As a nonprofit, you need a way to regularly connect with donors, steward relationships, and share updates on your organization’s impact. While phone calls and hand-written thank yous are a great way to personally connect with donors, these tasks are time consuming, and it’s almost impossible to regularly reach your entire donor portfolio with these tactics.
Email marketing, on the other hand, allows you to quickly engage your donor base at scale, share relevant updates about your organization, and raise online donations for your cause.
In this guide to nonprofit email marketing, we’ll share best practices and examples to help you kick off your email program with flying colors.
Nonprofits are often strapped for resources, dedicating as many resources as possible to the causes they serve before putting dollars into marketing or operations. As a low-cost option, email marketing is an effective and budget-friendly method of reaching and engaging donors.
Cost-effective: Compared to traditional methods like print or TV ads, email marketing is much less expensive. You can reach a large audience for a fraction of the cost and for an incredible return on your investment—email marketing boasts an ROI of $36 to $45 for every dollar you spend.
Targeted Reach: Unlike other marketing channels, such as social media or blog content, email allows you to segment your audience and send targeted messages to specific groups of supporters. This personalization can be much more effective at engaging donors.
Measurable Results: Email marketing platforms provide detailed analytics on open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics. This data helps you understand what resonates with your audience and allows you to improve your campaigns over time.
Relationship Building: Email allows for two-way communication. You can share stories about your impact, express gratitude to donors, and answer questions to foster stronger relationships with your supporters.
Speed and Efficiency: Emails are something that can be written and sent the same day allowing your organization to quickly reach a large audience with important updates, event announcements, or urgent fundraising needs.
When it comes to email marketing best practices, there are a lot to consider. We’ve rounded up a few tried and true best practices below, but to get the full download, check out our guide, 37 Email Marketing Best Practices and Tips for 2024.
While it may be tempting to buy a list of contacts, purchasing email lists is a surefire path to the spam folder. Instead, grow your list organically by asking supporters to subscribe to your email list when they attend an event or donate to your cause.
By letting subscribers opt-in to your communications, you’re much more likely to create an engaged contact list.
Nonprofit email address: Whatever email you choose, ensure that it is a professional email address that references your organization’s name and that people can reply to the email. There is nothing less personal than a no-reply email address.
From name: If you’re looking for a personal touch, make the from name the name of someone who works at your organization. This could be your Executive Director, Major Gifts Officer, or Development Director.
Subject line: Keep the subject line short and sweet. We’ve found that shorter subject lines (5-7 words) typically perform best.
Preview text: The preview text is what is displayed to the right of the subject line in your inbox. This is prime real estate to share a little bit more about your email communication and persuade your contacts to open the email.
Calls to action (CTAs):CTAs are buttons or links within the email that direct your recipients toward a specific action. This could be a link to donate, a sign up form to volunteer, or asking for an RSVP to an event. We recommend sticking with one main CTA to keep the message focused and avoid confusion.
Nonprofit email signature: If your from name is a person that works at your organization, include an email signature with their headshot and name at the bottom of the email. This can help put a face to the name and create familiarity between the sender and your contact base.
When it comes to creating compelling email marketing content, here are a few tips to consider.
Keep it short: Unless you are sending an email newsletter, it’s better to keep your emails on the short side. Use headings, bullets, and images to help you break up text.
Design for mobile: A majority of email users read their emails on mobile. Keep this in mind as you're designing your emails, and be sure to view a test email on your mobile device before sending.
Focus on storytelling and impact: Your donors want to know how their support is making a difference. Share fundraising progress, success stories, and impact updates regularly with your supporters.
Segment your contact list:Email segmentation is one of the most powerful tools in email marketing because you can send targeted communications to your contacts based on their unique qualities and interests. Consider how you can segment your list. Common segments for nonprofits are: donation amount (major donor, mid-level donor, annual donor), program interest, and engagement level.
Avoid email mishaps like spam traps by including an unsubscribe option at the bottom of your email and by cleaning your email list of unengaged subscribers every 3-6 months. These two tactics will help you maintain high engagement and deliverability rates.
If you’re worried about removing contacts from your list unnecessarily, consider sending a reengagement campaign. Reengagement emails are sent to contacts who have not opened your content in a while to give them the opportunity to unsubscribe or say they are still interested in receiving your communications.
There are a variety of email types that should be on your radar. These emails serve different purposes and will help you create a well-rounded email marketing program.
Thank you emails should be a staple of nonprofit communication. For online donations, thank you emails are not only a way to show gratitude for the support but also deliver a supporter’s donation receipt.
In the example from Movember, a charity that supports men’s mental and physical health, the email provides a powerful image, shares how the donation will support Movember’s cause, and leads to a CTA to download the receipt. The receipt is also automatically attached at the bottom of the email making it easy to access.
Often the first communication a nonprofit has with a donor is the thank you email after a donation has been made. But, just because a donation has already been made, doesn’t mean you should stop communicating with the donor. In fact, you should nurture the relationship by welcoming them to the community, sending them more information on the cause, and sharing how their donation will make an impact.
In the example below from Beat the Streets, an organization that supports youth in underserved communities, you’ll notice that an email doesn’t need to be fancy in order to be effective. The email comes from the Director of Development which adds a personal touch to the communication as she thanks and welcomes the new donor.
A great way to keep supporters up-to-date is through newsletters. With newsletters, the goal is to provide information rather than make an ask for a donation. Keep that in mind as you create a newsletter so that it doesn’t become overly promotional.
In this example from the National Forest Foundation, the organization shares a resource for mountain biking to admire the fall foliage and highlights a new partnership with a California brewery. By providing interesting resources, the National Forest Foundation keeps contacts engaged with their cause without pushing for donations.
We can’t speak to email marketing without talking about one of the biggest donation days of the year, Giving Tuesday. With Giving Tuesday emails, it’s important to remind supporters of your organization’s purchase–the why behind what you do.
In this example from RefugeePoint, an organization that helps refugees rebuild their lives, the email speaks to why the organization supports refugees, reminding donors of the organization’s mission and goals.
Ready to set up your nonprofit’s email marketing?
Email marketing is an effective tool that will help you regularly connect with supporters and increase your online donations. While there are a lot of components to nonprofit email marketing, it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process.
Twilio SendGrid’s email marketing software offers drag and drop tools, responsive templates, and email automation to help you create, send, and track emails with ease.
