Getting Started with Email Fundraising

By Andrea Berry
  Fund-raising Consultant

This article was provided by Idealware, which provides candid information to help nonprofits choose effective software. For more articles and reviews, go to www.idealware.org.

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 non-profit 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.

Attendees at the 2009 Idealware-TSNE  Email Fundraising Bootcamp

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 non-profit 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

A good email campaign should always include more than one email – multiple emails reinforce your pitch, ensure that more supporters will actually see at least one email, and act as reminders to those who intend to donate but haven’t yet. The emails should complement each other – perhaps to tell the same story from different angles, highlight different parts of the mission or goal, or convey the progress of your campaign.

For instance, you might design a campaign with 4 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 fund-raising 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 fund-raising 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.

Explore Email Fundraising

For a better sense of what’s involved, read two new case studies highlighting email fundraising.

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. Vendors like FreshAddress or Tower Data charge per name (around $.20 to $.60 with a minimum order required), with a success rate of 10 to 20 percent.

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.

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