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Preserving Trust With Email Subscribers While Raising Money
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Year-end fundraising is upon us and we are entering an intense season of asking. A time when many nonprofits ramp up their email volume to try to get more gifts. And sure, there is absolutely an upside to sending more fundraising emails—you may raise more money. Given the rocky landscape of the economy, I doubt many of us are in a position to say “no” to more dollars in the door.
But before you see this as a permission slip to send 5x your normal amount of emails, let’s consider the downside of higher email volume.
“Sometimes, when we push very hard for a commitment, we break the trust we’ve earned.” That was a line that struck me from a recent post on Seth Godin’s blog. Seth is speaking to consumer marketers trying to get the sale, but there’s a big lesson in here for anyone sending fundraising emails.
With email fundraising, we’re able to send more emails to (theoretically) raise more money at a very low cost. At least, a low cost in terms of the financial costs and staff time that an organization may put into additional fundraising emails. The turn-around time for sending additional emails is also very quick compared to other channels. It can often seem like low-hanging fruit to just send more emails.
But here’s the thing.
While we know that people are more likely to give between Giving Tuesday and December 31st, sending even more emails than were sent in prior years doesn’t mean they will give. We know this. Just because we ask, doesn’t mean we’ll get a gift.
The tough part here, to circle back to what Seth Godin points out, is that with each additional email we send asking for money, we risk damaging the relationship with our subscribers, as well as donors. This is the trade off we’re always making with email fundraising, but it’s crucial to consider because these days a lot of people are experiencing email fatigue.
What’s the solution? How can we still send fundraising emails and not push too hard for the commitment? Be a better email sender.
4 ways to be a better email sender and keep your subscribers
1. Ensure you have permission to email subscribers
There is no faster way to burn your sender reputation and email list to the ground than by emailing people you don’t have permission to email. Ensure that you have subscribers’ permission to email them. This is the cornerstone of good email marketing and good fundraising. We want to talk to people who actually want to be talked to. Double check the settings in your CRM to ensure that you are only emailing people who are subscribed and opted-in. Anytime you (or someone else) wants to manually upload data to your email list, check in about where that data came from and if you have permission to email those people.
2. Send quality content that people engage with
The long game of email strategy is to send quality content that people actually open and click on. By sending good content, your subscribers will indicate to their inbox service providers that you are a reputable sender and that’s good for your email deliverability. If you’re interested in getting into the nuts and bolts of email deliverability, read this article for more tips to improve yours.
But perhaps more importantly, we’re building a good relationship with our email subscribers where they see our sender name and actually want to read the email. That’s the dream and it takes good content.
3. Segment your list
In fundraising we often talk about segmentation. It’s usually with regards to active donors, lapsed donors, monthly donors, and various giving levels. Those segments can be helpful for email, too. But what email has that other channels don’t is the ability to track what kind of content each subscriber is engaging with. That means you can target some of your emails to people who will care most about it based on behavioral data. This is another way that your nonprofit can be a better email sender.
4. Know when it’s time to stop asking
We have enough data at our fingertips with email fundraising to know when people are or are not engaged with our emails. That data can help us decide when it’s time to stop asking all or part of our list for donations. As you head into year-end fundraising season, I encourage you to develop some guidelines to decide when you’ve pushed enough for a donation so that you can preserve trust with your subscribers.
Right now there are plenty of bad actors out there in the email fundraising space. It’s imperative that you be a good one. Send good emails. Send quality content. Respect subscribers’ inboxes. Know when it’s time to stop pushing for the commitment.
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