Data hygiene is fundamental to responsive nonprofit organizations, but it's easy for even the cleanest data to get stale over time. Virtuous' data append services are designed to promote the health of your CRM's data integrity. Having updated and correct email addresses for your supporters will lead to better engagement and stronger digital connections. Email remains one of the most effective channels for nonprofit communication, making accurate contact information essential for successful outreach. The easiest way to keep your email addresses fresh is by running email appends on your supporters’ information. This guide provides a general FAQ on the email append process.
Table of Contents
- What Is An Email Append?
- How Can An Email Append Help My Organization?
- What Is The Process To Append Email Addresses?
- Will I Get Results For Every Record I Submit?
- How Long Does It Take?
- Can I Append International Data?
- How Are We Billed?
- What Is The Zip File Sent To Me After The Email Append Runs?
- Why Is Address Information Included In An Email Append?
What Is An Email Append?
An email append is a service that adds new or missing email addresses through public and private sources to enhance your existing CRM data.
How Can An Email Append Help My Organization?
Emailing donors is quick and cheap - meaning a higher ROI, but it requires having valid email addresses. Whether it is through personal email messages or mass email campaigns, having up-to-date email addresses means you can reach supporters to strengthen relationships. This expands the pool of reachable supporters and can reduce frustration from wasted outreach efforts.
What Is The Process To Append Email Addresses?
The process to append email addresses includes:
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Create an Individual Query in your database and name it Data Append: Email Addresses. Filter for:
- Has Email? > Is False
- Any other groups you wish to exclude; for example, deceased individuals.
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Export your Query as CSV. Select the following fields to be included:
- Contact Id, Contact Type, and Contact Name
- Individual Id, Title, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, and Suffix
- Primary Address Line 1, Line 2, City, State/Province, Postal, Country
- Phone
- Open a support ticket with the Virtuous Support Team that includes the type of data append you want (for example, an email address append) and the exact name of your Individual Query. Click here to learn more about submitting support tickets.
- The Virtuous team member will confirm your request and billing, if relevant. They will use your Query to export the Contact and Individual Information to search public and private data sources for appending the email addresses.
- Once records are matched, the update will be made to your CRM. Our team will follow up with your results, noting the number of Individuals submitted and the number that were successfully matched with emails. The Virtuous team member will also send a zip file of the raw data containing line by line information on what was submitted, what was updated, and how it was updated.
Will I Get Results For Every Record I Submit?
No. Match rates may vary based on the completeness and accuracy of your data. Incomplete or outdated records, such as missing addresses or partial names, may result in fewer matches. In some cases, an Individual's data simply isn't available in the public and private sources we use.
How Long Does It Take?
Data appends typically take between 2-3 business days to process after your list of Individuals has been submitted. Timing may vary based on weekends and holidays, or if any questions arise.
Can I Append International Data?
The email append only considers US data sources.
How Are We Billed?
You are billed per email record returned, not per record submitted. This means if you submit 6,000 records for an email update but only 2,000 are returned with results, you will only be charged for the 2,000.
If your Virtuous subscription already includes a set number of data appends per year, you will not be billed. If you'd like to add data appends to your contract in the future, contact your CSM or reach out to customersuccess@virtuous.org.
What Is The Zip File Sent To Me After The Email Append Runs?
After the Email Append is processed and the updates are made to your CRM, you will be sent a zip file of the raw data containing line by line information on what was submitted, what was updated, and how it was updated. This zip file does not require any action, however, it may be helpful to use these files to spot check the updates the Virtuous team made to ensure all records have been updated correctly. Some organizations keep these files for a few months as a backup of their original data. The file contains the following reports:
- File Layout Report: Explains every field in your output file so you know what each column represents.
- Address Quality Report: Summarizes how well your addresses matched USPS data and highlights any issues with deliverability.
- CASS Summary Report: The official USPS certification form confirming your addresses were processed with CASS-certified software. Often used for compliance or record-keeping.
- Data Quality Summary: A quick, high-level snapshot of your address accuracy and DPV results.
- Email Append Report: Shows your final match rate and whether emails were matched at the individual or household level
Why Is Address Information Included In An Email Append?
Email matching relies on accurate name and address data, so the the Virtuous team must standardize and validate the addresses first. These details are included so you can see exactly how the match was made. Address information returned here will NOT be updated in Virtuous. To make the address updates in your CRM, please request a NCOA if you would like to fully validate address data. Click here to learn more about NCOAs.
Want help turning these results into outreach workflows? To learn more about how Professional Services can help you, check out this resource.