Tell me about Suppression fields, especially Do Not Email

Thanks for the information, ​@torvic vardamis! I appreciate it. 

Fwiw I always advise clients not to use DNE suppression. Honestly, every client I’ve ever had that is used it has ended up, regretting it and changing their business rules to stop using it because they found it problematic.  Unsubscribe individual emails, And potentially create an activist code called Do Not Email but the suppression itself causes consternation.

Yeah, I think especially if its intent and behavior is not known, the fact that it cannot be overridden by user choice via Confirmed Opt-In is problematic. Knowing that it predates Confirmed Opt-In explains why it works that way, but it doesn’t make a ton of sense IMO. The only good use for it is if a Contact is a known bad actor or detractor. I think external systems populating this field should instead flip emails to Unsubscribed. 

Bonterrans: the Help File about Suppressions doesn’t mention Do Not Email at all. It should be updated to include it, especially with how dire and drastic the consequences are. If this flag is applied by someone who doesn’t understand how it functions, then it can be quite harmful to a nonprofit’s program.

https://help.bonterratech.com/everyaction/s/article/1669143-suppressions

Oh hey, while we’re here: I would like to use Create a List or Reports to generate a list of people who have the “Do Not Email” checkbox checked. I can include that as criteria when selecting something else, like Activist Code, by including or excluding Do Not Email from Suppressions, but it doesn’t seem straightforward to just get a list of people who have that flag. 

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Hi ​@Sally Heaven 

You go into Create a list

> Suppressions

> Clear All Suppressions

> Then select Do Not Email Only from the Do Not Email dropdown so it looks like this
(note -- this doesn’t mean that they might not also have other suppressions applied.  I know the naming is a little confusing)

> run the search.

Everyone who you get in that list should have a thing that looks like this in the email section of their contact record in the streamlined contact record layout.

I don’t think there’s any way to bulk clear a suppression (but maybe that has changed?).  I had a client with Do Not Mail suppression bulk set erroneously and we had to get a backend data job to have it bulk removed.
 

Dude ​@Rumi Matsuyama you are a lifesaver! I was only toggling between Include and Exclude. Totally missed Do Not Email Only. And probably would have misunderstood it. Thank you!

Thank you ​@Rumi Matsuyama for coming thru for ​@Sally Heaven! Glad Rumi’s answer provided clarity! 

Appreciate you both for being such active participants in the community :) 

Totally! ​@Liz Ragland did you see my comments about how the help file for Suppressions doesn’t mention Do Not Email? 

Speaking of Do Not Email, as I’ve been working with Exports and Reports lately, I’ve noticed that Do Not Email is available in the Standard Text export format, but not Subscription Status. It would be more useful to be able to include Subscription Status vs. Do Not Email.

Same with the Contribution Report. 

I totally get why it’s not there, since a contact can have more than one email associated with it, and thus can have two different Subscription Statuses, and yet. So much of the time nonprofits need that granularity when they are generating reports for use. For example, it could be Preferred Email Subscription Stats. Personal Email Subscription Status. etc.

I fear that people who aren’t in the know are choosing Do Not Email as a proxy for Subscription Status and assuming people are subscribed, when in fact, they are not. 

 Yes I did see it and I have sent it along to our team for help center review!