Email Marketing for Nonprofits: Simple Ways to Raise More Funds

Some 3 or 4 years ago, whenever nonprofits needed to reach out to supporters, they had to organize events. However, things are starting to change. Over the last few years, we have seen nonprofits make a sharp switch to using emails as opposed to regular events. 

Don’t get it wrong—events have their place in the industry. However, when it comes to getting fast results without spending too much, email marketing becomes a better and more reliable option. 

The only problem is, email marketing for nonprofits, like every technological tool, has a few flaws. While we know it works perfectly, you need to put in a bit of effort to get good results. Generally, email marketing for charities comes with an open rate of about 28%. It means that out of every 100 emails sent by nonprofits, only about 28 will get opened. 

With so many nonprofits out there, how do you make your email appear among the top 28 that get the right attention? Keep reading as we show you some tested and trusted tips.  

Why Email Marketing Is Critical for Nonprofits?

Before we go any further, why do you need to add email marketing to your list of skills as a nonprofit organization?

• Reach a wide audience at a low cost: For nonprofits, every dollar counts. Email marketing comes in as an alternative to other expensive methods of reaching people, like TV ads. Besides, it is also more effective compared to free options like social media, as nonprofits generate about $90 for every 1000 fundraising emails. 
• Drive donations and volunteer sign-ups: Using drip campaigns, a series of scheduled emails, nonprofits can guide their supporters toward donation goals. These personalized emails that inform patrons on your progress and the impact of their support can inspire initial donations and even encourage additional contributions.
• Share impact stories and updates: Unlike other methods, like TV ads, email marketing for nonprofits allows you to use a mixture of text, images, and videos to showcase your goals and achievements. This allows you to convey your messages in the most creative way. Also, sharing stories, statistics, and impact reports helps supporters understand how their contributions are making a difference in the world.
• Build long-term relationships with supporters: The goal of a good nonprofit email marketing strategy is not just to reach people. Instead, it helps you build a relationship with those who support your cause. By sharing regular updates with them, you are growing interest in your organization and making them loyal supporters. 

Why It Is Important for Nonprofits to Keep Email List Clean

The idea of keeping a clean list comes from these two key principles—list source and list maintenance. That is, you need to get emails with permission from the users. And when you get the emails, you should continue to monitor them to remove emails that are inactive or incorrect. 

As a nonprofit, this is important for you because a great nonprofit email marketing strategy built on a bad list will always yield bad results. Sending emails to inactive emails can damage your sender reputation. When your sender reputation is bad, you start to get an increased bounce rate (your messages won’t get delivered). In extreme cases, some email providers might even flag you as spam and block you. 

The only problem here is, while regular companies might have the extra hand to do the cleaning, nonprofits may not have that luxury. Instead of employing someone else and straining your budget, you can use Sendigram Email Checker.

Sendigram Email Checker is a tool designed to improve your nonprofit email marketing efforts by helping you maintain a clean email list. The tool helps you identify and remove invalid or inactive email addresses. 

By using Sendigram Email Checker, you can save time, reduce costs associated with ineffective email marketing, and ensure that your messages are reaching engaged recipients who are more likely to support your cause.

Key Types of Emails Nonprofits Should Send

The following are important emails that every nonprofit must have as part of their nonprofit email marketing campaign.

• Fundraising campaigns: Nonprofits need money to make the world better, and emails can help you get that money. One way to make this work is to include relevant stats on how much you have gathered so far and how much is needed. You can also include emotional videos showing those who need help to get recipients to take action. 

• Volunteer recruitment and updates: No matter how inspired or strong you are, you need people to change the world with you. With this email type, you can send out messages to get like-minded people to work with you. These emails should clearly explain what you are doing and where you need them to come in.
• Impact and success stories: Even though your donors are giving to charitable causes, it is important that they see what their money is doing. In these emails, you need to show them how the money they have given is making an impact in the world using statistics and stories. By the way, this is a great way to ask your donors for more support without asking. 

• Event invitations and follow-ups: Events are inevitable for nonprofits and emails can be a great way to invite your guest. However, for these emails to work, they need to be personalized. You want the recipient to feel like you are sitting in their office and personally asking them to come. In case of follow-ups, you need to target the emails to those who were at the previous ones. We will explain this properly in a bit. 

Best Practices for Nonprofit Email Campaigns

Now that you know the email types you should write, let’s give you a quick overview of how you can write your emails for maximum impact. Email marketing for charities rests on the hinges of personalization. Personalization is one of the key nonprofit email marketing best practices, as it helps your recipients feel important. In fact, 90% of adults in the U.S. say they prefer to receive personalized content. This is how you use personalization effectively in your nonprofit email campaigns:

Segmenting by supporter type

One way to deliver that personalized content is to segment your audience. That is, put them in groups that clearly define their relationship with the organization. For example, are they donors, volunteers, or event attendees? 

This is crucial because sending a message for volunteers to donors does not show you are too busy to send the emails individually. Instead, it signals that you just don’t care who gets the email. 

You don’t have to stop at the general segment; you can even take things further. You can segment your donors based on their interests. For example, if your nonprofit rescues animals, you can segment your supporters into conservation enthusiasts or big cat enthusiasts. You can do a similar thing with your volunteers. The more segmented your list is, the better. 

Using donor history for tailored content 

Another way to make your donors feel important through personalization and engagement is to mention their donation in the emails. Adding a touch of your past interactions and their donations, you can reach out to them on a much deeper level. 

It does not have to be something too extraordinary. For example, if you have donors that have been very responsive over the years, you can put them in a separate segment. This segment should get a special thank-you line for being there over the years before you request anything from them or even give them updates. This just goes to show you value them and appreciate their loyalty.  

Using impact data for personalization 

People give to charitable causes for many reasons. However, according to the World Food Program, most donors do so because they want to be a part of the solution to a problem. For people like this, the best way to get them interested is to show them factual data on how they are helping to solve problems. For instance, you can show how far their contribution helped people (e.g., “Your donation provided meals for 50 families”). Or you can include their contribution while stating how close you are to the goal, for example, “We’re 75% of the way to our target, thanks to supporters like you.”

Emails like the one above help validate donors’ decisions to give and, more importantly, inspire them to give more. 

Timely and consistent communication 

Even though they support your cause, it is very unlikely that your supporters want to see your emails every day. But then, it is important to give them updates at the right time. To solve this dilemma, you need a strategy that allows you to deliver the right information just when your audience needs to read it. 

To start with, you need to segment your audience based on how well they respond to you. In most cases, those who are least engaging are likely those who do not want so many messages. So, create a schedule based on that segmentation and send more messages to those who engage more. 

However, ensure that your subscribers can choose how often they want to be contacted. Lastly, but very important, do not change your schedule except if you need urgent appeals or there is breaking news that cannot wait. 

Storytelling as a core strategy

Storytelling is the secret sauce that gets the results with your nonprofit email marketing strategy. While data and personalization are powerful, stories help you leverage these tools effectively. It sends a clear picture to the reader, engages them, and helps them feel the pain of those in need. This is important because 75% of donors do so because they can relate to the cause. 

To get your readers to relate to your stories, you need to share compelling beneficiary stories that vividly showcase the real-world impact of donations, like in the email below.

Also, those stories should highlight inspiring volunteer experiences to motivate others to get involved. It should cover exclusive behind-the-scenes insights into your work through staff perspectives, creating a sense of transparency and connection. 

To keep your audience engaged and waiting for your emails, tell stories that continue across several emails. This keeps people interested and makes them care more about your work over time. But then, ensure these emails carry clear pictures and infographics that make them more pleasing to the eyes. 

Finally, encourage readers to share their own stories too. They can tell you about why they contribute to your cause or how they feel about volunteering. This will go a long way toward creating a sense of community and personal investment in your nonprofit’s mission.

Clear, actionable CTAs 

The last but very important is your call to action (CTA). Your CTA is where you tell your readers what you want them to do. When you send your emails, imagine the reader after reading your email is asking, “So, what should I do now?” If your CTA does not answer that correctly, you may not get the right results. 

For meaningful engagement like in the email above, try the following:

• Use one CTA per email. The email you chose should align properly with the content of the email and your personalization goals. This helps you prevent confusing and overwhelming your readers with requests. 
• Your CTA should be clear, concise, and straight to the point. For example, “Donate Now” or “Sign Up for Our Newsletter.” 
• CTAs should be easy to see. You should also optimize it so that mobile users can click them easily. 

To Sum Up

For nonprofits looking for a cheaper alternative to reach donors and volunteers, email marketing is essential. Email marketing for charities allows these companies to deliver their messages to the right people for fundraising and to nurture relationships. 

However, while email marketing for nonprofit organizations is a great idea, it is important that you design the right strategy. Of course, you are allowed to be creative, but your messages should be targeted with proper personalization. If you are not sure what to do, a good tip might be to see what popular nonprofits are doing and implement one or two things from them.