Why are some Participant Center emails being blocked or not delivered?

This article was originally posted by Blackbaud on https://kb.blackbaud.com/

Description: Some of our participants are reporting that their email sent from their Participant Center (PC) is being blocked before sending or is not being delivered if it makes it past the block.

Answer:

Our monitoring recently detected a sudden and significant increase in bad actors using $0 registration events as platforms to send out large numbers of spam emails using the Luminate Online platform. While these bad actors have no access to any of your or your fundraiser’s information, the high volume of spam impacts the deliverability of all senders, causing your fundraisers’ emails to be delayed or not received at all.

To prevent further negative impact on participant email deliverability, Blackbaud is making immediate changes to PC email functionality. Starting on April 6, 2023, we have added a minimum fundraising (registration or donation) amount of $5.00 USD will be required BEFORE enabling the email functionality within Participant Center to improve the deliverability of participant emails. This change will be for all Luminate Online sites.

We understand that sudden change can be disruptive; however we are implementing this change quickly to stem the malicious actions of the spammers and to improve the likelihood of a fundraiser’s emails being received. If a participant chooses to donate $5.00 or more to themselves upon registering, or your event requires a registration fee of $5.00 or more, there will be no interruption to a participant’s ability to send email. 

What is the participant's experience?

A participant must meet one of these criteria to use Participant Center email:

• Participant has transacted $5 or more to the organization at any point
• Participant has received confirmed donations of $5 or more from other donors
• Participant record is 365 days or older
• Secondary participant must receive a soft credited donation or make a transaction themselves to send an email.
• Participants will still have access to update their Personal Page and share it via social media, personal email, or text message. Once the participant has met one of the criteria listed above, they will gain access to email capabilities.

Will constituents receive an error message when they go to send emails and have not donated?

Participants who haven't met the criteria will be able to draft an email and click send, but the email will be blocked. The criteria is evaluated on the send submission, not on drafting the email. This is product functionality. The participants will not know this unless they review their sent emails.

Is there suggested messaging to add to the participant center and website?

A lightbox has been added to most sites to alert admins to the change. There is no messaging that we can add inside PC for participants due to customizations and different versions. However, you can change the blocked message that appears when a participant is viewing their sent items. These steps are listed below.

If the participant reviews their Sent folder in their PC, they may see the message was blocked with the message below:

"Dear Spam,

This message was intended to send to [[A0]] from participant [[A1]] in event [[A2]] on site id [[A3]]. This message was blocked due to violation of spam policies. The original message is below."

If you have any questions on this, please submit a Freshdesk ticket.