How to send customized email messages?

Need some advice. I am working with a charity and I need to send out thank yous to donors. I have an excel file with a list of names, email addresses and donation amounts. I'd like to send a customized email message to each donor that says something like:

Dear [name],

Thank you for your donation of [dollar_amt]. Etc, etc...

I can import the excel file to MySQL. The question is, how do I create the email message and send it out?

Thanks!

That is a programming job. I think it is most easily done with PHP, as the PHP mail() function is fairly easy to code with. Of course, you could also do it im perl, or python - I just think most would ind it to be easier in PHP.

You could import the excel data into a MySQL database, and would then need to write (or find) a php program to retreive the data from the data base and populate the email with the data for sending via the php mail() function.

--rlparker

Thanks for the info RL. I had a feeling it would be a script.

Can anyone recommend a good freeware or shareware script or application?

Thanks.

You're welcome! I haven't searched for that specialized type of thing for quite a while, so nothing comes to mind off the top of my head.

You might give [url]http://www.hotscripts.com[/ur] a try. While you are looking, you might pay special attention to any email scripts that will let you work from a "flat file" databases, as well as MySQL (it is really simple to export the excel files to CSV for this purpose) to "broaden" your choices. If you find something "neat", be sure and post back to share what you found!

--rlparker

You can use a bulk emailer. I use:

http://www.maxprog.com/MaxBulk.html

It's not the smoothest software, but it gets the job done. It can insert fields like in your example.

Terry

This one is free for noncommercial use:

http://www.fairlogic.com/worldcast/index.shtml

I haven't used it.

Terry