Adding Constituent records with no info, other than email address

Beth O'Grady:
I apologize if this has already been addressed, couldn't find anything. I received a list of email addresses to be entered into RE. Any suggestions for how to add constituent records when the only info I have is the email address (no name)? Anonymous 1, Anonymous 2, etc? Has anyone dealt with this situation before and could share some insight?

Beth O'Grady:
I apologize if this has already been addressed, couldn't find anything. I received a list of email addresses to be entered into RE. Any suggestions for how to add constituent records when the only info I have is the email address (no name)? Anonymous 1, Anonymous 2, etc? Has anyone dealt with this situation before and could share some insight?

Ditto Melissa's questions.  And what will you do with the records if you do put them in RE?

Do you intend to contact these "people" without any info?  Impersonal solicitations?  You can't pull in name field of  Dear 'Anonymous 1'.  How do you know the person/org does not already have a record in RE but you don't have email recorded?  I just see it as a fast easy way to make a lot of useless records in RE.

Personally, if I were handed the list with the request to put in RE, I would be 100% against putting them in if this is truely all the info I had for each record.

Beth O'Grady:
Before I was at the organization, and before they had RE, the org sent out monthly e-newsletters from a list that was created outside of RE (people subscribe on our website, but the only info that was required to subscribe and be added to the list was email address), so I have a list of about 500 emails that are not in RE that we want to include in RE because we are going to start sending our e-newsletter through netcommunity. The email addresses would be used for our e-newsletter, which is not personalized. I would rather not add them and instead just upload the excel file into netcommunity for e-newsletter, however I have pretty much been told it's necessary by the powers that be.

that is an understandable answer. I think your solution is the better option (and exactly why you have the option to upload directly to BBNC) but you can't always argue with the powers that be.

I have seen (but makes me cringe) people put <none> in the last name field (with the <>) for records like this. I think it is the best thing when stuck in the predicament you are in. I certainly hope that your org will begin to use best practices for new newsletter subscriptions and require a tad more than just an email address.

Question - how are you going to ensure you are not adding duplicates to your system with constituents who have donated AND signed up online for newsletters? Hve you already screened for this? Do you have Import-O-Matic? Because it could catch these "duplicates" on entry so easily.

Beth O'Grady:
Before I was at the organization, and before they had RE, the org sent out monthly e-newsletters from a list that was created outside of RE (people subscribe on our website, but the only info that was required to subscribe and be added to the list was email address), so I have a list of about 500 emails that are not in RE that we want to include in RE because we are going to start sending our e-newsletter through netcommunity. The email addresses would be used for our e-newsletter, which is not personalized. I would rather not add them and instead just upload the excel file into netcommunity for e-newsletter, however I have pretty much been told it's necessary by the powers that be.

I don't see what you gain by adding them in RE; it's a waste of time in my opinion. Time wasted adding them & then in a few years, more time wasted deleting them when you decide to clean up your database. I'd advocate for continuing to upload them via excel file in NC - which is totally why there's an option for uploading an imported list!

Best of luck!