Email Marketing for Nonprofits: Your Complete Guide

Looking to cut through the noise in your network’s busy inboxes? Want to make a splash with your next digital fundraising campaign? 

With nonprofit email marketing, you can stay in touch with donors and extend your reach by creating fresh and compelling content. Easier said than done, right?  

On average, less than 1 out of 5 contacts on a nonprofit’s email list will donate in a 12-month period. This stat might leave you feeling a bit puzzled or discouraged but, in reality, it partially reflects how much an email marketing strategy for nonprofits is underutilized by many organizations. 

We’re bringing the challenges to the forefront in this two-part guide and outlining various ways you can put nonprofit email marketing best practices to work for your organization.  

If your sense is that engagement and fundraising emails for nonprofits are a nonstarter, it’s possible one or more of these scenarios ring true at your organization:

• Dormant Contacts: You helped to build or inherited an email list that hasn’t been carefully maintained in years.
• Lack of Integration: Your organization’s approach to collecting emails is scattershot – from in-person events to online forms.
• Unclear/Uncompelling Calls to Action: You spend hours each month crafting an email newsletter but feel discouraged by the average email open rate or response.
• Competing Channels: Your organization has plenty of good news and updates to share but your team is hard-pressed to find time for social media, blog posts, and emails on top of annual reports, fundraising events, and other duties. 

Those are just a few of the common difficulties that might be compounded by strained budgets or hesitation to launch a new system or workflow. Don’t fret – there’s a way forward to capitalize on email marketing benefits without draining your resources. 

As is true for many other nonprofit marketing tools and tactics, you can start small with email and build as you go. Or if you’re running an established email program, you can save time and scale your nonprofit email marketing through automation or by identifying and eliminating low-performing content.

Nonprofit email marketing statistics show that, increasingly, donors are looking to connect and contribute online. Despite the trend and readily accessible technology, many nonprofits struggle with effective email marketing. 

The average email open rate for nonprofits is less than 30%. Keep in mind that open rates can be a volatile metric due to how email servers respond and report activity. Taking into account a more reliable data point — such as click-through rate (CTR) — renders a more informed view.  NeonOne, which creates software for nonprofits, reports the average organization CTR is just over 3%. 

Of course, some of your contacts may be clients or program partners, which can skew the measure of email engagement. Among our tips on email marketing for nonprofits, we’ll explore how segmentation can both improve the veracity of your data and supercharge the quality of your messages.

Email Marketing Nonprofit Organizations 

Email should be an important part of an organization’s comprehensive strategy for outreach, advertising, and stewardship. Tactics for email success are different but can complement other channels like social media, your website blog, and donor direct mail. 

From fundraising and event promotion to calls for volunteers, email mimics the personal touch of direct mail at a fraction of the cost. You might not want to eliminate traditional mailers but it’s a good idea to make sure you are contacting supporters by their preferred method. Consider this: In the U.S. and Canada, donors reported that email messages were the leading inspiration for their giving, and 63% prefer to donate online with their credit or debit card. Those numbers come from Nonprofit Tech For Good’s most recent report on giving trends. 

Email marketing amplifies your organization’s message beyond the capacity of social media as you can narrowly target groups within your network and package diverse content into one message. 

Ahead of even a nonprofit’s website, supporters routinely cite email as their main avenue to keep up with programs, fundraisers, updates, and more. This means your donors not only want and expect well-crafted emails but will also respond to fundraising messages and other calls to action via your campaigns.

Whether you’re reinvigorating your nonprofit email marketing strategy or launching your first campaign, this two-part guide walks you through best practices and ideas for great content. 

We’ll answer questions like: 

• How important is email marketing for nonprofits?
• What is an email drip campaign for nonprofits? 
• How often should a nonprofit send emails? 
• Can nonprofits use services like Mailchimp for free?

In part one of our guide, we’ll unpack why email marketing is essential and go over important tips for drip campaigns and producing engaging content. We’ll also cover email marketing compliance issues and offer some monthly newsletter content ideas. 

In part two, we’ll discuss managing and culling your mailing list as well as which metrics to pay attention to. We’ll also look at six paid and free tools that can help you manage contacts, automate campaigns, and measure results of email marketing for nonprofits.  

PART ONE   

How Important is Email Marketing for Nonprofits?

If you’re eager to engage with your supporters proactively, then email marketing is essential. 

Regular email newsletters as well as targeted drip campaigns place your mission, your programs, and your appeal directly in a donor’s inbox. The right content – especially when delivered to the right segment – deepens engagement, builds trust, and reminds supporters that their gift drives real impact.

What is an Email Drip Campaign for Nonprofits? 

A drip campaign refers to a pre-written series of emails sent automatically to contacts based on the user’s behavior. Typically spaced at least three to five days apart, drip campaign emails are designed to respond to the user’s initial interest, guide them toward action, and build longevity in their relationship with your organization. 

An email drip campaign for a nonprofit could include up to 10 pre-scheduled messages sent over a period of two to three months. An example would be a welcome and gratitude drip campaign for new supporters. 

Nonprofit Email Examples – Drip Campaign Steps: 

1. First email: An immediate thank you message, personalized with the donor’s name and information about the organization. 
2. Follow-up: This message could highlight an impact story from a recent initiative or community program along with a link to your contact page in case the supporter has questions. 
3. Next steps: A third email might invite the donor to watch a video about your work and like your social media pages for more updates. 
4. Repeat action: A fourth email could include a message from your director about the importance of monthly giving, with a link to an online donation form.  

Each drip campaign should be specific to the recipient’s action, initial interest, or how they encountered your organization. Always include a clear and inviting call to action (CTA), such as “Sign Up” or “Donate Now.” 

Fully automated drip campaigns complement other email marketing content, which we’ll cover next. Let’s dive in!   

Ideas: Nonprofit Email Marketing 

Variety is the name of the game for robust email marketing. While all content should look and feel “on brand,” creating communications on a range of subjects (and for a range of purposes) ensures your messaging stays fresh and prompts engagement. 

Drip campaigns are but one pillar. Use automated email campaigns for any narrow focus, including:

• Welcoming and onboarding volunteers
• Counting down to a major event 
• Reconnecting with lapsed donors
• Holiday-themed giving prompts 
• Gift-matching calls to action
• Following up with petition signees 

Monthly newsletters are key to pulling supporters closer to your mission. Depending on your email service provider or content management system, you may need to craft blurbs with links to your website or you can include the full story in the body of your email. 

Here are some ideas to try out (include at least two or three each month):

Content Type	Example	Difficulty/Lead-Time
Organization News	Highlight a Q&A with a member of your staff or write a 500 to 700-word story about a new program.	Medium – This may depend on whether your mission is in the news or you have the time to write your own news.
Features/Profiles	Spotlight the work of a superstar volunteer or share a testimonial (including background) that shows the impact of your work.	Easy – Gather ideas year-round and create content for sharing months in advance.
Promotion	Build anticipation of an upcoming event or fundraiser with sneak peek details exclusively shared with your email list.	Easy – Generate email marketing content with the help of your event planners.
Mailbag	Tout a recent compliment or note of feedback to your organization, along with a prompt for subscribers to share a newsletter sign-up link with friends and family.	Easy – Lead-time will vary based on availability and volume.
Photos	Show off photos from a recent program or event, or share candid shots of your staff and volunteers behind the scenes.	Medium – Getting the photos may be the hardest part. Ask attendees and supporters to share some, too.
Graphics	Include an update on recent fundraising or milestones with a simple chart or data visualization.	Medium to Hard – Some data skills required but free tools like Canva or Piktochart make the task easier.

Best Practices: Email Marketing for Nonprofits

Whether it’s a drip campaign, your regular newsletter, or a one-time email blast to subscribers, you need to standardize a few key elements. 

For most emails, you can use a template that includes a header photo (a large display image), a personalized salutation field, and buttons for CTAs. Using an email service provider, you can create elements like footers and email preference links once and save time in the future.   

If you have the functionality, consider customizing the “from” field of your email depending on your audience segment and content type. For example, an email from “Jane Doe, Nonprofit Executive Director,” is a nice touch for VIP donors and partners. In other cases, the organization’s name alone is preferred.    

As you gear up to send more emails (or launch your first campaign), sketch out a basic plan for how you’ll deal with errors. 

Most of the time, you don’t need to send an email blast to correct minor typos or off-kilter formatting issues. If you do make a mistake that needs correcting, handle it quickly and with a dash of humor – unless the error is highly sensitive. You might, for example, need to send an email correction if you left out an important link or forgot to fill in placeholder text in a template. 

Speaking of placeholder text, you may use lorem ipsum or leave fields blank before finalizing your email marketing message. For subject lines, you may want to fill in a generic headline that won’t look too bad if you forget to update it before hitting send – like your organization’s name combined with “news” or “updates.” 

Go confidently with a plan and these quick tips for brilliant email content:  

• Editorial calendar: Plan and create your content as far in advance as possible.
• Bite-sized content: Use blurbs or summary content in the body of the email with hyperlinks and buttons that refer the reader to your website for more info.
• Calls to action: Don’t assume your reader knows they should click to donate or click to register – ask them specifically to do so with a CTA (call to action).   
• Engage the eyes: Include images or visual content to break up text and say more with fewer words. 
• Micro-content: Brainstorm your subject lines (don’t be afraid of emojis!) and use text on images to amplify your CTA.
• Test before sending: Send a test email to yourself and at least one other person who can help spot errors, awkward formatting, or missing links. 
• Focus on opt-ins: Don’t buy email contacts. Instead, make sure every place you collect contact info includes an option to receive emails from your organization.

Of course, our quick tips list left off one critically important best practice: email marketing legal compliance. This topic warrants its own section. 

Now, we are neither lawyers nor charitable solicitation experts. However, we can supply an overview of U.S. regulations and email marketing etiquette. Grab your thinking cap and come along! 

Does the CAN-SPAM Act Apply to Nonprofit Email Campaigns?

At its core, the federal CAN-SPAM law focuses on protecting consumers from unwanted commercial advertising and marketing. While nonprofits may not exclusively send commercial-based email, it’s best to follow the rules as if you’re a business. 

Although this U.S. law has carve-outs for the type of content in an email, it does not specifically provide an exception for nonprofits. Plus, it’s the consumer-friendly thing to do to follow the CAN-SPAM rules, which means your contacts will appreciate the extra level of respect and attention. 

To stay in the clear, you should: 

• Provide a clear and easy way for people to opt out of all future emails. You may offer multiple newsletters or a digest but you must honor a request to stop communications.
• Accurately identify your organization as the sender and avoid click-bait in the subject line. 
• Include an address or P.O. Box in the email footer. 
• De-list recipients and honor opt-out requests within 10 business days. 
• If the message advertises a product or service, it must be labeled an ad. Keep in mind this may apply to corporate sponsorship messages.

Keep in mind that major domains like Google and Yahoo have additional rules and terms for bulk email. It’s important to familiarize yourself with the expectations to reduce the likelihood that your organization’s email lands in the Spam folder. 

Proper opt-out procedures and list management not only will assist you in following relevant regulations but will also bear fruit in other ways. 

In part two, we’re diving into nonprofit email marketing list management 101 and how you can work smarter with software and tools built for email communication. 

PART TWO 

Successful Nonprofit Email Marketing

There are four major steps to manage contacts on your nonprofit email marketing list – and it’s helpful to think of these as interdependent tasks. 

1. Onboard email addresses and collect new contacts

A pop-up on your website prompting a visitor to sign up for your monthly email newsletter or a checkbox on your online (or postal mail) donation form works great. 

Tip: Try phrasing like: “Yes! Send me periodic emails about how my gift made a difference.”

2. Segment contacts by interest or giving activity

This enables powerful drip campaign potential and ensures future content is highly tailored to a chosen audience. If you’re new to segments (i.e. a subset of contacts from your overall email list), consider sending a survey or quick-response form (like Typeform). Here, you ask users to self-identify their connection to your organization or interest in upcoming content. Import the data into your email marketing software and use additional tags to further build lists. 

Tip: Closely monitor segment click-through rates and adjust your content strategy accordingly. 

3. Distribute targeted communications to segments

As we discussed above, separate lists for drip campaigns (new supporters, long-time donors, etc.) and other email marketing not only save time through automation but also boost your content relevancy.

Tip: Watch unsubscribe rates closely and consider scaling back the frequency of emails if there’s a disproportionate loss in one segment. 

4. Measure and manage contacts

Removing inactive contacts is not only polite but also gives you a clearer view of how your audience responds to your content. Some organizations set a six-month benchmark for de-listing a user who hasn’t opened or clicked from an email. 

Consider removing or merging long-term inactive users to a reduced-frequency email list after six months to a year but consider the rhythms of your organization (i.e. if you have a large swatch of donors who give only in December, once per year).   

Tip: Unless the user has opted out intentionally, consider sending an email to all inactive users asking if they’d like to stay on or reduce email frequency.

Creating email marketing content itself is a full-time job. If you’re managing segments, attracting new supporters, and growing your email marketing efforts, you need some form of software and automation. 

All of the options we’ll present below have pros and cons, and each is capable of handling the email marketing needs of most nonprofits. Rest assured, there are plenty of software tools and email service providers beyond these six! We chose these providers to highlight because each has a solid history, offers a suite of features, and the selection can meet the needs of any budget.   

Comparing Email Marketing Services for Nonprofits

Software	Price	Ease of Use & Features
Mailchimp	$ or free *	Beginner-friendly for managing large lists Pre-built templates for quick startupA/B testing for new campaignsLanding pages are free and easy to buildLimited A.I. compared to competitors
Givebutter (Track & Engage tools)	Free**	External donor management integrationEvent livestreaming built-inEasy email marketing templates  Doubles as a CRM alongside fundraisingLimited customization on some features
Constant Contact	$$^^	Drag-and-drop to build email messagesLibrary of themed and routine templatesSimple analytics dashboardSocial media (including LinkedIn) plug-insFewer total integrations than competitors
Emma	$$$	Superior mobile-friendly featuresEvent management toolsAutomated drip campaignsPair with native SMS marketing option Pricing best suited for large nonprofit
HubSpot	$$$ or free***	All-in-one email, CRM and marketing hubGenerous functionality on the free tier Simplified email construction incorporates help from A.I.Automates contact/donor nurturing Many features geared toward sales vs. fundraising
Salesforce	$$$^	Intricate campaign tracking Marketing Cloud puts data front and center Best-in-class advanced CRM functionality Strong security and layered user permissionsSome email marketing steps are complicated

* Mailchimp offers a limited free tier. Nonprofits can apply for a 15% discount on premium plans.

** Givebutter requires online payment processing fees and prompts donors to “tip” the platform. If tips are toggled off, platform fees apply. 

*** HubSpot offers a limited free tier. Nonprofits can apply for a 40% discount on premium plans. 

^^ Constant Contact offers nonprofits discounts on pre-paid plans. 

^ The Salesforce “Power of Us” nonprofit program provides discounted access.

Full-Service Nonprofit Marketing 

No matter which email marketing service you use (or if you need help choosing), we can help your nonprofit drive results with Beyond Marketing’s expertise. 

We believe in the power of storytelling — on email, on social media, and beyond — to inspire your supporters and boost mission awareness. Great strategy underpins great content and outcomes, and we’d love to partner with you! Call or email Beyond Marketing today to push your marketing to new heights.