Procedures:

I. Email Production Checklist for All Electronic Mailings:

1) Determine the target population for the email and ensure that those who fall under the Standard Exclusions are removed from the list. The Standard Exclusions for Electronic Mailings for Advancement Activities are the same as the Standard Exclusions for direct-mail and telephone solicitations and appear in Appendix A. Note: Parents of enrolled students have been added to this list.

2) Schedule your email broadcast on the Advancement Electronic Mailings Master Calendar in Oracle Calendar (formally Corporate Time).

Click here to download a PDF file containing detailed instructions on how to use Oracle Calendar to schedule your Advancement Email - If you do not have the free Adobe Reader, there is a link at the bottom of this page.

Those who do not have access to Oracle Calendar should email the Development and Public Affairs (DPA) Email Coordinator (hoosonlineemail@virginia.edu) with the information listed below and the (DPA) Email Coordinator will place it on the calendar for you.

The Advancement Email Schedule is listed in Oracle Calendar as a resource under DEV-Advancement Email Schedule. Electronic Mailings for Advancement Activities are limited to one per recipient per day. A recipient list should not overlap substantially with those Email messages scheduled the day before or after your Email message. Place it on the schedule as far in advance as possible (ideally at least three weeks).

Please provide the following information:

• Date of the mailing

• Target audience (i.e., young alumni five years out, non-donors)

• Contact person

3) Designate the type of message:

• Information (e-publications), which can be widely broadcast with proper omit codes
• Invitation to an event (targeted as appropriate according to region, class year, etc., using omit codes where applicable)
• Solicitation (requiring the same omit codes as direct-mail and phone solicitations; see Appendix A

4) Line up a query or report to pull the email addresses of your recipients. All mailings originating from the Advance database must be processed through the Advance Mailings Module to apply all appropriate omits (mailings using the Kintera broadcast email tool automatically honor the Advance omit codes).

5) Arrange to have an unsubscribe code set up or to use one that already exists in Advance prior to mailing (for example, your school, your online magazine, event invitations, solicitations)

6) Arrange to create a Web page where recipients can subscribe or unsubscribe (This is handled automatically in Kintera).

7) Give recipients at least two unsubscribe options: 1) From emails like this one; 2) From all University emails.

8) Provide the recipient with a way to communicate with your department (i.e. contact name, email address,physical address, phone number).

9) Test the email on several platforms, such as:

• Outlook Express

• Eudora

• Webmail

• AOL

• Hotmail

• MSN

• GMail

10) Print the test email to ensure that it prints in an attractive and readable format.

11) Send the message to at least one test recipient who can point out problems.

12) If you do not have your own mail server, arrange to have the message sent by the University’s email service provider, Kintera (contact the Email Coordinator at 434-243-2363 or hoosonlineemail@virginia.edu for more information and to schedule training).

13) After sending the email, ensure that failed mail, bad addresses, new addresses, and other retrieved data are given to Information Systems in the Office of University Development within 10 working days to place on the Advance system (the Kintera broadcast email tool handles this automatically).

15) Ensure that opt-out data is given to Information Systems so that the appropriate omit code can be added to the recipient’s record on Advance (send these to Cassie Goodwin, cls5m@virginia.edu - This, too, is managed automatically by Kintera).

Additional Steps For Email Solicitations

• Ensure that recipients who fall under the Standard Exclusions for Email Solicitations are removed from the list. The Standard Exclusions for Email Solicitations appear in Appendix A. Exceptions to the Standard Exclusions may be arranged on a case-by-case basis through the Email Coordinator.

• Obtain an appeal code by contacting the Information Systems (IS) Help Desk in the Office of University Development and Public Affairs (IS website is http://www.dev.virginia.edu/is/).

II. Preparing the Email Message

The format

A. From line:

• The “from” line must contain one of the following:

• The name of the person sending the email message (i.e., Edward L. Ayers, U.Va. Arts & Sciences)

• The name of the entity sending the email message (i.e., U.Va. Club of New York)

• The name of the periodical if it’s a newsletter (i.e., U.Va. Headline News)

• If the “from” line does not contain an obvious reference to U.Va. (note preferred capitalization and punctuation of U.Va.), then the “subject” line must include “U.Va.”

• The “reply to” email address that accompanies the “from” line must be a valid email address that is being checked at least daily by someone affiliated with the mailing so that concerns and questions can be resolved immediately. It can be a person’s direct email address or an alias. It does not necessarily need to be the address of the person in the “from” line.

B. Subject line

The subject line should be:

• Short

• Enticing

• Honest (Does the content deliver what the subject line promises?)

• If the “from” line does not contain an obvious reference to U.Va. (note preferred capitalization and punctuation of U.Va.), then the “subject” line must include “U.Va.”

C. Body of the email message:

• When drafting the email message, use the same professional standards as direct mail, striking a tone appropriate for the institution and for the target audience.

• Use an appropriate format.

• Keep solicitations brief, leading quickly to the giving link.

• Newsletters in HTML format can be longer but should be set up as a series of short items that are easy to view and digest quickly.

• Use minimal graphic formatting and images.

• Keep the message relatively short and direct readers to the Web for additional information, full articles, etc.

• Include the name and physical address of the person or entity sending the message (in the spirit of the CAN-SPAM law).

• Include a sentence at the end of the message with instructions on how to opt out of future mailings on this topic (Kintera's eCommunication tool does this automatically).

Sample wording (if Kintera is not used): If you do not wish to receive future mailings on this topic, please reply to this message with the subject line "REMOVE". If you prefer not to receive any e-mail communication from the University, please reply with the subject line "REMOVE ALL".

Contact information

In the spirit of the CAN-SPAM law, the email message must include a “signature” block with the following:

• Name of contact, and

• Physical address (must be able to receive mail), or

• Email address (must be able to receive mail), or

• Telephone number of contact (a staffed phone; not necessarily the direct line of the contact), and

• Name of department or program, and

• Department’s Web site

Dealing with responses

Set up a process for reading responses to your message and reply within 24 hours.

If you do not have all the information needed, send an email saying you are following up on the request and that you will get back to the sender shortly.

Appendix A: Exclusions Checklist

When planning an email broadcast, work with the Email Coordinator to determine which exclusions apply to your project.

Standard Exclusions from ALL E-Mail Broadcasts

• Deceased people

• “Omit from all mailings” codes

• “Omit from all e-mail” codes

• “Omit from this type of email” codes

Standard Exclusions from E-Mail SOLICITATIONS for Philanthropic Support

• Reunion year undergraduates (Reunions ID List)

• Young alumni (up to five years from graduation)

• Current fourth-year class

• Thomas Jefferson Society members (50th Reunion alumni and older)

• Non-alumni faculty, ex-faculty, staff

• Parents of enrolled students

• Board of Visitors members (any BOV with committee status = ‘A’, ‘C’ or ‘H’)

• Donors who have given in the current fiscal year to the school or program that the segment is being solicited to support (all donors, not just annual fund donors)

• President’s Fund for Excellence prospects

• Principal gifts prospects (prospect_group_code = PG)

• President’s prospects (classification_code = PR)

• Lawn Society members (gift_club_code = LS)

• Current FY Rotunda Society members (gift_club_code = RSM and gift_club_end_date = 20050630)

• Donors of In-Honor-of or In-Memory-of gifts

• Donors with current fiscal-year phonathon pledges

• Donors with active pledges to annual accounts

• Solicitation codes (record status not = A) and entity.solicit_ctrl_code = ‘N’

• For Spring segments, exclude those who were solicited in the Fall segments

Links:

Advancement Email Policy

Advancement Email Best Practices

Advancement Email Policy Committee Members

Last Updated: 4/11/2006