Use case · SimpleVerifier Team
Email list cleaning for nonprofits
Nonprofit lists hold donors, volunteers and supporters gathered over many years, and an appeal that bounces cannot be resent in time. Verify before major appeals such as year-end giving, stop emailing invalid addresses while keeping the donor record, and move donors whose email fails to post or phone.
A charity's list is its relationship history. Cleaning it is not about shrinking it; it is about making sure the appeal reaches the inboxes that still exist, from an account that is not suspended in the busiest week of the year.
Why donor lists need care
Donors outlast their email addresses
A long-standing donor may have given every year for a decade from three different addresses. The donor database keeps the oldest one unless someone updates it.
Petitions and events add lower-quality addresses
Campaign sign-ups and event lists bring in many addresses at once, typed fast, and often never confirmed. Verify them before they merge into the donor file.
A suspension during appeal season
Brevo can suspend at a 2% hard bounce rate and HubSpot at 5% in a month. A year-end appeal to an unchecked list is the moment those lines are most likely to be crossed. Sources in bounce limits by platform.
Budgets don't stretch to per-address fees
On Pro, verification is not metered, so cleaning before every appeal costs the same as cleaning once a year.
Before a major appeal
Export supporters from your email platform or donor database
Guides for Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Brevo and Google Sheets. Include the donor ID.
Verify, then write the status back
Import the result as an email status field on each donor record instead of deleting anyone, so the gift history stays intact.
Move failed-email donors to another channel
Add donors whose email is invalid to the postal or phone appeal. For US postal addresses, USPS NCOALink updates addresses for people who filed a change of address.
Send the email appeal to valid and engaged risky supporters
Supporters who still open are worth mailing even when their domain cannot be confirmed.
Donor results and what to do with them
| Result | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| valid | Email appeal | Confirmed mailbox. |
| risky, still opening | Email appeal | Yahoo or catch-all, but the supporter is engaged. |
| risky, no recent opens | Postal appeal | Unconfirmed and unengaged. |
| risky · Role-based (grants@, foundation@) | Keep for institutional funders | Shared inboxes are how many foundations and corporate partners work. |
| invalid | Stop emailing, keep the donor | Switch channel; ask for a new address at the next gift. |
Common questions
- Should a nonprofit delete donors whose email bounces?
- No. Stop emailing the address and keep the donor record and gift history. Ask for an updated address on the next gift or by post.
- When should a charity verify its email list?
- Before each major appeal, after merging event or petition sign-ups, and before moving to a new email platform.
- Are role addresses like grants@ worth keeping?
- For foundations and corporate partners, yes. They come back risky because they are shared inboxes, but that is how those organisations receive mail.
Clean your supporter list
Pro is $29.99 a month with no cap on verifications: CSV uploads, the API, the Google Sheets add-on and the email finder are all included. Cancel any time.
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