Success with Email Fundraising Campaigns: 5 areas to focus your attention

Short of the long is that email isn’t going anywhere. And since it statistically takes 5 emails to get 1 donation, we feel you should put some renewed focus on your email fundraising tactics. 

1. Getting your email opened. What matters?

The Sender: People open email from folks they know. Write from a person; not a company.

You want the email to come from a person or brand your targeted reader knows and hopefully likes.

The Subject Line: People respond to a compelling/attention-grabbing subject line; the more useful and specific it is, the better.

Shoot for 40 characters and be careful of exclamation points and all caps to keep out of spam folders.

The Contents: Send quality content and your recipient will both enjoy your email and open your future emails. 

The first sentence or two is often especially important as many people use a preview pane. Keep these sentences consistent with the subject line and make sure they reinforce your message.  If your email is action oriented, include a link to your Fundraise.com page or such that will allow readers to actually take the requested action.

2. Spam filters. How do you stay out of them?

Develop a content strategy: Good content trumps everything else. But if you get a reputation for spamming with junk, then you’ll be treated as spam (in other words, you need a content strategy for all your communications).

Know your recipient:(Or at least know they’ve asked to hear from you). Your readers will add you to their address book if they want you; that will keep you out of spam all together.  

 

3. Email lists. How do you build them?

Website Prominence: Make the sign-up box for your email list prominent, obvious, and inviting. 

Give reason: Use social proof or an engaging tease to entice users to join email list. Why should they want to hear from you?

4. Format & Design. What works best?

Device:Consider how your reader will likely be accessing the email - desktop vs. mobile, etc – and choose your format accordingly.

Function: Test the email across multiple email clients and devices to assure it displays as intended.

Contents: Use images that support your copy. You know what they say, pictures are worth 1,000 words. It’s also usually a good idea to avoid attachments as they may trigger spam filters.

5. Integration. How should email connect to marketing?

Keep it Consist: Keep your message consistent across channels. Sure, twitter may require a slightly different format than Facebook, and email may need a bit more content than Facebook, but keep the messaging the same. 

Share: Share your internal messages across all the channels that you’re using. Also be sure to include share buttons so your supporters can share your message from one channel to another, too. 

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Write a Better Online Fundraising Email

Soliciting friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, and businesses for monetary donations is not always an easy job; especially when the economy is suffering and donation dollars are tight. Before you hit the send button in your email box, take time to write an effective fundraising letter that can speak properly to potential donors on your behalf and help get you one step closer to securing your ticket sale or donation.

Make it personal. Tell the recipient why you care, why you’re spending your own time and energy working on this cause and what their donation would mean to you, personally. At the end of the day it’s more about the messenger than the message, itself, so focus on being your best you.

Keep it simple. Today people are inundated with more information than ever before thanks to improved technology and constant access to it. That said, the person you will be contacting will most likely be busy so a few short paragraphs that get right to the point should do the trick.

Use details. No one wants to throw money at an endless problem with no short-term solutions in sight. Associate people’s ticket price or donation amount with tangible items or actions that give donors hope. Examples include food or supplies that can be purchased, renovations that can be made, treatments that can be paid for or people/animals that can be saved.

In the first paragraph, briefly outline a few facts about the organization that will be benefiting from the fundraiser but make sure to explain how it relates to you.

In the second paragraph, talk about the type of event (bacon and beer, casino night, 5K run, speedo run, etc) the date, the time, and how much fun the event, itself, will be.

In the third paragraph tell the donor about where their money will go and that their donation will be tax deductible, including your organization’s federal tax id number if possible.

Finally, thank the person for taking the time to read your email and for their potential support. Include a link to your Fundraise.com page and let them know you’re available to field any questions they may have. 

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