Mailchimp — keeping an audience in step

Pavilion has its own newsletter builder and its own rule-based groups, so most clubs will never need this. It exists for the club that already runs everything through Mailchimp and would rather not move — the committee that has built templates there, or whose newsletter editor knows that tool and nothing else. Set it up under Settings → Integrations.

Pavilion pushes your members into a Mailchimp audience and tags each of them with their membership type, whether they have paid, and every group they are in. You can then build a campaign in Mailchimp against “Unpaid renewals” without keeping a second list by hand.

🔑 The API key, and the bit everyone misses

In Mailchimp: your profile → Extras → API keys → Create a key. Copy the whole thing. A Mailchimp key ends in something like -us21, and that suffix says which of Mailchimp’s servers your account lives on. Paste a key without it and nothing will connect — that is far and away the most common reason a key “does not work”. Pavilion checks for it and says so rather than failing silently.

Then press Connect and list audiences. Pavilion fetches the audiences on the account and you pick one from the list, so there is no ID to copy by hand.

➕ It only ever adds and updates

This is the important part. Pavilion never deletes or unsubscribes anybody in Mailchimp. Somebody new to the audience is added as subscribed; somebody already in it keeps whatever status they have, so a member who unsubscribed there stays unsubscribed. A member who leaves the club simply stops being sent — they are not removed.

That is deliberate. Once somebody is in your audience, Mailchimp is where their subscription preference lives, and a nightly job that quietly unsubscribed people because a rule changed would be both rude and, for a charity’s mailing list, legally awkward.

🏷️ Tags

Each member arrives carrying Pavilion: Full (or whatever their type is), Pavilion: paid or Pavilion: unpaid, and the name of every member group they belong to. Tags are Mailchimp’s own idea of a segment, so you can send to one from Mailchimp exactly as you would any other. If you would rather keep your groups to Pavilion, untick send member groups as Mailchimp tags.

🔄 When it runs

Once a night if you leave it switched on, and whenever you press Sync now. Check what would be sent tells you the numbers without sending anything, which is the sensible first move. Members with no email address are skipped, and so is anyone archived. Mailchimp processes a sync in the background, so give it a few minutes before checking the audience.

Common questions

Do I need this if I use Pavilion's own newsletter?

No — and most clubs should not turn it on. Pavilion’s newsletter builder and member groups do the same job without a second system to keep in step. This is only for clubs already committed to Mailchimp.

Will it unsubscribe people who leave the club?

No. Pavilion never unsubscribes or deletes anybody in Mailchimp. Somebody who leaves simply stops being included in the sync; if you want them off the audience, remove them in Mailchimp.

It says the key was refused.

Nine times out of ten the key was pasted without the part after the dash — the “-us21” bit. Copy the whole key from Mailchimp and try again. If it still refuses, the key may have been deleted or regenerated in Mailchimp.

What does it send about each member?

Their email address, first and last names, phone number if you hold one, and their tags. Nothing else — no addresses, no dates of birth, no membership numbers. Those stay in Pavilion.

Can I sync in the other direction, from Mailchimp back to Pavilion?

No. The sync is one-way by design. Pavilion is the record of who your members are; Mailchimp is a way of sending them email.

How long does a sync take?

The sending is one request however many members you have. Mailchimp then processes it in the background, which for a club-sized audience is usually a minute or two.