With giving levels on a slow climb, e-mail has emerged as a surprisingly effective fundraising tool.

By Paul Barbagallo

“We receive a much higher response rate and open rate from e-mails that contain video,” Mann notes. “In the first several months, the rate of donations from the [pet-owner audience] that we developed was much lower because it was a new audience, but as we kept delivering this message to them, they really came through in a big way.”