Is this an action or an appeal?

Jill Freidmutter · June 2016

We send an annual report postcard to group of constituents. There's no appeal or return envelope included. How would you record this mailing? As an action, an appeal, or something else?

To provide context, we also send twice a year print newsletters. These have a remittance envelope in them, so I enter these mailings in constituent records as appeals. The annual report used to be more like a newsletter, with a remittance envelope, but a few years ago we moved to a large postcard with photos and infographics.

I am just beginning to understand that actions are often used to record specific actions taken with a prospect. I'm not sure if using an action to record a mailing to 6000+ constituents makes sense or not. Your response is greatly appreciated.

Sage Evans · June 2016

I've actually seen this done both ways - as an action and as an appeal. At my last job we had policy in place to record this sort of mailing as an action. At my current job, as an appeal.

I have found that the answer may be in where your users look for information. When I started at my current job, most users would look to the appeals tab to see what mailings had been sent recently - actions are saved for more personalized interactions.

Jen Claudy · June 2016

I think you could do either. Here, we use Appeals for all mass-mailings and Actions for more specific/customized communications. I have Appeal Categories that indicate if it's an actual ask, a mailing with no ask, or a soft ask like a newsletter with a remittance envelope. But anything that is sent out with little or no personalization or to more than 50 constituents, likely ends up as an Appeal. I would also opt, in your case, for the consistency of leaving it on Appeals since historically that's where that information lives. Otherwise, you have to either remember where to look, or look in two places. If your fundraisers are requesting the change for some reason, then that would be probably a reason to do it (or to duplicate information, much as I dislike duplicating).

Beth Palmer · June 2016

I like Appeals because they can be added globally and that saves me time. Actions are more time consuming and I use them for more personal actions like send these folks a birthday card, etc.

Jill Freidmutter · June 2016

Thank you all for your guidance. I think I will record the Annual Report as an appeal. It would mostly be me looking to see who received which mailings, and since all the other mailings are appeals, it makes more sense there. Enjoy the day!

Jill Freidmutter · June 2016

Beth Palmer:

I like Appeals because they can be added globally and that saves me time. Actions are more time consuming and I use them for more personal actions like send these folks a birthday card, etc.

Actions can be added globally as well ;-) Thanks for your feedback. There seems to be a consensus to use actions for more personal interactions. I think that makes the most sense for us too.

John Molloy · July 2016

We use actions as a way to track all communications to a Constituent in one single location. It gives people a better idea of how, when and why we are communicating as we don't want to be spamming Constituents.

For Appeals we simply track that the appeal was sent out in the action. Everything else is recorded in the Appeals tab, i.e. the Appeal itself and the response to it.

It may seem like a bit of duplication of data but it prevents users from having to pop in and out of different tabs when planning comms.

Jen Claudy · July 2016

A former boss requested that Appeals be duplicated as Actions, as John mentioned. With RE:NXT, I'd love to see Appeals included with the Notes & Actions Tile. Here's the Idea I just added in the NXT Idea Bank if you'd like to add your vote.

Is this an action or an appeal?

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