Key takeaways
- Match your donor page to your fundraising email. Design, layout and messaging should mirror each other, including donation amounts and event recaps.
- Use evocative images and real names to connect emotionally. Highlight stories and the individuals helped by your work.
- Keep emails very brief and design for a 10–15 second read to maximize focus and engagement.
- Integrate social sharing: include share buttons and cross-post email content to extend reach beyond your contact list.
- Run A/B tests with multiple message variants to learn what resonates and improve future campaigns.
- Repeat key links and a consistent theme or phrase throughout the email to increase clicks and reinforce your ask.
Introduction
As a nonprofit, making the most of your time in the inbox isn’t just a good idea, it’s vital to keeping the fight for your cause moving forward. However, raising funds via email marketing isn’t always the equivalent of a digital slam dunk. To really win over your audience, you’ll need a measured and powerful approach. With this in mind, let’s take a look at six simple tips that are sure to supercharge your next fundraising message.
Keep the Theme Going on Your Donor Page
The first tip on the list, as explained by Caron Beesley, is all about keeping things consistent between your donor page and the particulars of your fundraising emails. Essentially, you’ll want to match the design, layout, and even message blurbs or quotes from one platform to the other. You’ll score bonus points if you include donation request amounts and event recaps in this mirrored content approach. Viewers love a consistent and streamlined approach, so keep this in mind as you build a cohesive user experience that links the inbox to your website.
Appeal to the Heart of Your Audience with Images
Beesley also notes that aiming for evocative imagery is a powerful way to leverage your email content into more donations. Appealing to the heart of your readers is all about sharing the need for your cause, so don’t be afraid to highlight important figures and stories within these messages. Putting a name to the face of someone who benefits from your nonprofit helps ensure that the person on the other side of the screen understands exactly why his or her donation truly matters.
Keep Your Message Focused
As far as the actual length of your content goes, it’s hard to go wrong with a more succinct and brief message. There’s no doubt that you have much to say on behalf of this cause or fundraising drive, but the simple fact of the matter is that people aren’t willing to read a novel in the inbox.
Instead, you’re much better off aiming for a 10 to 15 second experience. By distilling your core message into something that can be consumed within this window, you’ll have the perfect blend of impact and brevity that’s capable of keeping your readers focused and engaged.
Release Your Inner Social Butterfly
When it comes to supporting your email content, the team behind the Maine Cancer Foundation point out that it’s imperative that you release your inner social butterfly. On its own, email marketing is a powerful and effective tool. However, you can extract so much more value – and reach – out of this process by integrating a social experience into this process.
From incorporating “share” buttons within your emails, to posting this content on your own Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts, there’s no reason why you and your organization’s inbox audience can’t spread the word to not just your contact list, but to the rest of the web as well.
Testing Is Always a Good Idea
Just like members of the commercial community, your fundraising emails can benefit drastically from the aid of A/B testing. It might take a little getting used to – or some one-on-one time with an email marketing expert – but having multiple variations of your core message that appeal to different segments of your email audience helps guarantee that you don’t leave any potential donations on the table.
Going a step further, this process can also help enhance and prepare your next email campaign by generating a considerable amount of relevant data and information that pertains to your contact list membership.
Repeat Yourself Often
The last – and perhaps most important – tip on this list covers the need to repeat yourself often within your message content. On the surface this advice might sound crazy; especially in the face of the previous tip regarding brevity in your emails. However, having multiple links to your donation page, as well as a constant theme or phrase that appears throughout this content, drives up engagement and helps capture interaction that might otherwise fall through the cracks. In some cases, developing this piece of the email marketing puzzle now can lead to a variety of branding or slogan options down the road.
At the end of the day, fighting for your cause and raising much needed funds in the digital world is an arduous endeavor – there’s no getting around this reality. Thankfully, with this information now firmly on your side, there’s no reason why your nonprofit can’t ignite the charitable spark within its audience and drive email-related donations to unprecedented levels.
FAQ
Mirror the design, layout and core messages between your email and donor page. Include the same message blurbs or quotes, display donation request amounts and add event recaps so the inbox-to-site experience feels cohesive and familiar.
Choose evocative imagery that appeals to the heart and highlights the need for your cause. Show the people helped by your organization and where possible put a name to a face so readers understand exactly why a donation matters.
Aim for a succinct message that can be consumed in about 10 to 15 seconds. Distil your core ask into that short window to balance impact and brevity.
Integrate a social experience: add share buttons inside emails and post the same content on your organization’s Facebook, Twitter and other accounts so supporters can spread the message beyond your contact list.
Use A/B testing with multiple variations of your core message targeting different audience segments. The resulting data helps you avoid leaving donations on the table and prepares you for stronger follow-up campaigns.
Repeating multiple links to your donation page and a constant theme or phrase throughout the email raises engagement and captures interactions that might otherwise be missed. This repetition can also inform future branding or slogan options.
