Email fundraising is a proven internet marketing tool that can help your charitable organization raise substantial online donations.  When properly executed, an email fundraising campaign can provide your ministry with a additional source of ministry revenues, an engaged donor base, a regular branding tool, and in some cases, even improve your offline fundraising efforts.

Email campaigns can be very effective at online fund raising, sometimes providing up to 35% of a ministries total annual fund revenue.  Plus, they are relatively efficient at raising funds because the costs to email can be generally lower.  Of course, it's a myth to think that email is free, given that there are typically costs associated with writing copy, developing HTML email and landing pages, getting proper rendering in multiple email clients, blasting and beyond.  

There are many important factors and techniques to apply to create effective email fundraising campaigns. You need to do some up-front strategic thinking. What are your campaign needs? What goals do you want to accomplish? Who is your target audience? Who will be receiving this email, and what Is most likely to move them to the action you want them to take?

Once you have a clear strategic outline of what you want to accomplish through email fundrasiing, here are some practical steps to follow to assist in the over-all effectiveness of your online fund raising campaign.

1.    Make them personal.
Speak directly to your audience using “you” centric statements instead of the less personal “we” or, even worse, “one.” Personalize your email fundraising if possible, inserting First Name data in your Subject lines and body copy.  You are more likely to engage your readers if you speak to them individually, not collectively. This, of course, also means you need to understand who your audience is, what inspires and motivates them, and what causes them to take action.

2.    Engage the reader’s heart.
People often give to causes and non-profits that fulfill an emotional need in their own lives. Your readers gave you their email address because they trusted you...thought your non-profit worthy of their time and attention...believed in your purpose in life...saw how they could make a difference in the world through you, etc. When you ask for their support, you need to tell them through a short, heartfelt, and compelling story how your non profit is making a difference and why you need their support.

One school of thought says that your heartfelt story needs to be told in no more than one or two short but effective paragraphs in the email, with an option for readers to get more details by clicking through to your landing pages.  Another school of thought says that you can tell your whole story in the email, with the click-through process going straight to your checkout process. I've seen both methods be successful.