By: Katy Spencer

Is your nonprofit fully leveraging and maximizing the email communication you send out to your donors? When we work with a new organization, we like to look at their entire campaign calendar before we dive into consulting on their digital fundraising strategy.

Here are five types of emails you can utilize during your annual campaign planning to help you stand out in your donor’s inbox:

1)   The Welcome Email

Congratulations! You got a new donor. Now what?

Don’t let them feel like they have disappeared into your system. Welcome them to your donor family with a welcome series. This can even be automated, but make sure the voice of the email is genuine and personal. Here are some tips to make your email stand out.

• Tell them something they don’t know. Don’t simply restate your mission, highlight a specific program or tell a story
• Make an impact with visuals. Present your impact with visual content like photos, infographics or videos
• Have a donor centric tone focusing on “you” instead of “I” or “we”

2) The Update + Impact Email

Follow up a few months after a donation and let your donor know what their gift has helped your organization accomplish. Make them feel like the hero! Include a specific story about the program or area they supported. People give because they feel emotionally compelled to be a part of something that makes the world a better place. Plant the seeds now, and you will see the benefits in the future.

3) The Personalized Email

Personalize, personalize, personalize! Is it the anniversary of their first gift? Is it their birthday? Did they just receive an award from a local organization? Let them know that you saw it! Send them a quick note to congratulate them and show that they matter to you. Cleaning up your donor data will help with better email personalization.

4) The Thank You Email

The thank you after a gift is the first touch they receive from your organization. Make the donor feel like they made the right decision to give to you. Here are a few things to make sure you include:

• Their name – Even if this is automated, you can still make it seem personal
• Your name – You are the face of the organization. Connecting the organization to a person makes the donor feel like they have had a greater and more personal impact
• Compelling subject line – This email does not need to get lost in the spam folders. Use this as an opportunity to really grab their attention. An example would be “Wow <name>! You did it!”
• Follow-up – Here are three ways to follow-up with new donors

5) The Email Ask

The ask in an email is vital to your digital fundraising campaign, but the ask should only happen after they have received some of the other types of email communication we touched on above. Here are a couple best practices for your fundraising email:

• Sending an email from an actual person instead of the organization increases open rates
• Does your subject line grab their attention and make them want to open the email?
• Have a clear call to action and provide multiple opportunities to click through in your email
• Consider leveraging a donor match or challenge with a deadline to create urgency with your donors

Have a look at your yearly content calendar

Are you asking too much without any other touch points? Do you have a regular donor stewardship piece that goes out consistently throughout the year?

Need help planning your content and campaign calendar? We’ve helped nonprofits all across the USA and Canada with their digital fundraising campaigns be leveraging email strategy, peer-to-peer fundraising, social media campaigns, website optimization, and more.

Drop us an email and let’s set up a time to strategize about your content!