Charity Officials Reluctant to Rent Bulk Lists of E-Mail Addresses

As electronic communication is growing in popularity, some major direct-mail companies are starting to offer bulk e-mail lists for rent — but charities have been reluctant to use them.

Non-profit organizations are using e-mail more and more to reach potential donors, sending them news alerts, invitations, and thank-you messages, but their lists contain mostly people who have asked to be on them. Using bulk e-mail is a step that many charities are not yet prepared to take.

People who use the Internet may pay for their time on line, or they may pay per message, so getting unwanted e-mail can cost them money. What’s more, many people worry about privacy in cyberspace and feel uneasy if their e-mail address is used without permission.

Habitat for Humanity International, in Americus, Ga., was recently offered a bulk e-mail list but turned it down. “We definitely aren’t buying names,” says Sara R. Franing, project coordinator for direct marketing. The charity does not yet contact donors electronically, but when it does, officials do not plan to use bulk e-mail. Currently, staff members write a lot of individual letters to supporters of the charity, says Ms. Franing, and officials want to keep that personal touch.

So far, most charities have used e-mail with great caution, accumulating their own lists of people who have asked to get news electronically from the organization. While charity officials say they would probably get some donations using a rented list, they would likely not pull in enough money to make it worth the cost of offending some potential donors.

Experts say the commercial lists may use names that come from on-line subscription lists or from warranty cards or surveys — or they can be obtained without consumers’ knowledge from Internet discussion areas or from e-mail addresses that are listed on World-Wide Web sites.

Nick Allen, director of Internet services at Mal Warwick & Associates, a direct-marketing consulting firm in Berkeley, Cal., cautions against using bulk e-mail lists unless the charity already has an established relationship with the direct-marketing company.

Even if the list is said to contain a certain group of names, such as people who have an interest in a certain disease, he adds, it is probably not as good as one the charity could compile on its own.

If a charity does decide to rent a list, experts say, it is important to ask where the names came from. In addition, Mr. Allen suggests checking whether people on the list have indicated that they would like to get information on a particular topic and have been offered the option of being removed from the list at any time.

Some companies charge more for e-mail lists than regular direct-mail lists. One large broker, for example, charges $200 to $300 per thousand for an e-mail list and $100 for a comparable direct-mail list. However, some companies offer reduced prices to charities.

In any case, Mr. Allen suggests erring on the side of caution. Sending e-mail that brings in a few gifts but angers a lot of potential donors could be a disastrous public-relations move, he says. “You could lose your credibility.”