diff --git a/www/conservancy/apps/contacts/models.py b/www/conservancy/apps/contacts/models.py
index bc02a865855d97346661473a5ba33540c306fee7..4cd4d1efeb58714a8c29ad47518152f805469b1a 100644
--- a/www/conservancy/apps/contacts/models.py
+++ b/www/conservancy/apps/contacts/models.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ class ContactEntry(models.Model):
     Hopefully this will be deprecated soon"""
 
     email = models.EmailField() # should make it unique, but we really cannot
-    subscribe_conservancy = models.BooleanField()
+    subscribe_conservancy = models.BooleanField(default=False)
 
     class Meta:
         ordering = ('email',)