Data Submission Instructions

As part of Scout Quest participation, you will be asked to submit the following files through a secure file sharing platform. An individual (or individuals) at your organization must be designated as the file submitter(s), and our team will set them up in our platform.

Scout Quest File Submission

1) AUDIENCE FILE: An export of every US email address in your organization’s system (whether unsubscribed or not — we’re looking for everyone in the United States). This file should be a single column of email addresses. Please exclude records from outside the US or where you are unsure of the address. Please also exclude any individuals who have exercised their right to opt out of sharing personal data (note that this is different from an email opt-out).

2) UNSUBSCRIBED FILE: An export of every email address in your organization’s system that is currently unsubscribed (i.e. opted out from receiving email). This file should be a single column of email addresses.

3) 6 AND 12 MONTH OPENER FILES (Two files requested): a file of everyone who has opened an email since September 1, 2024, as well as a separate file of everyone who has opened an email since March 1, 2025, or as close to those time frames as possible (we are allowing some leeway here, knowing that some CRMs may track this as a specific date, others may give a relative range). These two files should be a single column of email addresses.

4) 6 AND 12 MONTH CLICKER FILES (Two files requested): a file of everyone who has clicked an email since September 1, 2024, as well as a separate file of everyone who has clicked an email since March 1, 2025, or as close to those time frames as possible (we are allowing some leeway here, knowing that some CRMs may track this as a specific date, others may give a relative range). These two files should be a single column of email addresses.

5) 6 AND 12 MONTH ACTION-TAKER FILES (Two files requested): a file of everyone who has taken an online advocacy action since September 1, 2024, as well as a separate file of everyone who has taken an online advocacy action since March 1, 2025, or as close to those time frames as possible. If your organization does not engage in online advocacy, please let us know (in which case, this submission would not be required). These two files should be a single column of email addresses.

6) ONLINE AND DIRECT MAIL DONATION DATA: An export of online and direct mail donations from US addresses, from January 1, 2020 – September 1, 2025, with the following fields. Please note that when we ask for “direct mail” donations, we’re specifically looking for donations tied to a mail program, and not all offline donations. If that seems like a problem, please let us know!

  • Donor Email Address (where available)
  • Donor First Name
  • Donor Last Name
  • Donor Street 1
  • Donor Street 2
  • Donor City
  • Donor State
  • Donor Zip
  • Donor Country
  • Donation Date
  • Donation Amount
  • Donation Channel (e.g. online or direct mail)
  • Donation Form Name*
  • Donation Source Code*
  • A flag for for the frequency of the donation (e.g. one-time or monthly)

*Note: We will be using Donation Form Name and Donation Source Code information to attempt to identify donations that come through the Email, Advertising, and Text Messaging Channels, as well as Donor Advised Fund (DAF) donations.

When you submit your data, please email scoutquest@mrss.com with any instructions on how Email, Text Messaging, Advertising, and DAF gifts can be identified (e.g. “all Email donations have “em” in the source code”).

7) Your Current Inactive Suppression File. An export of every email address in your organization’s system that currently is being suppressed from being sent email on account of being considered inactive. This submission is an optional part of the data request, but will provide for better targeting and purchase options in the data we share back to you. This file should be a single column of email addresses.

This inactive file submission is optional, but will provide for better targeting and purchase options in the data we share back to you. If you do not submit an Inactive file, a proxy inactive file will be created using your other data submissions. It will be defined as:
Anyone in your audience file who is not unsubscribed, but has not taken action, clicked or opened an email in the last 12 months.

Please email scoutquest@mrss.com if you have any questions.