Exchange limits to 500 the number of recipients you can (simultaneously) send a message to without assistance from IS&T. This limit includes the sum of all recipients in the To, Cc or Bcc lines. With that restriction in mind, if you need to send a message to a large number of recipients, you have the following options.

Use a Contact Group that is locally created and managed (within your email client)

You can create and maintain a Contact Group within Outlook (or similar type of list in other mail clients). However, if the number of recipients exceeds 250, you will need to break up the list and send the message multiple times.

To set up a Contact Group in Outlook
  1. Option A: Go to the Home tab and New Items, then go to More Items->Contact Group.
    Option B: Click on the small Contacts button in the bottom left corner, then on the New Contact Group button at the top of the Home tab.
  2. Give the group a Name
  3. Click on Add Members and select the address source(s) as needed to populate the list. If most members of your list are from the BU community, you can pull names by going to Address Book->Global Address List.
  4. Once the list is all set, choose to Save & Close.
  5. For additional assistance using and maintaining the list, go to File-Help and search on “Contact Group.”

Use an Exchange mailing list

Faculty and staff can request and maintain an Exchange mailing list for departmental use. There are a few advantages to this kind of list. First, they allow you to send to more than 500 people (as long as you send just to the single provided address without expanding it to display the individual addresses that it contains). Second, this kind of list is stored centrally in BU’s Global Address List (rather than only through your mail client) so it can be used by anyone who has been set up to write to it. See the Exchange mailing list instructions and information to get started.

    Use a Majordomo list

    Faculty, staff, and students can create and maintain mailing lists through a centrally managed service called Majordomo. Majordomo lists can be maintained manually, but they also allow for recipients to manage their own subscription. Lists can also be requested that are based on things like course registration or department affiliation. See the Majordomo information and instructions to get started.

    Do a Broadcast Message

    Detailed information is available on the Broadcast Email page.