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Getting Started with Email Fundraising
By Andrea Berry, independent fundraising consultant
Email fundraising is a technique that’s within
the reach of the smallest organization. This article
walks you through the basics: how to design a
campaign, write emails, build an email list, select
software to send email, take online donations, and
measure the results.
Email is an effective way to communicate with donors
and to raise money without substantially raising
your overhead. While it isn’t likely to replace
direct mail fundraising in your communications mix,
emails allow you to inexpensively provide reasons
and reminders to give, right when they can be most
effective. Some donors are more likely to read and
act on an email. And, it’s not particularly
complicated to do.
Almost every organization should consider email
fundraising. Here’s how to get started.
Define Your Strategy and Story
• Formulate a plan. Before launching your campaign,
take the time to formulate a plan. A well
thought-out strategy will help make your campaign
mission compelling enough to appeal to the target
audience.
• Start by defining your campaign goals. How much do
you hope to raise? Think through what’s actually
possible, as it’s discouraging to everyone—including
donors—to set unrealistic goals. Identify and list
actual donors you think you can count on to give,
estimate how much they might give, and use that as
the base for your campaign. While you’re likely to
get new donors, it’s impractical to expect the vast
majority to be new ones.
• Consider the appropriate length for your campaign. Every campaign should have an end date—that final
push as you near the end. “Only one day left to hit
our goal!” can generate useful momentum, and spur
supporters to donate. Most campaigns span at least a
few weeks, while some span months or more.
• Create your team. The right staff members or
volunteers are also important in the effectiveness
of the campaign. Who will write the emails? Who
needs to review them before they go out? Who’s
making sure they’re coordinated with your
organization’s other communications and campaigns?
• Craft a message that gets results. Most
importantly, develop a compelling message to inspire
people to donate. Tell supporters a story—not just
about why it’s important to support your
organization, but specifically what their donations
will support. Is it a scholarship fund to help more
people take advantage of your programs? A new piece
of equipment? When possible, put names or faces to
the people the campaign will help, or paint a vivid
picture of what the hoped-for results will look
like. The more specific your request, and the more
it resonates with your target audience, the more
likely your supporters are to donate.
Design Your Flow of Emails
For instance, you might design a campaign with four
emails. The first frames your request, while the
second provides a different perspective—like
supporting quotes, or a client’s story. The third
might encourage people to donate at the last minute
with a simple, poignant quote. Use the fourth email
to thank people for their support. For a more robust
campaign, consider adding additional emails such as
a progress report, a seasonal greeting card, or a
request for recipients to forward your message or
tell a friend about your campaign.
It’s worth considering how your email fundraising
will work alongside your other communications. Don’t
think of email as an alternative to direct mail or a
website– email campaigns can be effective companion
pieces to existing direct fundraising appeals.
Evaluate whether your emails will coincide with a
direct mail solicitation or fill an open slot in
your direct mail schedule.
Remember, different types of communications don’t
exist in separate bubbles. Use them to support each
other by directing attention to an upcoming letter
or email, or use both to direct potential donors to
your website.
Build an Email List
The best email fundraising campaign is useless if
you don’t have anyone to send it to. Plus, data
shows that on average, email campaigns receive a .5
percent to 2 percent donation rate from each
email—clearly, a successful campaign relies on
reaching as many committed supporters as you can. If
you’re trying to build a list in a hurry, recruit
your current supporters to your email list—for
instance, by sending a postcard to everyone on your
direct mail list asking them to subscribe to your
email list.
Another option is to find email addresses for your
current support list through an “email address
appending” service. You send your direct mail list
to the vendor, who fleshes it out with email
addresses.
Online resources can also encourage people to sign
up or pledge, and pass the word on to others. You
might create compelling information that’s useful to
your potential audience, and then ask them to sign
up to learn more, or to hear about new resources. Or
create a campaign—for example, asking people to not
drive their cars one day each week—and get
participants to sign a pledge with their email
address, committing to it.
Keep in mind that bigger is not always better. Make
sure the people on your email list want to receive
information from your organization. If you’re
emailing people who did not sign up, you run the
risk of alienating people from your cause, instead
of increasing your donation revenue. Worse, you can
run afoul of the law.
The national CAN-SPAM Act says you may only email
people with whom you have pre-existing
relationships.
Pulling lists of email addresses from the Web or
from other people’s events is a bad way to start a
campaign.
Write Effective Emails
When composing emails, details are critical. Think
of a subject line that will entice readers. They
should be intriguing and motivating. A simple “Help
support our organization” might not get the same
response as a “Help us raise $10,000 by midnight
tonight!”
List the name of both an individual and the name of
the organization as the sender, in order to
encourage the most people to open the email. Choose
a strong advocate for your cause. Just as you would
highlight an important supporter as an event
attendee, or leadership in a campaign, use name
recognition to help drive your email’s success.
In the body of your email, tell your story
succinctly. One compelling example can be more
effective than a lot of facts and figures. Make it
as personal as possible. Use the recipients’ names
when you can, and sign the email as humanly as
possible—with a name and a scanned signature, if
possible.
Avoid stilted language in favor of a personal tone.
The email should read like you wrote it to a friend.
Remember, good emails are generally shorter, more
personal, and informal than standard direct mail
letters, so recycling direct mail won’t work without
revisions.
Finally, remember to make your ask! Include three
different types of asks in an email—one in the body
of the email, one as a closing P.S., and with a
“Donate” button. Make the click obvious and easy.
Remove any doubt with a large “Donate Now” button or
callout, with no links to other pages. Use bold text
to highlight action steps and pertinent information,
but avoid underline or colored fonts for emphasis,
as your reader may confuse them for additional
(broken) links.
Choose a Broadcast Email Tool
A number of useful and affordable broadcast email
packages can make it relatively easy to email
hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people at
once. These tools help you format attractive emails,
including graphical formats or images, and manage
your list of email addresses. They also let
recipients subscribe and unsubscribe by themselves,
and help get your mail into inboxes rather than spam
filters. These tools will also provide reports on
how many people opened and clicked through on each
email, so you can measure effectiveness.
If you’re emailing more than a dozen or so people at
a time, use software designed specifically for mass
email like Vertical Response or Network for Good’s
Email Now. Both offer feature-rich, affordable
options. A number of donor management and online
integrated systems provide useful broadcast email
functionality, as well. For more on broadcast email
tools, see Idealware’s “Few Good Broadcast Email
Tools” article.
Choose a Donation Tool
Many donors who receive fundraising requests by
email expect to be able to donate online. Luckily, a
number of tools make accepting online payments easy.
Most online donation tools work the same way. A
“donate” button on your website links to a donation
form where donors enter contact and credit card
information. The tool verifies the credit card,
charges it securely, and ensures that the donor’s
money reaches your organization. Online reporting
tools let you see what’s been donated and export the
information to another database.
A number of packages, including Network for Good’s
Basic Donate Now, charge no fees, except for a
percentage of each donation. Organizations who
expect lots of donations should consider tools like
Click & Pledge, AuctionPay, GiftTool, or Network for
Good’s Custom Donate Now. Online integrated tools
that allow you to take donations, send emails, and
manage constituent data all in one place, can also
be excellent options.
Measure Your Success
You’ve begun your first email fundraising campaign.
How’s it going? Donation results and email metrics
provided through your broadcast email tool help you
understand the progress of your campaign and how to
improve it. Open rates, which measure how many
recipients “opened” your email, track how
effectively your subject line and other header
information encouraged people to open your email. A
standard open rate is 15 to 25 percent. If you want
to boost your numbers, try making your subject line
more evocative, consider your email volume, and look
at the time and day of the week your emails are
being sent.
Click-through rates show how effectively your email
copy inspired people to donate. On average, between
1 percent and 10 percent of recipients will click
through a link. To raise this rate, try making your
subject line clearer. Perhaps people were expecting
one thing from your subject line, but found a
different letter in the email body. Make sure your
“Donate Now” link is obvious. Finally, re-read your
copy asking for support. Is it clear, concise, and
compelling?
Keep an eye on your unsubscribe rate to determine if
you’re sending out too many emails. Expect an
unsubscribe rate of 0.3 percent to 1 percent for
each email. To decrease your unsubscribe rate, try
providing more value in your emails, email on a
predictable schedule, and reduce your overall
volume.
Perhaps, most important of all, your conversion rate
helps you track how many people actually donated. A
rate between .5 percent and 2 percent for a
fundraising appeal, and 3 percent to 15 percent for
action appeals, means your emails performed to
average. To increase your conversion rate, provide a
compelling reason for readers to act and optimize
your landing page, so readers who click through can
easily donate or follow the next steps.
Evaluating your emails and adjusting them as
necessary can help you fine tune your campaigns.
Find out what’s working, and do more of it. Remember
to be bold, adventurous, and passionate about your
cause. Keep it compelling and personal, and people
will respond.
Wrapping it Up
Congratulations! You’ve got all the knowledge and
tools you need to mount your first email fundraising
campaign. The 2008 election showed email campaigns
have the potential to bring in large numbers of
supporters, many of whom were not reached by other,
more traditional efforts. By applying a little
forethought and adopting the same techniques, your
organization can do the same.
---Source: Idealware Feb. 2, 2010 (www.idealware.org).
Andrea Berry is an independent fundraising
consultant focusing on helping nonprofits build and
expand their fundraising capacity. She can be
reached at ABerryConsulting@gmail.com.
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