Query Quirks

Diane Calabria

From time to time, when I set criteria for a direct mail appeal, certain constituents who appear in every way to fit the criteria do not get pulled. Case: A certain constituent did not receive a recent appeal. I investigate to find out why not. I compared the criteria used for a Summer 2021 appeal (which the constituent did receive) with the criteria used for February 2022 appeal (which the constituent did not receive). The criteria was very similar. The few small differences should not have made a difference. It's not a matter of NVA or inactive, or deceased. What am I missing? This happens too many times for me to ignore with a shoulder shrug…

La Donna Borth

Hi Diane,

I think everyone has had mysterious issues with mailing lists on occasion. Have you double-checked your export method criteria, too? Whether exporting with the Mail tab or the export, there are criteria in both of those that could drop someone from your mailing list. Other than that, I've found that when my team increases the complexity of who to include and who to exclude, it can cause unexpected dropping of donors from our mailing lists.

Good luck finding the issue!

JoAnn Strommen

I solved one of my puzzling pulls when I looked and discovered someone had a seasonal address. Could that be a factor?

Diane Calabria

thanks JoAnn. No, in this particular case, seasonal address is not the culprit.

Diane Calabria

Thank you La Donna. The complexity issue may be the culprit…..though the two queries were soooo similar.