Adventures in Email Fundraising

By Andrea Berry

As nonprofits look for new ways to raise money in the digital age, email fundraising is beginning to stand out as a compelling option. Many of the larger and nationally active nonprofits already use this approach to save money and reach broader constituencies. Can it work as well for small and mid-sized organizations?

Non-profit organizations of all sizes increasingly use email to create contact points with constituents, and many have moved to online newsletters and e-blasts about events and new happenings as ways of keeping in touch. Email fundraising seems to be the logical extension of such communication, but many nonprofits are finding that last step difficult – even if they already have the tools in place.

If you are already using email communication tools and are equipped to receive online donations through your website, email fundraising is an easy step forward. Taking the plunge into online fundraising can effectively complement your direct mail campaigns – all it takes is a little planning and the willingness to try. For a better sense of what’s involved, let’s look at two organizations and their first attempts at email fundraising.

The White Mountain School: Basic Email Fundraising Strategy

The White Mountain School (WMS) in Bethlehem, N.H., is a small college-preparatory boarding school with a focus on sustainability studies and connecting students to the outdoors. Founded in 1886 as the all-girls St. Mary’s School in Concord, N.H., the school moved to its White Mountains location in the 1930s and became St. Mary’s in the Mountains. The school turned co-ed in the 1970s, and now serves 100 students in grades 9 through 12. Known for its challenging academic program, WMS is predominantly tuition-driven, and raises the majority of supplemental funding through an annual campaign, a wish list and a small endowment.

This spring, as the school was ending its annual fund campaign, it received a fund-raising email from a similarly sized independent boarding school in Wyoming. The email included a video and an ask for support. The WMS development staff were inspired by the quality of the video to try incorporating an email campaign into their annual fund drive.

The school was already using Constant Contact to communicate with alumni, parents and other supporters through monthly newsletters with soft asks included. Why not use the same list to encourage donations? Staff created a slide show highlighting students and the campus, and used YouTube to overlay music composed and played by a student and a voice track in which a parent talks about the school and asks for support. This video was posted to the school’s website, and the email campaign circulated the link.

The email campaign goal was wrapped into the school’s $300,000 yearly annual fund goal, and also included the general goal of increasing the school’s online mailing list. Donors accessed an account through the school’s website and made donations through PayPal. The email campaign consisted of three emails to the WMS list of 1,300 addresses, 750 of which belonged to alumni – some of the school’s best prospects. Staff banked on the power of the video, so each email was kept extremely simple, with minimal text and a big link to the video page. The first email simply said:

The White Mountain School
Click below
WMS Inspires Parents
Support your school today!

That email had an open rate of 32 percent, and a click-through rate of 51 percent – well above industry averages provided by Constant Contact of 20 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively. These encouraging results clearly achieved the first goal of the emails: to drive traffic to the site and get constituents to watch the video. The second and third emails followed a similar format, directing constituents to the video, but also included one-sentence updates on the campaign’s progress, and information about contacting the development office. These subsequent emails saw lower rates more consistent with industry standards, likely attributable to the similar format and messaging to the first email.

Articles on Fund Development

As a result of the email campaign, the White Mountain School saw an increase in online donations, and believes the emails also caused an increase in standard mail donations, which still made up the majority of campaign donations. The WMS says it exceeded annual fund goals for the fiscal year through direct mail, phone bank and the new email appeal, and plans to add the email campaign as a part of the overall development plan for the next year.

Feedback from constituents was very positive. They were glad to have their school communicating via the Internet, and enjoyed the video. The campaign successfully directed traffic back to the school’s website and produced an increase in donations and augmented the school’s online mailing list. Overall, the development office (consisting of two staff members) spent 15 to 20 hours total on the project, including creating the video, and considers the project a success.

Julie Yates, the school’s director of alumnae/i relations, gives this advice to other organizations considering such a campaign: “Don’t be afraid to try. You can make something that looks good without much expertise.”

Julie also recommends working in collaboration with other departments at your nonprofit – if you have a marketing staff, use their expertise to help craft your message, or if another department has been collecting images, use them instead of creating new ones and duplicating tasks.

Perhaps most importantly, Julie also suggests setting multiple goals for your campaign. WMS’s campaign goals were to raise money and grow the school’s email list. By focusing on the “friend-raising” element of the campaign, the task of crafting the perfect email became less daunting. Plus, the school now has a video that is not only perfect for fundraising, but that can be used as a constituent recruitment tool and an admissions piece.

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