5 Tips for Writing Fundraising Emails That Convert

To run a successful fundraising campaign that brings in donations to support your cause, you need a strong marketing plan. And no multi-channel marketing strategy is complete without strategic fundraising emails.

Emails are a tried-and-true method for connecting with your audience, but you don’t want your appeal to get lost in your supporters’ inboxes or end up at the bottom of their to-do list.

In this article, we’ll explore recommendations to optimize your fundraising emails and earn more donations. 

1. Segment Your List

To craft emails that connect, you must center your audience’s experience throughout the entire campaign. One of the best ways to do this is to segment your audience based on data you’ve collected to construct the message that will most resonate with each individual donor.  

Your audience already shares one thing in common: their connection to your mission. It’s important to keep that central even as you segment your donor base. For instance, a church sending appeals to its congregation should keep every message anchored to shared values, even when tailoring the ask by involvement level or generation.

Segmentation can even help you determine the optimal time to send your email, based on the segmented group’s preferences. 

2. Optimize for Mobile

43% of all emails are opened on a mobile device. If the email you send isn’t correctly formatted for mobile, a large share of your audience will see a broken version of your appeal. Cornershop Creative’s guide to email marketing recommends designing your emails for readability first, since that’s a significant factor in mobile-friendliness. 

Ensure you capture your entire audience with these additional mobile-friendly tips:

• Use the preheader box: In addition to a compelling subject line, the preheader is another opportunity to engage supporters before they even open your message. 
• Stick to single-column text: It’s easier to read and skim, and there’s less chance of it getting cut off in an awkward spot if it loads incorrectly. 
• Reduce image file sizes: Fast-loading pictures are a must for emails on mobile devices, and smaller file sizes will help images load more quickly.

If supporters are opening emails on their phones, they’ll also need to be able to easily click on any buttons or links to your donation page, so make sure that these features are large enough for touch-screen users. 

3. Connect to Impact

Make it easy for supporters to see the why of giving to your fundraising campaign. While fundraising emails aren’t the time for a novel-length message about your organization, you do need to convey how your fundraising campaign will make a difference. 

It can be helpful to tie specific donation amounts or goals to the impact they’ll make. For instance, if your PTO is hosting a cookie dough fundraiser, you might share that for every 10 tubs of cookie dough sold, you can buy five new chapter books for the middle school library. 

Throughout your message, it’s important to center your donors in your storytelling. Use “you-focused” language and leverage segmentation data to connect the content to what you know your audience cares about. 

4. Clarify the Ask

Don’t bury the lede in your fundraising emails—be clear about your appeal from the subject line. Your supporters, especially those opening emails on mobile devices, will likely be skimming the content, so make your ask stand out with the following techniques:

• Be upfront in your subject line. Words like “donate” and “support” are shown to increase open rates.
• Use a call-to-action (CTA) button. Instead of a long URL link, a button CTA is easy to click for mobile users, and it stands out in the content. 
• Pen a concise and clear CTA. For the text on your CTA button, make it short and snappy, between two and four words. For example, if you’re hosting a product fundraiser, you might include a CTA button that reads, “Visit Our Online Store.”

The purpose of your fundraising emails is to encourage your supporters to contribute. Keep your email focused on that, and stick to between 100 and 300 words for the body of the email.

5. Track Metrics

Any email campaign you send out also serves as a learning opportunity for your organization. The reaction—or lack thereof—to your appeals will teach you something about your audience. 

While the most important metric for determining success will be the amount raised from your email appeals, other metrics can reveal which specific components of your email worked well. For example:

• Delivery rate: If emails bounce back from inactive or incorrect addresses, this can damage your sender reputation and make future messages more likely to land in spam. 
• Open rate: Your subject line can make the difference in supporters choosing to open your message or not. Use this metric to determine the success of the subject line for your campaign.
• Click-through rate: This metric tells you whether your body copy and CTA did their job. It does not tell you whether anyone gave, so pair it with your donation page’s conversion rate to see where supporters drop off. 

Pulling audience reactions together into cohesive data points gives you the full story and allows you to compare this campaign to previous and future emails you send in the context of your entire marketing strategy, as well as industry averages. 

Bonus Tip: Write the Thank-You Email First

Draft your thank-you email before you send the appeal. A receipt confirms a transaction; a thank-you builds the relationship that produces the next gift. Name the specific thing the donation makes possible, keep it to a few sentences, and automate the send so no one is left waiting.