You may have used one of your Queries to build both a report and target an email and been puzzled as to why they don’t seem to target the same number of Activists. There’s a simple explanation for this, and it’s nothing to worry about. Although it may prompt you to look at engaging with Activists in other ways.

When you build a report using a Query you’re given the option to target the report based on email subscription status. If you’re working from an All Activist, or All Member query it’s usual practice to target these reports to include all email subscription statuses. This gives you a full picture of your Membership or Activist numbers. To achieve this you’ll need to select all of the possible email subscription statuses at the bottom of the Query Builder.

When targeting an email, Action Network filters out anyone who is unsubscribed (for any reason). So the number of Activists targeted by an email will typically be lower than the number included in a report, unless you’re lucky enough to have never had anyone unsubscribe from your list.

If you want to check the number of Activists who will be targeted by your email before sending it- you can create a report ensuring you tick only the Subscribed email subscription status. If you have a particularly active Group with regular changes to your list size you may find that this increases or decreases slightly when you do target your email- as the email targeting will check the targeting before sending and give an updated figure in real-time.