Contact Preferences
Manage and respect supporter communication preferences
Respecting supporter contact preferences is not only best practice, it is also a legal requirement in many countries. SupporterBase makes it easy to record, view, and update preferences so that volunteers are not accidentally contacted in ways they have opted out of.
Viewing supporter contact preferences
All users (admins, captains, and vice-captains) can see a supporter's preferences on their profile.
- If a supporter has opted out of a channel (e.g. email, SMS, phone calls), that option will appear greyed out at the top of their profile.
- Sometimes contact methods are greyed out simply because valid details are missing (e.g. no phone number on file). Once details are added, they will become contactable unless the supporter has opted out.
Admins and captains can also view a consolidated list of preferences for their group. From the main group page, click View Supporter Contact Preferences to see ticks or crosses for each supporter across the different channels.
Updating supporter contact preferences
There are three ways supporter preferences can be updated:
Via NationBuilder
Admins can decide whether SupporterBase should automatically honour NationBuilder contact preferences (toggle under Settings > Configurations).
If disabled, supporters are contactable by default unless they opt out via SupporterBase.
By the supporter themselves
Supporters can manage their preferences through your SupporterBase unsubscribe page (e.g. yourorg.supporterbase.com/unsubscribe).
On this page they:
- Identify themselves by email.
- Select the relevant group.
- Choose which channels (SMS, email, phone) they want to opt out of, or unsubscribe entirely.
Hidden vs unlisted groups
Groups set to hidden will not appear on the public unsubscribe page. Unlisted groups will appear.
Directly by group leaders
Captains and admins can update preferences from within a supporter's profile (link under their name), or within an SMS/email thread.
Important: preferences are per-group
Contact preferences are per-group, not organisation-wide
A supporter may want to opt out of one group's messages while staying in touch with another. If someone wants to stop receiving all communications, they need to be unsubscribed from each group they belong to in SupporterBase, and marked unsubscribed in NationBuilder as well.