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| Path: Main Street > Resources/Library > Research Articles > Feature Article |
Six unique online fundraising techniques for your nonprofit - E-mail
By Lance Trebesch and Taylor Robinson
December 10, 2007Why e-mail for fundraisers?
- Cost effective - Nonprofit organizations more than anyone realize the importance of maximizing the effectiveness of their resources. Traditional forms of marketing are becoming less justified as the costs associated continue to increase with little correlation to actual results. E-mail marketing presents one of the most cost efficient ways for nonprofits to reach their supporters.
- Relationships - Personal relationships are absolutely the key to fundraising, and e-mail should be used as another channel to strengthen existing relationships.
- Fundraising awareness - No other marketing technique gives you the ability to notify hundreds or even thousands of targeted individuals in a matter of minutes. E-mails can create awareness for fundraising campaigns and call people to action. Your e-mails must be compelling and avoid being unfairly labeled as spam to connect with supporters.
- Community - One of the most important functions of e-mail is to provide relevant articles and organization newsletters. Within the e-mail, provide a link back to your websites’ blog or forum page where they can comment on the article or newsletter. This will encourage personal involvement and community.
Six requirements of a great e-mail fundraising effort
1. Get them to look at your e-mail
If you can master this, then you are well on your way. But how do you get your e-mail noticed with all the ”junk mail” people sort through every day? Below are some ideas to make your messages stand out.
- Tie subject with current headlines when possible. Attaching your e-mail subject to a news headline indicates that the e-mail is current and interesting to the reader.
- Be bold. There are thousands of fundraisers and even more e-mails sent every year. As soon as you realize this, you will understand the absolute necessity to be courageous and make your subject stand out.
- Be mysterious. A subject that leaves the reader wondering will also give him/her a reason to find out more.
- Segment and test. “...The top-performing message had a 15% higher open rate and an 81% higher click-through rate than the lowest performing message.” (Innovations in Online Direct Response Fundraising) Identify what is working and what is not by running side by side tests of e-mails and measure their performance.
2. Provide targeted information
The most successful e-mail campaigns tailor information to specific customer segments. Instead of sending a mass e-mail with a fundraiser notification, take time to segment your customers and customize your e-mails to maximize their effectiveness within each group. If a person feels an e-mail is specifically created for him/her, he or she will be much more willing to respond to it. For a very small organization, manual data updates may be possible. But as many nonprofits quickly find out, maintaining a database with current customer information is extremely difficult. Hire an e-mail service provider such as e-maillabs, webmail.us, e-mailhosting.com, or a nonprofit specific provider such as Enonprofits.org to do this leg work for you. For a small nonprofit with approximately 1,000 e-mail recipients, webmail.us gave an initial quote of $15 per month or $144 per year before the 15% discount for 501c3 classification.3. Make privacy a priority
With the overwhelming amount of spam e-mails, people are extremely hesitant to give their e-mail address and even more skeptical of companies who are requesting them. Ninety-six percent of e-mail subscribers view e-mail privacy as important to them and 83% of internet users have avoided subscribing to e-mail newsletters because they weren’t sure the organization would protect their e-mail address (NewsTarget.com). E-mail service providers and copy (text) on the website that guarantees your organization will not sell e-mail addresses are both important to building confidence.4. Provide relevant links
Relevant links within an e-mail that direct to further information gathering will allow you to write e-mails that are short and to the point. If the reader is interested in learning more then you have provided him/her with the means to do so. Do not turn your e-mail into a novel. Make it short, scannable (bullets or numbers often help), and easy to digest. For more about e-mail format visit the Constant Contact website.5. Ship e-mails at the right time with the right frequency
Do you read e-mails on weekends? If you are a typical American, your answer is no. The time and frequency with which you send e-mails are central factors to readers’ responsiveness to them.
- Avoid weekends
- Tuesday and Wednesday are the best days to send e-mails
- 60% of all e-mail is opened between Tuesday and Thursday
- 60% of e-mails are opened between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM
- Early mornings are optimal times to send e-mails
- Be consistent with the frequency that you send e-mails
6. Capture viral marketing potential
Include an “e-mail this” button at the top and bottom of your e-mail. Your supporters care about your fundraisers and want to help make them successful. An “e-mail this” button gives them the power to make a difference. In the e-mail, also encourage them to please send to (number) friends. This may seem childish but it works. People want to help; let them.7. Do not ask for donations in first e-mail
Relationships are absolutely paramount in fundraising efforts. You wouldn’t ask for money the first time you met someone, and you shouldn’t in the first time you e-mail someone either. Start with e-mail newsletters that notify what the organization has accomplished, what projects the organization is working on, and what events are coming up. Send relevant articles and resources that are useful to the recipients. Why? Nobody is going to continue opening your e-mails if they believe all they will contain is a request for money. After the reader is comfortable with the newsletters, you can then begin notifying them of fundraising campaigns and ways they can personally contribute, but keep these subtle. Also, remember to send a follow-up e-mail thanking those who made a contribution (for large donations a personal phone call is appropriate).Taylor can be reached at trobinson@ticketprinting.com and Lance can be reached at lance@ticketprinting.com. Reprinted with permission from TicketPrinting.com.
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