A donor calls and says, “Stop sending me the year-end letters, but I still want the member newsletter.” Whoever takes that call has to decide where to record it in Altru. Two places look like they could work: a mail preference on the constituent record, or something tied to how your appeals are categorized. Pick the wrong one and the donor gets the letter anyway, or stops getting things they wanted.
The short version: mail preferences describe the person, and appeal categories describe your mailings. You usually need both, and they do different jobs. Here’s how to think about each one and how to make them work together.
What a mail preference is for
A mail preference lives on the constituent record. It records what that person has told you about how and whether they want to hear from you: do not send a certain kind of mail, send it to a different address, send it by email instead, or send one copy to the household instead of one per person.
The key point is that it belongs to the constituent, not to any single campaign. When someone says “no more fundraising mail,” that’s a fact about them that should hold for every appeal you run this year and next. It should be recorded once, in one place, and respected automatically when you pull a list.
Mail preferences are also where the reason and the date belong. A note like “asked by phone, October, no appeals, keep newsletter” saves the next person from guessing whether the preference is still current.
What an appeal category is for
An appeal category is a label on the appeal itself. It groups your appeals so you can report on them together: annual fund, year-end, capital campaign, membership renewal, event invitation, and so on. It answers questions like “how did all of our spring appeals do compared to last year?”
An appeal category says nothing about any individual’s wishes. Tagging an appeal “Year-end” doesn’t stop anyone from receiving it. It only becomes a suppression tool when your list-building process checks it against something on the constituent record.
Where teams get tangled
The common mistakes are mirror images of each other:
- Using appeal categories as opt-outs. Someone creates a category like “Do not solicit” and tries to attach donors to it. Categories aren’t built to hold people, so this ends up as a workaround that nobody else on staff understands.
- Making mail preferences too granular. Creating a separate preference for every individual campaign means a donor who opts out of the spring appeal still gets the fall one. Preferences should match the kinds of mail a person can reasonably opt out of, not your campaign calendar.
- Recording the request somewhere else entirely. A note, an attribute, or a constituent interaction can capture the conversation, but if your appeal queries don’t filter on it, it won’t suppress anything.
A setup that holds up
1. Agree on a short list of mail kinds
Decide which broad types of communication a constituent can opt in or out of. For most museums, gardens, and zoos that’s something like fundraising appeals, membership renewals, event invitations, newsletters, and acknowledgments. Keep it short. Donors think in these terms, and staff can apply them consistently on the phone.
2. Align your appeal categories to those kinds
Your appeal categories can be more detailed than your preference types, but each category should map cleanly to one kind of mail. “Year-end” and “Spring annual fund” both roll up to fundraising appeals. “Gala invitation” rolls up to events. Write that mapping down. It’s the bridge between what a donor asked for and which appeals should skip them.
3. Check whether Altru can make the connection for you
How directly Altru ties a constituent’s mail preference to a specific appeal or category depends on your configuration and how you build mailings. I’m not going to claim it filters by appeal category automatically, because that varies with how your appeals, mail types, and preference settings are set up. Test it in a sandbox if you have one: set a preference on a test constituent, build the mailing the way you normally would, and see whether that record drops out. If you’re unsure, Blackbaud support can confirm what your version does.
4. Build suppression into the query either way
Even if Altru handles some of it, your appeal selection queries should explicitly exclude constituents with the matching preference, plus anyone deceased, inactive, or marked with a general do-not-contact flag. Save those exclusions as a reusable selection so every new appeal starts from the same clean base instead of someone rebuilding filters from memory.
5. Spot-check before every drop
Before a list goes to the mail house, pull a handful of constituents you know have opted out and confirm they aren’t on it. It takes five minutes and catches the cases where a new appeal was set up with the wrong category.
Quick answers
A donor wants no appeals but still wants membership renewals. Where does that go?
On the constituent as a mail preference for fundraising appeals only. Your renewal mailings shouldn’t check that preference, and your appeal mailings should.
Should I create a new appeal category for donors who asked not to be solicited?
No. Categories describe mailings, not people. Put the person’s wishes on their record and let the query do the excluding.
Do mail preferences cover email too?
Treat email consent as its own question and confirm how your setup records it. Email opt-outs often also live in whatever email platform you send from, so make sure the two stay in agreement instead of assuming one updates the other.
