Email Advice For Smaller Nonprofits
The Agitator is often asked for advice by readers working in smaller to mid-sized nonprofits, where limited staff and resources mean folks are juggling many responsibilities and solutions need to be straightforward and more "off-the-shelf."
We honestly can’t do justice to each request, but we try to be useful. And in particular we watch for sources and resources that we think can be broadly helpful.
So today here is an excellent article, Email on a Budget, on managing email communications in a smaller organization … Where to start? What’s most important? What tools and training are available?
The article is written by Melinda Krueger, director of email marketing at OgilvyOne. So we suspect she’s seen it all! But she’s managed to serve up very practical advice for all of us who find ourselves occasionally in the "chief cook and bottlewasher" role … a role that can get really messy and frustrating when technology is involved!
Here Melinda responds to a query from a communications manager who "does it all" for her art museum.
Hope you find her advice helpful.
Roger & Tom
One response to “Email Advice For Smaller Nonprofits”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
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I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
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Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
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Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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On this note, I was very excited to learn that Vertical Response is offering 10,000 free emails per month for nonprofits. I’ve just signed up, so I can’t vouch for the quality of their service yet, but it looks like it will put high-quality email service in our budget. (http://www.verticalresponse.com/pricing/non-profit/)
Prior to this, we have been using Dreamhost’s announce list feature. Dreamhost also offers free hosting to nonprofits, so that worked well for us. It included double opt-in and bounce processing, but it didn’t have clickthrough tracking and it didn’t integrate with our database (Vertical Response does integrate with Salesforce.com, also free to nonprofits).