Receiving is far more common than giving among internet users. It is important to provide something of value if you want to establish an email list of people who are interested in engaging with your charity organization.

What kinds of things would be of interest to your ideal donor? Is location important to the way your firm operates? Do you cater to a certain age group or other demographic? Concentrating on these characteristics may help you stand out from the crowd and make you more clearly recognized to the kind of contributor you want.

You will be able to develop material that is directed toward a certain audience by using this information. Your connection with your volunteers and donors should be one that is individualized and stands out in their minds.

Email automation and tailored email marketing are two strategies that may assist in making the emails that come from your charitable organization very relevant. With the help of these tools, you’ll be able to send the appropriate messages to the appropriate individuals at the appropriate time.

1. Ensure that your registration forms include persuasive writing

When you are creating the text for an email, your primary objective should be to explain the value of the offer in as straightforward a manner as feasible. One part of your copy that may need some improvement? Your forms for registering for email.

It just takes a few essential adjustments to significantly improve list engagement and growth:

• Changing the tone of the content to make it seem less authoritative and more like it’s coming from a colleague
• Making it very clear to them why providing their email address is beneficial
• Including a button with a call to action (CTA)
• If you take the time throughout the registration process to set reasonable and clear expectations for your subscribers, they will know precisely what to anticipate from your company. They won’t be caught off guard when they see your material since they’ll be ready for it.

In the following, the American Red Cross discusses the benefits of subscribing to their email newsletter:

2. Construct an efficient landing page for email subscriptions.

The most successful landing pages for signups look quite different from what you may anticipate them to look like. Many “best practices” for landing pages for charitable organizations include using in-line quotes, huge header pictures, and minimum writing to help visitors reach the registration form as quickly as possible.

In reality, many of these “recommended practices” hinder conversion rates and prevent organizations from obtaining new prospective contributors.

The folks over at NextAfter have provided us with the following thirteen genuine best practices:

1. Employ a layout that is linear.
2. Make use of a headline that is merely words, and not a banner picture.
3. If you want to utilize a backdrop picture, you should ensure that it is consistent with your marketing.
4. Include evidence from social sources.
5. Create a brief piece of text consisting of two to three sentences to express your value proposition.
6. If it improves readability or maintains continuity, go for a primary picture rather than a video.
7. Avoid having any supporting text that is in the same line as the primary content.
8. Include a header with a call-to-action and duplicate it.
9. Make use of a minimum number of fields wherever feasible.
10. Combine fields of the registration form to shorten the length of the page.
11. Think about include some qualifying questions in order to raise the user’s expectations.
12. Make use of endorsements or testimonials to promote the material you are producing.
13. Include a statement on privacy just below the submit button.

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which is one of Emma’s customers, has a minimal number of fields, and in addition to that, they provide a preference center with extensive information for hyper-specific individualization.

4. Position your registration form in a strategic location

You may grow the number of high-quality subscribers to your email list by prominently displaying your registration form in key locations. You may attract attention to your registration form in a variety of methods, some examples of which include using pop-ups and slide-outs.

Different kinds of signup forms are:

• A popup lightbox with the form. When a user fills out this form, the rest of the page is hidden and they are prompted to subscribe for your mailing list.
• A single-page, in-line registration form that is static. In-line registration forms are shown in the centre of the page and remain in place regardless of how far down the page a visitor scrolls.
• A slide-out registration form. This form will appear on the right-hand side of the screen when the visitor clicks on the link.

No matter the format you use, the contact form on your website should be simple to find and interesting for users to fill out. Test out your registration form using a few different formats, but remember to put it at the very top of the page for optimal results.

5. Collect e-mails in a non-online setting

Importing emails that have been granted permission from a variety of sources is one of the simplest methods to build a high-quality email list, and this is especially true if you have been conducting work offline. You are able to do this by:

• Direct mail. When making gifts, provide a section in which contributors have the option to sign up for your email list.
• Fundraising events. Include a space for the customer’s email address beside the purchase button or registration form on your website so customers may choose to opt into your mailing list. Alternately, you might attach an opt-in form to their pledge card if and when they make a donation.
• Volunteer training. At events, both virtual and physical, have people sign up for your email list using a sign-up sheet.

Once these new subscribers have been added to your list, we recommend sending out a message of welcome through email. The welcome email has the potential to continue to engage new subscribers while also keeping your organization at the forefront of their minds. It will be brought to the attention of your newly subscribed users that they have voluntarily joined your email list and always have the option to cancel their subscription at any time.

Wrap up

It is not a simple task to cultivate an active email list for your charitable organization. You may, however, increase enthusiasm about your organization by following these six intelligent recommendations, and you can use email to successfully engage funders, volunteers, and more people in a variety of ways.