Email Marketing for Nonprofits: The Ultimate How-To Guide

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Email marketing for nonprofits is a powerful tool that can do much more for your brand than just raising awareness. In fact, a recent Global Trends in Giving report reveals that 33% of donors in the U.S. and Canada find email to be the communication channel that most inspires them to contribute—beating all other platforms.
Investing in strategic email marketing can amplify your fundraising return on investment (ROI), engage supporters personally, and rally even more people to champion your mission.
In this article, we explain why email campaigns are a perfect place to begin engaging your donors and how your nonprofit can use email to its advantage starting today. We’ll cover:
Email outreach is as relevant and useful for nonprofits as ever. But what makes this communication channel so effective? Here’s why investing in email marketing is worth it for nonprofits:
When combined with other marketing efforts, such as social media, direct mail, and website engagement, email marketing can help you create a holistic outreach strategy that keeps your nonprofit top of mind for supporters.
Email marketing is a flexible platform that your nonprofit can use for a wide range of communications. Let’s explore the most common types of nonprofit emails, along with examples sourced from the Really Good Emails nonprofit and charity roundup.
When your nonprofit launches a fundraising campaign, it’s all hands on deck to grow awareness of your initiative and generate a steady flow of donations. Fundraising emails play a key role in informing your audience about your campaign’s purpose, goals, and how they can show their support.
According to the Nonprofit Tech for Good report, 74% of nonprofits that utilize email marketing send email fundraising appeals.
Help for Heroes is a UK-based charity that supports veterans with physical and mental health, welfare, and social needs. The email below depicts a campaign the organization launched to raise funds by sending donors a boxed figure to represent their commitment to the cause.
It’s a compelling message because it clearly outlines the problem the organization is trying to solve and how supporters can play a role in the solution.
As you well know, donating isn’t the only way your audience members can show their support for your mission. Advocating for your cause and volunteering help spread mission awareness and ensure your programs run smoothly.
Email is a highly effective way to engage supporters in these initiatives because they can learn about programs and projects they might not have been aware of.
Help for Heroes also created a useful example of a volunteer request email. The following email uses eye-catching red button calls to action (CTAs) to inspire recipients to sign up.
Expressing gratitude after donors give is widely accepted as one of the most effective ways to increase donor retention. By sending donors thank-you emails within 24 hours of their gifts (and ideally as soon as possible), you can demonstrate their gifts’ impact and build long-term relationships with them.
charity:water is a nonprofit dedicated to bringing clean drinking water to developing countries. A recent email they sent included a thank-you message at the end that uses donor-focused language to spotlight the essential role supporters play.
Making new supporters feel welcomed and included in your organization’s efforts is essential to building lasting relationships. A new supporter welcome email series offers new donors or volunteers everything they need to know about joining your organization.
For example, you could send new donors background information about your mission and fundraising needs. Meanwhile, new volunteers could receive a personalized roundup of volunteer opportunities that fit their interests, skills, and availability.
The Four Freedoms Park Conservancy is a nonprofit that maintains the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park memorial in New York City. The following email is a welcome message for new email newsletter subscribers. It helps recipients feel welcome, with opportunities to join upcoming events, connect on social media, and learn about FDR’s legacy.
An email newsletter is like a digital bulletin for your nonprofit, allowing you to keep supporters updated on all ongoing initiatives at your organization. You can spotlight upcoming events or recap past ones, inform supporters about ongoing fundraising initiatives, thank supporters who’ve recently gone above and beyond, and more.
92% of nonprofits that utilize email marketing send newsletters, with most organizations sending these messages monthly.
charity:water’s Good News World Channel is a community of supporters devoted to furthering charity:water’s charitable mission to bring clean water to underserved communities. The following email is a newsletter update featuring a recent success story and a few ways to engage with the organization.
These emails are timely communications that your nonprofit can send at specific times of the year, such as holidays or seasons. Seasonal emails are a great way to create an additional touchpoint with supporters to wish them well during a special time of year and make the most of donors’ desires to give back during the holiday season.
This email is an example of a seasonal email sent by a business in an effort to support nonprofit causes during the holiday season. The email allows recipients to vote for the cause they think the business should support with their holiday donation.
No one likes generic emails clogging their inbox. A personalized message goes a long way to fostering meaningful, long-term donor relationships. According to a McKinsey study, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.
Segmentation involves grouping supporters based on shared characteristics. For example, you could create email segments for:
Create targeted communications for each group based on their unique needs and interests. For example, you could survey lapsed donors to ask why they stopped donating. New donors could receive your welcome email series, while existing donors can get personalized impact reports.
Segmented messaging leaves a lasting impression on donors, leading to increased retention rates and fundraising success.
Truthfully, email marketing is a situation where quantity is just as important as quality. And our answer for how often you should send emails may be somewhat unsatisfactory, but it’s the truth: it depends! That’s because these two statements are true at the same time:
The best communication cadence depends on your supporters’ preferences. Monitor email metrics such as open and clickthrough rates to determine how frequently supporters open your emails. Evaluate if these metrics change when you adjust your email frequency.
The timing of your emails also depends on the types of emails you want to send. For example:
Mix up the types of emails you send to avoid email burnout and keep your messaging fresh and interesting.
Your email metrics are as good as gold for determining the best ways to optimize your email strategy for your audience’s unique preferences. Prioritize tracking the following data points:
You can also conduct A/B testing with your emails to assess your metrics after making small changes to your strategy. For example, you can test your subject lines by sending half of your audience an email with one subject and half an email with a different subject. Evaluate which subject line leads to the most email opens.
In general, it is recommended that you keep your email subject lines between 30 and 50 characters so your subjects are not cut short. However, keep in mind that an estimated 50-60% of email opens come from mobile devices, and 30 characters or fewer is recommended for mobile subject line length.
Your email subject line is also the most important indicator of whether supporters will feel inclined to open your email. These lines should be punchy and attention-grabbing to stand out in supporters’ inboxes.
Consider the following example subject lines:
The second subject line is personalized and attention-grabbing, making the recipient intrigued to open the message and see their personal impact on the organization.
Just like your email subject lines, the body of your emails should be concise and straightforward. Exactly how long each email should be will also depend on the email’s purpose. This infographic gives a general overview of common types of nonprofit emails and recommended lengths for each style:
Again, you can use your email marketing metrics to determine which email lengths work best for your audience. Assessing your email clickthrough and conversion rates is a good place to start when determining how long subscribers are willing to engage with your emails.
Emotional, compelling language grabs email recipients’ attention, increasing the chances they’ll open your email and take the desired action. Here are a few ideas for emotions to incorporate into your email messages:
For more ideas, explore this list of emotional words to include in your emails to trigger certain reactions and help achieve your email goals.
The CAN-SPAM Act sets regulations for commercial email marketing practices. This law applies to for-profit and nonprofit organizations, so ensuring your messages comply with all requirements is critical. Per these regulations, your organization must:
Consult with your nonprofit’s legal counsel to ensure your email marketing strategy complies with all relevant laws.
Images can help effectively tell your organization’s story via emails, enhancing brief text sections. One study found that email campaigns with images had a 42% higher click-through rate than campaigns without images. Consider including engaging visuals such as:
Use just one to three primary visual elements to keep your emails uncluttered and professional-looking.
Your emails should be recognizable to recipients to increase trust and engagement. Use consistent branding across your messages with your nonprofit’s distinctive:
Create email templates and a style guide your nonprofit’s staff can reference when drafting emails. For example, you can create templates for newsletters, fundraising appeals, seasonal greetings, and appreciation emails. This standardization ensures consistency across your messages, even if several team members are tasked with creating emails.
Every email should clearly outline the action you want recipients to take after reading. This specificity helps drive conversions and increases your audience’s connection to your cause.
Here are a few CTA examples you may include in your emails:
Use strong color contrast so your CTA buttons stand out in your emails. For example, your CTAs could have white text on a red background like the Help for Heroes example above:
Strong color contrast ensures your CTAs are readable for recipients with vision impairments.
An email marketing platform is a service your nonprofit can use to create and send email campaigns, maintain segmented contact lists, and track email marketing metrics. According to the Nonprofit Tech for Good report, 94% of nonprofits that use email marketing use a service such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact.
Choosing the right email marketing software can make or break your organization’s strategy, so it’s important to think carefully about your decision. Review this overview of top email marketing platforms to help guide your decision-making.
Bloomerang is a nonprofit software solution that offers robust donor management and fundraising tools. In addition, Bloomerang enables marketing and engagement campaigns through various solutions designed to help you create personalized, branded email communications.
Bloomerang’s email marketing features include:
Bloomerang’s solutions are designed to support donor retention at every step of the communication cycle. With tools to personalize emails, collect donor information, and show supporters your appreciation, you can use your email strategy to grow relationships and foster long-term connections.
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that enables organizations to leverage data from across marketing channels to build personalized campaigns. Mailchimp’s features include:
Mailchimp also has a robust integration with Bloomerang. With this integration, users can add Mailchimp email data to Bloomerang recipient profiles and manage segmentation from one convenient location.
Constant Contact’s email marketing platform simplifies building relationships and growing revenue through a user-friendly interface. Users can leverage features such as:
You can also connect Bloomerang to Constant Contact to combine Bloomerang’s powerful donor insights with Constant Contact’s robust email marketing automation. You can connect email interaction data with donation history information to evaluate each supporter’s current engagement level and create targeted campaigns that speak to their interests.
Campaign Monitor offers email marketing and automation solutions to drive results. Helpful features of this email platform include:
Campaign Monitor even offers expert services you can contact when you need support creating your campaigns. The support team is available via phone, email, an online help center, or through your account.
ActiveCampaign offers marketing automation features for a wide range of marketing channels, including email. Its flexible email marketing platform offers tools such as:
ActiveCampaign enables multiple campaign types, including drip campaigns, follow-ups and reminders, and promotional emails. It also helps organizations get up and running quickly with one-on-one migration sessions.
Flodesk offers a simple and intuitive email marketing platform to design compelling campaigns that bring your mission to life. Flodesk’s features include:
Flodesk strongly emphasizes email design, with customizable fonts, branded graphics, and other tools to ensure total visual creative freedom.
Follow these steps to narrow down your list of email marketing providers to find the right solution for your needs:
Reach out to your top options to get any remaining questions answered before choosing a solution. By taking a thoughtful approach to finding an email provider, you can find a platform that will serve your long-term marketing goals.
By consistently seeking ways to show that you care for and value donors through email campaigns, you’ll set your organization up to do more good and power your mission.
Donors want to know that they are making a positive impact. When your nonprofit takes the time to connect, thank, and showcase the work accomplished because of their generosity, the return on investment can be monumental.
Looking for additional email marketing resources to power your campaigns? Start with these comprehensive guides:
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