Guidelines for Choosing Mail Rules

There are four main things to consider when choosing mail rules:
 

Did the individual write a letter?  Make a call?  In these cases, hopefully, the donor has been very specific with his or her request, or in the case of a phone call, we will have the opportunity to ask them questions regarding what sort of restrictions he or she does want.  But in more vague cases, such as when the donor just returned a mailing label or piece of mail with a
brief note saying “please take me off your list,” we will go with a less restrictive mail rule, removing the donor from just that type of mailing.  For example, a returned label from a copy of the Chicago Egyptian with a note “Please take me off your list” would result in the mail rule DNDCHEALL (Do Not Send Chicago Egyptian.)  However, if you can’t tell what type of mail prompted the request from the donor, go with the more restrictive DNCMALALL (Do Not Contact Mail SIU.)
   If there are previous restrictions on a individual’s record, take these into consideration when another request comes in.  For example, if you receive the above “Take me off your list” note on the returned Chicago Egyptian, but see that the individual already has a DNSTFDALL (Do Not Solicit Telefund SIU) code, then, rather than adding the DNDCHEALL code, go ahead
and add the more restrictive code DNCALLALL, with the idea that if the individual does not want mail and does not want telefund calls, he or she probably does not want to hear from us at all.
   If the donor contacts us with a more vague request like the one above, but has included a reason that is more specific or can be considered general in terms of that person’s opinion of the University as a whole, then that should be taken into account when choosing the mail rule.  For example, if someone says “Please take me off your list because I don’t agree with the politics of the Public Policy Institute,” on a piece of returned direct mail that has nothing to do with PPI, then code that person as DNCALLALL.  However, if the same message was on a piece of mail sent by the Public Policy Institute, then remove that person from PPI contact only with DNCALLSIM.
  We should look at all the ways the individual is connected to SIUC when considering which mail rule to choose and make the choices less restrictive based on the more connections the person has.  For example, if the donor supports WSIU only and is not an alum or current/former employee or relative (as far as we know) of an alum, current student, employee, etc, then using DNCALLALL for a “take me off your list” request might be appropriate.  However, if you see that the person also supports his or her college, or the softball team, or the University Museum, then you might remove the person from WSIU mailings only.
 
 
 

Last update: 11.07.01