NCT CEO apologises for fundraising event e-mail attachment error

Howard Lake | 30 April 2002 | News

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) has apologised for sending a huge attachment via e-mail to subscribers on one of its e-mail lists.

Belinda Phipps, Chief Executive of the NCT, apologised to subscribers for sending a message with a 5 Mb attachment, designed to promote the charity’s NCTea party fundraising event.

Acknowledging that the attachment “will probably have caused you problems”, Ms Phipps explained: “as you can tell this is the first time we have ever attempted something like this and because we are not experts it went horribly wrong.

A number of recipients contacted NCT to let them know about the mistake and problem.

Ms Phipps added: “We have now reduced the NCTea party file to a much smaller size (32k not 5 Mb).”

A direct and rapid apology from a charity’s chief executive is refreshing. Nevertheless it underlines the point that even in mid-2002 a national charity has still not managed to master the basics of e-mail communication. It is still new media for some.

Ms Phipps did, however, use her e-mail apology effectively. She encouraged supporters to come to the NCT annual conference in London, joking that they could “take me to task personally for the e-mail mistake.”

The Chief Executive concluded by thanking subscribers for their patience. “I think we have now learned a significant amount about e-mail so we won’t make the same mistake again.”

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.