E-mail

As fundraisers, our passengers are our donors. And as most experienced fundraisers have found, even the best change can impact income—at least for a while. I mean, let’s be real—what’s bad about going from a boring, two-color newsletter to one that is four-color and has larger photos? In most cases, nothing. But it’s change, and, as humans, we can be a bit slow to adapt to anything different; and that can keep us from giving until we get comfortable with the "new."...

"We need money! Can you send out an email/mailing/newsletter?" Have you heard some variation of that in your career? It’s tough enough doing a great job when you can plan a project, but when you have no time for the "luxury" of rumination, take a few minutes to answer these five questions to help your direct response fundraising be as effective as possible...

Fundraising is a funny profession. It requires you to learn a specific style of writing that's unlike any other you're likely to have learned—business writing, journalism or grant writing, etc. But if you go to the trouble to learn the conventions of fundraising writing, donors will reward you with more gifts. Larger gifts. And they'll…

Not all email lists are the same. You may have an e-newsletter list that includes all donors and supporters, another list specifically for repeat donors, and another list for supporters who have not yet donated. Your ability to segment your email lists will depend on your CRM and your email communications software, but having multiple lists can help your nonprofit better craft your messages and fundraising requests...

The staff at Habitat for Humanity of Omaha would rather focus on building and renovating homes for low-income families than spend its valuable resources managing a Microsoft Exchange Server. For years, the nonprofit organization paid an IT consulting firm a monthly fee to host and manage its email server. But at roughly $2,000 a month,…

How many emails did you wake up to this morning? If you’re like me, it was a lot. Dozens, maybe even 100 or more. But how many did you really read? Unfortunately, communication from nonprofit organizations—even those we support and really care about—can end up quickly deleted. There’s simply too much going on in our lives to treat every piece of communication equally...

On June 21, supporters on Trump’s mailing list received the first fundraising email the campaign has ever sent with the subject line, “The First One.” Well, they were supposed to. According to Ad Age, nearly 60 percent (59.3 percent, if you want to get specific) of those emails went straight to the spam folders. Only 12 percent of recipients opened the email and 6 percent of recipients deleted it without reading...

Last week, my wife received an email appeal that demonstrates that fundraising professionals continue to make stupid email and direct mail mistakes. I’m not talking about fundraisers who have failed to use cutting-edge techniques. Instead, I’m talking about folks who have made s-t-u-p-i-d mistakes when it comes to the fundamentals of making a simple appeal.…

Picture a year-end appeal. The goal isn’t met. Time is running out. Your appeal urges donors to act right away, or bad things may happen. "Can’t we keep it upbeat? You know, focus on the good stuff?" a board member will ask. "We know that’s more effective, right?" Well, I don’t think I do know…

How much is spam costing your nonprofit? According to a new study, it's no small amount. In its "2016 Email Deliverability Index," nonprofit CRM provider EveryAction examined email deliverability data for 55 national nonprofits with "substantial email programs" and compared findings to last year's data. The study found that the monthly spam rate for email sent in 2015 was 7.03 percent. And all those undelivered emails add up...