Best Email Marketing Platforms for Nonprofits
Nonprofit email fundraising campaigns are a powerful way to raise funds while nurturing relationships in your network. Estimates suggest email accounted for 14% of all online revenue for nonprofits in 2022. However, nonprofit fundraising emails are tricky to get right. And the definition of “right” is frustratingly subjective, depending on your organization type and target audience. No need to worry – we’ve listed eight steps to successfully launch your next nonprofit email fundraising campaign. What is a fundraising email? A fundraising email is a message specifically created to gather donations from your audience. Like traditional outreach channels, email is a great method for educating your audience on your mission, recruiting volunteers, and asking for donations. What is an email fundraising campaign? An email fundraising campaign is a series of marketing emails designed to contact donors on a large scale. These campaigns aim to connect with a network of hundreds, or even thousands, all in one go. Because of their low cost, they can be a powerful element of your fundraising strategy. A strong email fundraising campaign includes strategic messages and personalization to ensure you’re targeting your donors effectively. The key to a great email campaign is striking a balance between reaching as many people as possible and using a human touch to nurture a strong connection. People need to feel the humanity in your mission before they hit the “donate” button. Planning and executing a successful email fundraising campaign consists of: Automation is crucial – you need your campaign running while you’re focusing your attention on the important tasks that keep your nonprofit running. Why are fundraising emails a good idea for nonprofit organizations? Traditional methods like making calls, walking door-to-door, sending direct mail (the good old fundraising letter), and other in-person fundraising events can be effective. However, they need vast amounts of time, volunteers, and money. On the other hand, online fundraising – email fundraising, in particular – campaigns are highly effective as well as affordable and scalable. Let’s get into that in depth. Effectively scale your fundraising outreach Nonprofit organizations are typically trying to stretch their resources to achieve maximum impact. As your nonprofit grows, you’ll need to reach increasingly more donors, which means you need solutions that scale while also allowing your team of employees and volunteers to focus on projects and responsibilities outside of fundraising. Email fundraising campaigns help you manage resources efficiently and save money without pulling resources away from other activities. Setting up an email fundraising campaign is quick and straightforward, allowing workers to set it in motion – and then get back to their core work. Get started and see results fast Your staff won’t always have specific technical skills, and training needs to be streamlined and efficient. Automatic email campaigns have a shallow learning curve and only require a little time to create the base framework. Build templates and cadences, set the automation, and click “go.” The best part is that this process scales indefinitely. Once your team learns how to set up email campaigns, they’ll be able to quickly create them for fundraising, newsletters, donor updates, and more. Meet people where they have their wallets out Historically, connections with potential donors have happened at events or other in-person opportunities. Nowadays, those people can be difficult to reach offline. In the past twenty years, online shopping has increased by 300%. As a reflection of where and how people are spending their money, this indicates that they’re increasingly likely to make purchases and donations online. As a result, email fundraising campaigns are a powerful method of meeting donors where they’re at – and where they have their wallets out. Educate and raise awareness In addition to raising money, email fundraising campaigns can also promote brand awareness, educate, nurture, and mobilize volunteers. 7 steps for planning, executing, and tracking the perfect email fundraising campaign Now that you understand how email can help your organization, follow these 8 steps to create an effective email fundraising campaign: 1. Review and strengthen your database Before diving into the email campaign itself, check if your mailing list is updated. This will ensure your emails are reaching as many relevant supporters as possible. First, ensure that all your subscribers have given you their permission to receive emails from your organization. Permission is achieved through: These opt-in and opt-out processes strengthen your database, ensure you’re compliant with privacy requirements, and improve your lead generation by creating an email list of highly relevant contacts. Once you’ve set up your opt-in and opt-out practices, remove any contacts that have gone stale from your email list or don’t meet the above requirements. If they haven’t opened an email in a year or so, they probably aren’t going to be donating any time soon. The last step in bolstering your database is adding contacts that you want to reach out to – but haven’t contacted yet. This is the time to use your detective skills to find prospective donors’ email addresses, or add emails collected from recent events. 2. Segment your donor list to send more relevant and personal emails The same email won’t suit everyone on your mailing list. Segmenting your fundraising email campaign helps you create more relevant emails to engage and personally connect with your donors. Common ways to segment your email recipients include: Let’s take that last one as an example. Because of vastly different budgets, goals, and relationships, corporate versus private donors will require totally different email campaigns. For instance, a corporate fundraising email might mention similar campaigns that the business has previously supported or how supporting your organization fits into their corporate social responsibility mission. Ideally, you’ll plan a different email sequence for each significant segment. 3. Plan an email sequence for each segment Now that you’ve segmented donors, it’s time to plan a sequence for each one. Different segments will require different personalization to engage them effectively. For instance, long-time donors should receive emails that use familiar, grateful language to maintain the relationship. You may want to offer some data about the impact their donations







