Nonprofit Consulting: Tips and Tricks for Successful Email Fundraising

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Nonprofit Consulting Tips and Tricks for
Successful Email Fundraising

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Nonprofit Consulting

• One of the hottest topics in nonprofit consulting
  is how to craft successful fundraising emails.
• With the competition being brutal for every
  contribution dollar, you need your message to
  reach and move your donors.
• To accomplish your goals, you must know
  everything there is to know about email
  fundraising.
• To help, weve used our experience in nonprofit
  consulting, as well as industry research, to
  develop a list of email best practices.
• The suggestions are divided into four sections
• Distribution, Content, Lists and Evaluation

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Email Distribution

• According to industry research, the vast majority
  of email recipients dont have separate business
  and personal email accounts.
• - Or, if they do, they often are routed to one
  inbox. - So, dont worry about getting one
  account or the other. - If the email account is
  valid, chances are very good the recipient will
  receive it whether its a business or personal
  account.
• Conventional wisdom used to say weekdays,
  especially Tuesdays and Wednesdays, were the best
  days to send emails.
• - However, the weekend, surprisingly, is the new
  it time.
• - Research shows the highest click-through rates
  happen on Saturday and Sunday.
• - And, the most unsubscribes happen on Monday
  and Tuesday.
•  

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Email Distribution

• Time of day for nonprofit emails seems to be
  between 600 a.m. and 700 a.m.
• - During this time frame, most recipients open
  and click emails.
• Dont forget about mobile!
• - Recent stats indicate over 80 of people read
  their email on smart phones.
• - If your fundraising email cant be easily read
  on a mobile device, it will be deleted and youve
  lost a potential donor.
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• Over time, youll learn your recipients
  behaviors regarding your emails.
• - As patterns emerge, you should begin to
  establish schedules and content based on this
  behavior.

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Content

• Dont deviate from your message stay on track
  and keep it relevant.
• - Donors give because they want to help others
  so keep their motivation in mind when you craft
  your message.
• - Always get to know your donors and tailor your
  messages to them.
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• Think carefully about your subject line since it
  has the potential to cause your donor to hit
  open or delete.
• - Industry research shows words like
  e-newsletter, issue, weeks, edition,
  survey, learn, now and post in the
  subject line tend to improve the odds of having
  the email opened.
• - As you can expect, your subject line needs to
  grab attention quickly and compel the reader to
  open the email. If you equate your subject line
  to a headline in a newspaper or advertisement,
  youre on the right track.

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Content

• Incorporate several links within your email in
  copy, graphics and photos.
• - By doing so, youll have a better click through
  rate and fewer unsubscribe requests.
• - Make sure readers are given many opportunities
  to click through to your call-to-action.
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• Create valuable content that your reader will
  want to save.
• - If you incorporate important information like
  facts, statistics, interesting stories and other
  reference material, your reader is more likely to
  hang on to your email.

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Content

• Be careful of relying on graphics to tell the
  story.
• - You want donors to read your story in text.
• - Then you dont have to worry about email
  settings making your message unreadable by
  preventing graphics from showing.
• - Use concise language, effective calls to action
  and a link to your website for more detailed
  information.
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• Sometimes the desired end result gets lost in the
  email.
• - Make sure your email stays focused on what you
  need the reader to do, whether you want him/her
  to take action or make a donation.
• - They must have ample opportunities to click on
  links that take them to the landing page that
  will accomplish the task at hand.

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Mailing Lists

• Be cautious of purchasing email lists from third
  parties.
• - The problem stems from the people on the list
  having no relationship with your nonprofit.
• - Generally, a better tactic is to build an email
  list from the names and addresses of people who
  already have an association with your
  organization.
• Explain to people who receive your printed
  materials that you would like to communicate with
  them via email to save money on printing and
  postage.
• - You may be able to demonstrate how much more
  money you can put toward your cause by
  communicating electronically.
• - In exchange for an email address, you can
  provide a benefit, like some new information.

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Mailing Lists

• Using social media, like Facebook and Twitter,
  can provide opportunities for people to sign up
  for your eNewsletter or other programs.
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• Just like on social media, you should have a sign
  up form on your website too.
• - Anyone who visits your site should easily find
  a simple form to enter their email address.
• Consider conducting a promotion online or at your
  next event.
• - Giveaway something of value, like an iPad and
  announce the winner via email.
• - In exchange for the cost of the giveaway,
  youll collect a bunch of good email addresses.

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Evaluation

• Even if you follow all the best practices, you
  still want to test your fundraising emails.
• - Good emails can be made better. You may find
  by tweaking your subject line, design, content,
  distribution time or other variable improves your
  results.
•  
• - So how do you test? Heres a simple split
  testing technique we recommend to our nonprofit
  consulting clients
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• Create two emails and send each to a separate 10
  segment of your list.
• Monitor and evaluate the responses.
• Determine which email was most successful and
  then send that one to the remaining 80 of your
  list.

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Nonprofit Consulting
Nonprofit Consulting Tips for Evaluation

• Every marketing campaign must be measured for
  effectiveness.
• - The typical way to evaluate a campaign is to
  track results against the investment.
• - Your fundraising email is no different.
• - You need to measure the email donation results
  against the investment to determine your return.
  
• - Most email fundraising campaigns begin with
  return on investment (ROI) goals and then the
  campaign results are measured against these goals
  to determine success.

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Nonprofit Consulting

• Because of its many benefits, email fundraising
  has become one of the most widely used
  fundraising tools available today.
• Nonprofit consulting firms recommend email
  fundraising for its relative simplicity, speed
  and affordability.
• By adhering to these tips, youll be able to
  improve your email program ROIs.
• IPM Advancement offers over 75 years of
  accumulated nonprofit consulting experience.
• We typically begin a client engagement by
  auditing annual fundraising, membership or
  advocacy programs.

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Nonprofit Consulting

• During this process, IPM Advancement examines the
  entire annual giving program in terms of donor
  communications, organization history, database
  issues, donor demographic and psychographic
  profiles, fundraising history, pipeline
  development, internal and external challenges,
  and more.
• Our goal is to create greater clarity for our
  nonprofit consulting clients over their annual
  giving, membership and advocacy programs, and
  then help them achieve higher levels of success.

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About the Author
Edward Phillips, MBA, is Chief Creative Officer
of IPM Advancement, a leading non profit
fundraising company. Visit us at
http//www.ipmadvancement.com or call
623-687-3908 for more information about Nonprofit
Consulting.