How to mark individual as "do not mail"

Bryan Konieczka:
How do I mark an individual as "do not mail" in Raiser's Edge? I have unchecked the "send mail to this address" box and they still show up in a query.

The Send mail to this address is not considered when running a query, unless you include it in your query criteria.  It is more meant for the Mail functions, which will look at that check box to see if that address should be pulled.  Note that it is only related to the address, not the constituent, so the Mail function also has an option for what to do if no valid address is found (i.e. remove from mailing, include with no address).

 

Bryan Konieczka:
How do I mark an individual as "do not mail" in Raiser's Edge? I have unchecked the "send mail to this address" box and they still show up in a query.

 I have always found that it works to set up Solicit Codes and use those in the queries.  I use several and include or exclude depending on the situation. 

Do Not Mail, Do Not Solicit, Duplicate in Household, One Appeal a Year, Annual Report Only, Newsletter Only -- seem to be some of the standards that get utilized.

 It is then easy to Merge queries and SUBtract the records with those solicit codes out of your list.

Bryan Konieczka:
How do I mark an individual as "do not mail" in Raiser's Edge? I have unchecked the "send mail to this address" box and they still show up in a query.

Bryan - I would advise against unchecking the send mail to this address box and using solicit codes as others have advised. - That is what solicit codes are for, restricting mailings, events and other activity. - The 'Send mail' checkbox should be for the validity of the address or if it's a possible address to send mail to. Is this a valid address? (if it's partial/incomplete, uncheck). Is this an address we would potentially send mail to? (if constituent has requested to not receive mail at this address for some reason, uncheck). If it's a former address, you would be unchecking the Send mail as well as changing the address type to -FORMER. Otherwise, the address should remain checked to receive mail. You then use your solicit codes to indicate if the constituent does not want to receive mail, get event invitations, etc. Otherwise, you end up not knowing the real reason why this address is unmarked to send mail - Did the constituent tell you something, did you get a mail return, did they request no mailings -- it can get very confusing. If you clearly use a solicit code for the purpose of including/excluding from mailings, it's much clearer.

Bryan Konieczka:
Thank you everyone for the insight. We are new to all things Raiser's Edge. Perhaps you can help me understand how to properly add the solicit code to the query. We have a solicit code for "Do Not Mail Newsletter". When I add this to the criteria, it isn't clear to me what to do to get it to not include a constituent in a mailing list. Sorry if this seems elementary. I really appreciate the help.

Bryan,

When you create your constituent query, on the criteria tab go to Solicit Codes > Solicit Code Description > Does not equal / Not One of  "Do Not Mail Newsletter".  Just use this as one of your criteria.  You wpuld need an AND to link it with other criteria and you may need other criteria in ( ) so that it finds all records meeting criteria and then excludes solicit code.

Have you looked at solutions in knowledgebase?  I entered 'how to query using solicit codes' to find some for you - this was the first one of several solutions.

How to query on solicit codes

Your organization may wish to group records with or without specific solicit codes in order to gather a list for mailing. This solution provides information on how to use Query to group records with or without solicit codes.BB82178  

 

Christine Cooke:

"Do Not Mail, Do Not Solicit, Duplicate in Household, One Appeal a Year, Annual Report Only, Newsletter Only -- seem to be some of the standards that get utilized."



This is great to read - I inherited practices that include only a solicit code 'no' or 'yes' in the solicit codes field (or blanks unfortunatley) and have been utilizing the attributes function instead to try and identfy everyone else...I don't think I relaized there can be more options for solicit code than that! May I ask though about the 'duplicate in household'? We use a Main Address No in Attributes because it seems they might be kids or college students - I was afraid to include our only option of solicit code 'no' because then I was afraid if they gave a gift at some point that this field would remain solicit code no and we could really be soliciting them - if they gave an address with their gift (I am thinking of a student that moves out and then supports too with their own household) Do you find that you are able to locate those and update accordingly? DO you have any procedure in place for updating a duplicate in household record if they end up giving at some point?  Any other thoughts on utilizing solicit code field welcome too!!



Bryan Konieczka:

How do I mark an individual as "do not mail" in Raiser's Edge? I have unchecked the "send mail to this address" box and they still show up in a query.

 I have always found that it works to set up Solicit Codes and use those in the queries.  I use several and include or exclude depending on the situation. 

Do Not Mail, Do Not Solicit, Duplicate in Household, One Appeal a Year, Annual Report Only, Newsletter Only -- seem to be some of the standards that get utilized.

 It is then easy to Merge queries and SUBtract the records with those solicit codes out of your list.