Spam Prevention Toolkit

Spam is more than simply a nuisance. Those unwanted ads for mortgages, pharmaceuticals, and unclaimed millions filling your inbox can inflict a variety of problems upon your organization, from lost time and correspondence to identity theft, viruses, and other forms of malware.

Complicating matters is the fact that some of the tools designed to fight these problems — like spam filters — may also prevent your organization's legitimate email from reaching constituents and funders, disrupting communication and negatively impacting your campaigns.

Protect Your Nonprofit

Techniques

Things You Can Do to Prevent Spam
We'll show you simple steps you can take to reduce the amount of spam in your inbox.

Tools

Ten Spam-Filtering Methods Explained
With spam accounting for an increasing amount of all email messages, having a reliable spam-filtering system can be a lifesaver. Here, we explain how 10 popular anti-spam methods work and briefly outline some of their pros and cons.

Learn the difference between server-side and client-side spam filters and get a step-by-step guide to installing the free Mercury spam filter on your system.

Other Issues to Consider

Don't Get Lured by Phishing Scams
Phishers pose as legitimate organizations to fish for credit-card data and other sensitive information online. Learn how to identify phishing scams, how to avoid becoming a victim, and how to make sure your nonprofit's messages look legit.

Spam is irritating on its own, but like pigeons, it can also carry all sorts of diseases — including viruses, spyware, and other forms of malware. Learn how you can set up your systems and educate your coworkers to best defend your computers against these added threats.

Don't Be Mistaken for a Spammer

Keeping Your Constituents Happy

There are more than a dozen states that require "opt-out" instructions for email lists, and more than half of them mandate that a request be honored. Learn how to stay compliant.

Wait, That Newsletter's Not Spam!
Although following the rules outlined in the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers is a good start, there's more involved in ensuring that your email newsletters reach your constituents. We'll show you how to keep your organization's messages from being marked as spam.

Avoid Filters and Blacklists

10 Spam Fighting Tips for IT Managers
System administrators, take note: The way you configure your organization's servers can affect whether your outgoing messages get marked as spam.

How Sender Authentication Affects Your Outbound Emails
Authentication is rapidly becoming a critical factor for determining whether your email messages are delivered — or snared in a spam filter. We'll show you how to comply with email-sender authentication so that your important messages aren't filtered out.