By Harry Lynch
Published on AFP site on July 21st, 2008
It’s been a while since a nonprofit executive asked me that question, but it still makes me smile. And groan a little too.
The myths and confusion engulfing email only seem to proliferate with each passing year. So here we are in 2008. A cool $10 billion or so is now being raised annually online. But what is the truth about email?
Is it the best way to reach a mass audience of potential online donors? Or is the highly publicized plunge in open rates just the latest sign of overuse and dwindling effectiveness? Are social networking and other new tools overtaking it as the top online fundraising medium? Or is email really the best way to engage donors – especially the younger ones – yearned for by so many nonprofit executives?
The bottom line is that email has emerged as a mature, predictable, and cost-effective fundraising medium – raising exponentially more money online (with far fewer resources) than social networking, search engine marketing, or any other vehicle than the all-important website itself.
But even in 2008, confusion about the medium and best practices still reign – and limit the success of far too many non-profits. So what are some of the most common myths? How can they be countered?
Myth #1: Declining open rates are a sign of “email fatigue.”
The truth is that “open-rates” just aren’t that meaningful anymore. Most recipient email programs now employ “image blockers” that skew open rates and give false negative readings. And aggregate statistics often cited in surveys are skewed because so many nonprofits now “append” email addresses from their land lists – and these are opened at lower rates, dramatically suppressing the overall average.
Emailers who segment their lists and tracks results according to donors, prospects, and append groups not only find that donor and prospect open rates are holding up, but they can better tailor their strategies and messages to improve overall results.
Myth #2: You can never send too much email.
With email just so darn cheap, the tendency for many nonprofits is just to blast away. What’s the harm, after all? The “harm” is that the recipient audiences will start to tune out your messages; click-through rates will fall rapidly, and opt-outs surge.
Online fundraisers can excel by taking the time to craft a thoughtful email segmentation plan and schedule. Friends who sign up to be “online advocates” might not mind getting one or two or even three “action alert” emails every week. But donors who ask for a monthly enewsletter will be turned off if their inbox starts to get cluttered with e-missives every other day. One final word: Opt-outs are easy – just the click of a button – and forever! It’s not like having your direct mail solicitation thrown away … so you can send another one the next month. When it comes to email, an opt-out is forever – there are no second chances!
Myth #3: Ask and ye shall receive.
The golden rule for offline fundraising is terribly tarnished advice when it comes to email. Online donors and prospects want information and a relationship before they’re even asked for money – let alone would consider giving. If you ask too soon, or too often, your list will stop opening your emails – or opt-out altogether.
Some marketing experts recommend a firm 80/20 rule – four informational emails for every one that is “ask” focused. While some experts suggest that a simple link to your donation page in non-fundraising e-newsletters and alerts doesn’t have any negative impact , others recommend avoiding any hint of fundraising until the email cycle reaches an appropriate point for the ask. Everyone agrees: asking for money too soon and/or too often on the Internet has serious, immediate, and irreversible consequences.
Myth #4: There’s no such thing as email acquisition.
True … but false too. Unlike traditional direct mail, where thousands of lists are available for rental at any given moment, few legitimate email lists available for rental seem to hold much promise for fundraising … and the ones we’ve tested yield negligible results.
That said, email acquisition is a vital – but too often overlooked – part of any online program. It involves a very distinct two-step process that first includes building your organization’s own email prospect list. Assuming you can offer a compelling e-newsletter, action alert, or other valuable information, you can methodically use your website … append technology … and even search engine marketing to promote email opt-ins – and then very carefully cultivate these new friends to give.
Myth #5: Timing is everything.
Many fundraisers now know that the obsession with precisely timing the day and even hour to send email solicitations is a bit overdone. The “best” moment to send an email tends to be a moving target depending on a whole host of factors and variables.
Rather than obsess about the advantages of, say, Tuesday morning vs. Thursday afternoon email deliveries, online marketers can more productively expend energy ensuring they are ready to leverage the tremendous opportunities that emerge because of the speed and precision of the medium. We all know that email offers one of the most effective ways to capture donations after a natural disaster or media event – but this is only possible when the systems and people are in place who can respond when there is such an opportunity. And many charities are learning that email is a way to get a “year end giving reminder” into the hands of your donors on, say, exactly the morning of December 30.
Myth #6: Email is the best way to reach a young audience.
These days you’re more likely to reach grandma than grandson via email. Study after study confirms that email is increasingly a medium of choice for people over 50 … and even over 65!
If you’re looking to motivate and tap the enthusiasm of our youngest citizens – say those under 25 – a text message or MySpace page will likely serve you better. If you’re looking for a donation from the audience with most of the money and inclination to give, traditional direct mail and email – if not a complicated combination of the two – are the way to go.
Reports of the death of email, as a useful fundraising tool, have been greatly exaggerated. But the sooner we recognize that email is truly a unique medium with its own set of rules and best practices, the sooner we can all put its power to better use – and raise more money for the causes we cherish.
Each June, DMFA Members show off their best direct mail and email fundraising efforts at the Package of the Year contest. This year, SankyNet submitted a donor cultivation e-newsletter rather than a traditional e-appeal to help demonstrate the effectiveness of “information-based” fundraising communications. The move paid off — we were awarded Runner-Up in the email category!
How do you get people from all over the world to attend 
