Sending email on behalf of the church is different to sending email in a personal capacity as it needs to be done within the church’s Privacy Policy. As a general rule of thumb you can assume Trustees, staff and perhaps one or two other acknowledged roles have email addresses, phone numbers and other personal information that is public knowledge. The most obvious example is that Eddie’s name is on the board fixed to the side of the church building.
In all other cases, or in case of doubt, send the email to yourself and BCC the actual recipients. This means that anyone may sign-up to receive information without fear of having their personal information revealed to others. It can be a particularly grey area when someone has provided you their contact details in a personal capacity but may not have intended it to be shared with the whole church let alone the wider world. Unless we have explicit permission for information to be included in the church directory it should not be shared to anyone else including by writing an email to several people, which anyone may then reply to.
It’s also worth noting that we should never write email addresses or phone numbers on public sites such as corshambaptists.org; facebook etc. Best practice is to refer to people by first name only and that contact may be made through a contact page or the church office.
Now that we’re ready to write an email, I offer the template below to provide both a simple branding and the necessary opportunity to decline further contact.
Corsham Baptist Church
Dear …
We think you are part of our CBC family because you have provided this address to us in the past for the church directory. If that is no longer true or you want to update what we contact you about please accept our apologies and update us here. (Please note it will take us a short while to action your update)