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.
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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.”
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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.