Sometimes, fundraising with social media can feel like shouting into a void. It can difficult to determine who is seeing your messages and even harder to ensure that they are clicking the links, especially if you aren’t utilizing paid ads.
However, your email list is a direct line of contact between your organization and your supporters. These readers signed up for your email list; they want to hear from you. These are people who already support your cause and will be likely to do so by donating.
As you begin crafting your first fundraising appeal emails of the year, take a cue from these five examples that do it well.
1. Demonstrate your mission
Your mission is important to you, but how do you communicate this well to your audience? When sending a fundraising email, make your mission central to the message. This gives potential donors a clear insight into what you’re fundraising for and how much it matters to your organization.
Northeast Indiana Public Radio was in the middle of its fall pledge drive. To show its dedication to its mission, the organization paused the fundraising to broadcast the Kavanaugh hearing. When you show commitment to your mission, donors fall in love with your cause.
Bonus tip: Consider a gift giveaway for donors as an extra incentive to donate by a certain time. The second email from NIPR drives urgency with an Apple iPad Pro giveaway for donors who give within 24 hours.
2. Show the impact of a donation
Don’t be afraid to talk money in your fundraising email. Showing the direct impact a few specific donation amounts will make gives your donors the option to understand how their donation will make a difference. This example from the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas details the impact of four gift amounts, from $50 to $500.
3. Promote a matching opportunity
Congrats! You’ve won every nonprofit’s dream of increasing your donations thanks to a gift matching opportunity. Now it’s time to spread the word. Besides posting about this opportunity on your social channels, be sure to make it the highlight of your fundraising email.
The Humane Society of Memphis & Shelby County offers a great example of how to spotlight a matching gift in the email below. Not only does the email explain the opportunity in text, but they emphasize the doubled donation with images, icons and real numbers.
Another important touch: naming the donor and give them credit in your email. Some donors may wish to be anonymous, but if not, giving them credit is a nice way to say “thank you.”
Any gift-matching opportunity is a good one. In fact, one study found that a 50% gift match garners the same amount of donations as a 100% match. More good news: 84% of one survey’s participants said they’d be more likely to donate if a match is offered and 1 in 3 donors said they would give more.
4. Thanks for the progress so far, still a chance to give
It’s not a bad idea to check in with your donors midway through your fundraising campaign (particularly if you have a good amount of money left to raise). You’re not being annoying, you’re giving them an update on the fundraiser and giving them a second chance to give. This appeals to previous donors who truly care about your mission— maybe they will be inspired to give again. It also appeals to those who haven’t yet given by demonstrating that their gift could make a difference.
Start this email by thanking donors for helping you get closer to your goal. Then, ask them to help you get over the top. Detail clearly how much money has been raised and restate your goal. In this example, Inter-Faith Food Shuttle checks all the boxes by thanking their supporters for making their telethon a success and giving them another chance to help them reach the goal.
5. Personalize your cause
Stories are how we relate to one another. They can help us understand a new perspective or show us the impact of a need filled. Use your fundraising email as an opportunity to share the true stories of people your organization has helped. When shared authentically, a human story will always beat a statistic when communicating a need for donations.
The United Methodist Children’s Home personalizes the work they do by telling the story of twins they helped from birth. At the very end, the email calls for a donation to help the organization do the same for others.
Be sure to read our previous posts (found here and here) that explain other best practices of fundraising emails. Then, get in touch with 4aGoodCause to make your next campaign a success.
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