Why is someone not getting the e-mail I sent?

Anonymous Blackbaud User

If you are sending e-mail (or test e-mail), and someone isn't getting the e-mail that you are sending when you expect them to, follow these steps to determine what is happening. These are the most likely reasons:

1. Blocked - Often times IT departments have rules setup on email systems that filter out what email can get through the system. A lot of times, even though Convio email is not spam, it is filtered out of the system as such. The best thing to do in this instance is to first check all spam and junk email filters on the local machine, then check with the IT department to make sure that Convio emails are permitted through.

2. Unsubscribed - People sometimes unsubscribe from e-mail when they didn't mean to. Unsubscribe links in test e-mails are "hot", that is, if you are testing e-mail, and complete the unsubscribe process, you'll suddenly stop getting e-mail. To check this, find the contact record in question by clicking on the Contacts button and searching for them. There is an "Accept E-mail" checkbox on their profile that determines whether or not e-mail is sent to them. While you are looking at this page, also check to see if the record is marked "Deceased" - we don't send email to these records, either.

3. Bounce - A bounce happens when something goes wrong while Convio is sending e-mail. The most common reasons are non-existent addresses or full mailboxes. You can examine their "E-mail Status" by following the steps to their contact record in #1 above. Someone with a Bad Status may or may not be getting your email. You can download csv files on the main communications list page that will have the hard and soft bounces for a particular e-mail message.

4. Not in the right group - It happens sometimes when you are sending e-mail where you expect someone (perhaps yourself) to receive it, but don't. Be sure that they are in the group you sent the e-mail to. To do this, visit the e-mail report and get the names of the groups you sent the email to. You can then either examine the Members tabs for each group and look for the person, or you can look in the Groups tab under their contact records. Keep in mind that if they are added (or removed) from the group between the time the e-mail is sent and you went to look, the real answer might be obscured. This is especially true if you have a lot of rebuilding groups.

5. Already Received - In Email Campaigns, you can send a specific message more than once. If you do so, people will only receive one delivery, and no further attempts to deliver to them will be attempted.