentation to him about the unsolicited messages I have received. He is currently on vacation, but assured me before he left that he would continue to investigate the matter.

I have the utmost respect for Matt’s professional integrity, and appreciate the way that he is pursuing his efforts to get to the bottom of this. Way to go, Matt!

Oh, my.

I’m the person who is receiving unsolicited bulk email from the Boys & Girls Club of America. I’m prepared to swear under the pains and penalties of perjury that I never signed up for email blast from your organization. I’ll be happy to discuss with you via email, as you suggest, but I don’t see any reason at this point to remove BGCA from this list.

Notwithstanding that the Nonprofit Curmudgeon is dedicated to the art of ranting, and therefore is given to rhetorical flourishes that are purely for entertainment purposes, I have to admit that he has a point here. There’s a very real possibility that – no matter what your written policies are – in practice you are adding people like me to your database for bulk email blasts. Some concern about that possibility, some show of willingness to apologize if BGCA is in the wrong, would be extremely welcome.

Best regards from Deborah

I suggest that you operate according to the guideline that I call the “Vitriolic Rule” for your email blast database:

“Do unto others as if they are snarky anonymous bloggers who will take pleasure in scourging and thwarting you if you spam them.”

In spite of your protestations, you are apparently sending bulk email to at least one person who never signed up for it and is embittered against your organization because of it. You should assume that for every person who complains, there are untold others who are silently seething with annoyance. You never know which of them will turn into a self-appointed angel of vengeance in the blogosphere, so I suggest that you re-examine your actual systems and practices, instead of reacting by boasting about your ostensible policies.

By the way, I’m not picking up on a even a hint of an apology in your comment, or even a tentative acknowledgment that the Boys & Girls Club of America might be in the wrong. That’s not what I like to see in a nonprofit organization that has offended a constituent. On the basis of that alone, I can assure you that I won’t be sending you a check. Ever.

-N.C.

Also, their membership sign up form today includes an opt-in check box for allowing that data to be shared.

Why are there all these posts about bulk mail on an anti-spam blog?

Should we receive a request to unsubscribe, Boys & Girls Clubs of America removes that person’s email address from our database.

Should ANYONE wish to be removed from our database, please let me know. Just email “info@bgca.org” and I will assist you.

Sincerely — Lori McLemore

To the owner of this blog: Please remove Boys & Girls Clubs of America from the Perps page. Should you need to discuss our listing, please contact me at info@bgca.org. Thank you.

As for the non-euphemistic meaning of “double opt-in,” I’m more in favor of it than ever.

About a week ago, some prankster started signing me up for all sorts of politically-flavored e-bulletins. I started getting batches of welcome messages from the organizations in question. 

Now, it wasn’t the fault of these political activists that a third party had made us all victims of a prank. They were just minding their (respective) businesses, organizing their online communities. 

However, it was immediately obvious which of them had single opt-in policies and which had double opt-in policies, once I started reading the welcome messages.  It was the difference between “here’s how to unsubscribe” and “we’d like you to confirm that you really meant to subscribe, before we start sending you email.”

I’m not entirely sure that this was the lesson that the prankster had in mind, but it’s the one that seems to be sticking with me.

As for the single opt-in e-bulletins, I haven’t quite managed to unsubscribe from all of them yet.  Maybe they’ll be with me until I change email addresses or die.  (Whichever is more final.)  But no real harm was done.  The prankster probably doesn’t know that I’m a child of intermarriage (i.e., my father is a Republican and my mother is a Democrat – perhaps it’s appropriate, given my hybrid origins, that I’m an independent voter) and am therefore quite accustomed to receiving communiques from folks all over the political spectrum. 

Um, “double-opt-in” isn’t a euphemism for something involving sexual surrogates, is it?

Don’t laugh. I Google search turned up non-profits in San Francisco that involve sexual surrogates. No doubt such services are available for straight, gay, transgender and who knows what, but I am not going there. But I didn’t want to be accused of sexism, homophobia, or cruelty to non-human creatures.

Have you been able to track down those emails from Action Against Hunger?

Thanks,
Matt

My name is Matt Koltermann, and I’m the online marketing manager at Action Against Hunger | ACF-USA — the first organization on your list (our placement at the beginning of alphabetized lists is usually a good thing…).

I’m very concerned about the claim that one or more authors of this blog have received unsolicited bulk email from my organization, and I’d like to get to the bottom of it.

I’m not aware of any email list renting or buying practices at my organization — all of our mass emails are sent through Convio to subscribers who have opted-in to our list, and all of those emails contain explicit unsubscribe links.

I also searched our constituent database for records related to you, Erin, Michael, and Peter using several different methods (I don’t know who the unnamed “C” is, of course) — the only record that turned up was one bearing your name. It was created on July 7, 2005, registered to the email address belonging to the owner of Information Systems Forum, and the “Accept Email” status is “Yes”.

I would very much appreciate a sample of the email or emails received from Action Against Hunger that resulted in our appearance on this list. I share your disdain for spammy email practices, and I want to learn why this might be happening so I can fix it.

Thanks for your help,
Matt

A couple of points:

1) If a nonprofit organization holds firmly to a “confirmed opt-in” policy, it won’t matter how many friends sign up other people for bulk email. If the intended recipient does not close the loop by approving the subscription, then no unsolicited bulk email will be sent.

2) It never occurred to us that we would need an investigation or appeals process for our “Meet the Perps” page! We didn’t anticipate that we’d attract so much serious attention so quickly.

To report a violation:
Email: abuse@constantcontact.com

I have afew exceptions, which I have listed in my “nonprofit spam manifesto.” For example, if a nonprofit or foundation that is my client puts me on its list to receive regular e-bulletins, that’s fine with me. That organization is absolutely correct in assuming that I want to see updates from them. I continue to consider them my clients long after the project wraps up, and I’ll be grateful to hear how they’re doing, as long as I live.

However, woe unto those who assume, if we met once at a professional event and exchanged cards, this constitutes permission to give me an unrequested lifetime subscription to their newsletters, urgent action network alerts, and fundraising appeals. That’s just wrong.

* Confirmed opt-in policy: good

* Unconfirmed opt-in policy: acceptable

* Opt-out policy: evil

I am not a lawyer, and do not claim to be able to advise others about what the law implies in any jurisdiction. I can state personal preferences and explain where I think the ethical boundaries lie, and that’s about it.

As for inviting me to join email lists, I have no objection at all if the administrators of every list on the planet send me invitations. As long as they maintain “confirmed opt-in” policies, I’m happy to delete the thousands of unwanted invitations that pour in. However, I do understand that your mileage may vary.

“You’re emailing me to invite me to join your subscription list.”

Nope. You don’t get to send invites. there are probably tens of millions of email lists out there. Would you like each of them to have a free pass to invite you to join? Didn’t think so!

Best,

Neil Schwartzman
Chief Practices Specialist
http://CASLconsulting.com
Montreal, CANADA