Givalanche Glitches?

Nate Laning 2 · April 2016

I'm curious if anyone else has been experiencing Givalanche glitches since they started using the new feature offered in OLX? I have a support case open with Blackbaud regarding the issue. But I have been seeing some inconsistencies in the Givalanche portion of the gift confirmation email, and I'm curious if I'm the only one?

The biggest issue is with HTML code showing through in the email. It shows up in different places -- sometimes directly under the "Help start a Givalanche of good" line, sometimes under the "Share to get the givalanche rolling:" line, and sometimes under one of the clever images using to encourage others to Share, Give, and Be Updated as the Givalanche continues. Up to this point, I've mainly seen opening <table> tags show up in the email along with their inline CSS coding, but there has been a <p> tag on occasion.

Perhaps the most common issue we've had is the Facebook image not showing up. We'll often see the Twitter and Email images, but just a box with a red "X" in the place where the Facebook image should be.

I want to like the Givalanche feature. I want to use it more. But in our experience using it with our major crowdfunding campaign last month, it made me cringe every time I received a copy of the gift confirmation email with HTML code present and images lacking.

We've already stopped using the email service that is included with OLX because of inconsistent HTML code showing through into our emails (another case with the support team exists on that topic). Now it appears as if we cannot trust the Givalanche feature either.

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Chris Martin · April 2016

Hi Nate...I'm sorry for what you've experienced below.

I see that you do have a support case open where you reported this and we're going to continue to follow up with you directly there to it's resolution. But I wanted to reply here as well for anyone else who might be experiencing this.

Can I ask you a few follow-up questions?

1. Raw HTML that appears in some donation thank you emails

It sounds like you're only seeign this when Givalanche has been enabled. Is that correct Nate?

Also, are you only seeing this behavior when you or someone at your org is the donor? Or have donors outside your organization forwarded you copies of their emails behaving the same way? What we're after here is the specific email applications where this is confirmed to have occurred. For example, are you seeing it only when the thank you email is received in Outlook but not in Gmail?

You mention receiving copies of the gift confirmation emails where this behavior happens. Are these copies being sent from Online Express using the staff email notification feature? Or are these confirmation emails that donors received and were then forwarded to you?

2. Facebook button not rendering

Similar to above, are you only seeing this in specific email clients? If so (and if you haven't already done so), would you be able to forward any such instance to me directly at chris.martin@blackbaud.com?

Thanks Nate.

Nate Laning 2 · April 2016

Chris Martin:

Hi Nate...I'm sorry for what you've experienced below.

I see that you do have a support case open where you reported this and we're going to continue to follow up with you directly there to it's resolution. But I wanted to reply here as well for anyone else who might be experiencing this.

Can I ask you a few follow-up questions?

1. Raw HTML that appears in some donation thank you emails

It sounds like you're only seeign this when Givalanche has been enabled. Is that correct Nate?

Also, are you only seeing this behavior when you or someone at your org is the donor? Or have donors outside your organization forwarded you copies of their emails behaving the same way? What we're after here is the specific email applications where this is confirmed to have occurred. For example, are you seeing it only when the thank you email is received in Outlook but not in Gmail?

You mention receiving copies of the gift confirmation emails where this behavior happens. Are these copies being sent from Online Express using the staff email notification feature? Or are these confirmation emails that donors received and were then forwarded to you?

2. Facebook button not rendering

Similar to above, are you only seeing this in specific email clients? If so (and if you haven't already done so), would you be able to forward any such instance to me directly at chris.martin@blackbaud.com?

Thanks Nate.

Thanks for your reply, Chris. Thankfully, we have not received any forwards from donors notifying us of the issues described above. Instead, I'm seeing these issues in the emails I receive using the staff email notification feature you mentioned. I have received everything in Outlook. It would be great if it were only tied to those notifications. I suppose I don't know that for sure.

All of the HTML issues show up connected to the Givalanche area of the email. And once we turn off Givalanche, everything appears to behave correctly again. As far the inboxes receiving the faulty emails, according to our donors' email addresses, I'm seeing everything from Gmail to sbcglobal.net, as well as Yahoo and even domains related to workplaces. It doesn't look like there is any correspondence with a specific inbox.

The same is true with the Facebook image issue. The error seems to be random regardless of inbox.

I hope that answers your questions. Thanks again for reaching out!

Givalanche Glitches?

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