Overview
Organizations sometimes want to email contacts they didn’t collect
directly — for example, addresses found through a data-append service,
or a purchased list. This article explains what WeGive’s platform does
and does not enforce when it comes to where a contact’s email address
came from, and what to keep in mind before sending to a new list.
What WeGive enforces
WeGive doesn’t have a setting or system check that looks at how a
contact’s email address was obtained. Contacts added through an import,
an integration, or manual entry are all treated the same way once
they’re in your account — there’s no separate “appended” or “purchased”
category that gets flagged or blocked.
What WeGive does enforce, for every contact regardless of source:
- Opt-out status. If a contact is marked Do Not Contact or Do Not
Email (set manually, synced from your CRM, or set during import),
marketing emails won’t go to them.
- Deliverability-based suppression. If an address hard-bounces,
reports your email as spam, or unsubscribes, WeGive automatically
stops sending to it going forward. You can review these in
Settings → Email Settings → Email Health (Bounces, Complaints,
Unsubscribes).
Both of these are reactive — they take effect after a contact opts out
or an address shows a delivery problem, not before.
What WeGive does not enforce
WeGive does not evaluate, verify, or restrict whether you have
permission to email a given contact — that’s not a technical check the
platform performs. Whether it’s appropriate to email a list you didn’t
collect directly is a question of your own organization’s policies and
applicable law (e.g., CAN-SPAM, GDPR, or your own acceptable-use
commitments to your supporters), not something WeGive can answer or
enforce for you.
Before emailing a new or unfamiliar list
If you’re planning to email contacts from an appended or purchased
source:
- Confirm you have a legitimate basis to email them under the laws
that apply to your organization and the recipients’ location.
- Expect a higher bounce and complaint rate than your existing list
— addresses from third-party sources are more likely to be stale,
mistyped, or unfamiliar with your organization, which increases spam
complaints.
- Ramp up volume gradually rather than sending to the full list at
once. A sudden spike in volume from a domain that hasn’t recently sent
at that level can trigger a temporary bulk-sender reputation throttle
at the receiving mail provider (most commonly reported with Gmail) —
this affects your own sending domain’s reputation, separate from
WeGive’s infrastructure.
- Watch your Email Health report closely after the first few sends
so you can catch and correct problems early.
Tips
- A high bounce/complaint rate on a new list can affect your domain’s
sender reputation generally, including for your regular supporter
communications — treat a new list as something to test carefully, not
send to in full on day one.
- If you’re unsure whether a specific list or practice is appropriate,
that’s a question for your own organization’s leadership or legal
counsel, not a WeGive platform setting.
Last modified on October 6, 2026