Raising Awareness with Email: 4 Nonprofit Campaigns That Work

We've all watched street artists perform. Some people just pass by. Others stop for a while and watch.

They might even reflect on the performance after walking away. What sparks the interest of some but not others? Maybe it's the way the artist tells a story or the message they transfer.

Nonprofit emails are like street artists. They aim to grab audience attention and keep them interested in a cause. But it's not just the cause—it's the delivery. Ideally, you want your emails to be the ones that make readers pause, think, and care.

You may come up with a reasonable question: “Which campaigns do the trick?” In this post, we’ll explore five effective email campaigns that help potential donors understand and relate to your mission. More importantly, we'll focus on how to turn this initial spark of interest into a lasting shift of perspective. 

1. Set up a Nonprofit Newsletter

By their nature, newsletters are meant to educate. That's why nonprofit newsletters are the cornerstone of awareness emails. With them, you provide informative resources, highlight updates like new projects, and talk about ongoing activities. Do you wish to put top supporters or hard-working team members in the spotlight? Again, newsletters are the ideal space to give like-minded individuals the attention they deserve.  

Effective newsletters translate into regular and consistent communication. It's important to create a schedule for your nonprofit newsletters and stick to it. Is it going to be a monthly or weekly newsletter? No matter what you decide, recipients will know when to expect the next email. Which is key to keeping your organization top of mind.

Newsletters are recurring rather than one-off campaigns. To make the most of them, you have to save time from designing a new one for every send. That's when newsletter templates for nonprofits come in handy. Email templates are reusable files, meaning you can reuse them across multiple nonprofit campaigns and objectives.

Think of clear, straightforward, and professional email designs that you can tackle accordingly and create beautiful campaigns faster. For instance, you can add copy and branding assets like your nonprofit logo or a branded email footer. Likewise, you may remove or tweak any elements that don't fit your needs.

In this awareness newsletter template, Moosend uses a straightforward structure that doesn’t overwhelm recipients with unnecessary elements. Nonprofits could take inspiration from it on how to design their email and what to include to make it effective and readable. Think of bullet points, clear headings, and plenty of white space.

Following their example, invest in a prominent CTA and perhaps add an insightful statistic to inform readers and encourage participation. This email template is an excellent tool for nonprofits with environmental-related projects, but you can tailor it to your unique cause with just a few tweaks. 

2.   Welcome and Inform New Subscribers

Who doesn't love a warm welcome? This isn't any less true for new nonprofit supporters. Welcoming potential donors to your community makes them feel included. It all begins with a heartfelt welcome message that helps cultivate lasting relationships with newcomers.

Apart from that, communicate your vision to new subscribers. In your welcome email or email series, include everything they need to know about your organization: your mission, fundraising needs, as well as current and future programs. A clever idea is to add statistics and progress reports to highlight the impact you make. This data-focused approach also allows you to showcase the importance of securing donations.

You could include a “Meet the team” section, too, where you'll introduce your highly valued employees or volunteers and explain how they contribute to your goals. To take welcome emails one step further, consider offering them volunteer options. That way, they can understand firsthand what your nonprofit cause is all about. Plus, it's an alternative way for them to help in case they're not ready to donate yet.

The first thing you notice in Help for Heroes’ welcome email is the powerful copy in the heading (“You're now part of the team”) that fosters a sense of belonging. The strong image of two people giving a fist bump while wearing the organization's ribbons enhances the message. New supporters can also find information about what to expect in future emails.

Besides raising awareness, this welcome email serves to promote the Help for Heroes Shop. The brand offers recipients diverse options to explore the collection, including clothes designed by veterans themselves. The organization uses social proof, too, to reinforce their credibility and one of their social media hashtags to boost engagement on other channels.

3.   Inspire Donors with Storytelling Emails

Storytelling emails transform pure statistics and facts into faces, making your cause feel personal to the reader.Which could be more emotional? Talking about education initiatives for children in developing countries or featuring a child narrating the change they've experienced through your program?

The hero of your story could be a donor, too. In this case, let them share their experience, highlighting the feeling of fulfillment that comes with donating. This is why storytelling emails are so powerful; they allow subscribers to see your organization in action. Especially when combined with relevant visuals, this nonprofit campaign allows you to overcome any potential donor objections.

While the key focus in these emails is the story, having a clear and straightforward call to action is important to motivate the readers who were inspired by it.

So, make sure your email content guides readers towards your main CTA.

This doesn't mean you can't include an additional CTA, for example, to direct readers to a donation form. Still, the core action should involve going through the content and understanding how their support can turn into yet another success story.

In this storytelling email, Charity: Water cleverly links an individual's story to Father's Day. Including a testimonial from a real person, reading their own inspiring words, and seeing their calming face is an excellent way to create a relatable, emotional, and memorable nonprofit campaign.  

Charity: Water puts Tadese's story front and center, having every email element naturally guide the subscriber towards clicking on the actionable CTA—and reading the entire story.

4. Seasonal Campaigns on Significant Days

For many people, holidays are associated with giving. And there's no reason why nonprofits shouldn't capitalize on this giving spirit. Instead of exchanging gifts, invite subscribers to commit to a higher cause that makes a true impact on people’s lives.

One of the most suitable opportunities to educate subscribers on your programs is Giving Tuesday. This significant day serves as a can't-miss occasion to share how you contribute to improving the world.

Another popular time of the year to use seasonal email marketing to raise awareness is during the Christmas holidays. It's the perfect occasion to include yearly progress reports, present top contributors, and talk about upcoming programs in your emails. Alternatively, just send holiday greetings using words spoken by affected individuals.

However, there are many opportunities throughout the year to demonstrate how you're making a difference and inspire others to come on board. Nor is this email tactic destined only for nonprofits. For example, an environmentally conscious eCommerce company could send an email that communicates their commitment to relevant causes. Imagine a clothing brand including items from a collection designed with sustainable materials.

The key is to match the purchase with a specific donation amount in support of the cause of your choice. For this practice to work, you should be thorough about the nonprofit's work and how critical existing and potential contributions are.

Smiley Movement's nonprofit campaign is designed with simplicity, stripped of flashy elements. The focus point is explaining the meaning of International Day of Charity and educating readers on different charitable causes.

For this reason, they've compiled a numbered list of resources on environmentally friendly initiatives and placed it at the top of the email. Investing in visuals, the nonprofit concludes the email with a video of a well-known speaker and author. Videos visualize ideas, making it easier for subscribers to engage with the content and urging them to act.

Keep Optimizing Your Nonprofit Email Marketing Strategy

The art of creating impactful awareness campaigns for your nonprofit is an ongoing process. It doesn't end with a few successful campaigns. You should always be on the lookout for new tactics that you could tailor to your objectives.

Not every campaign type will fit your nonprofit needs, but there's always room for innovation if you put some thought into it. Like in the case of the seasonal email example analyzed above.

Regardless of the tactics you'll employ, a key ingredient of success is investing in a solid email marketing platform that facilitates every step of your nonprofit email strategy. Think of capabilities like lead generation, email personalization, A/B testing, and monitoring audience engagement. Of course, you should also ensure that it offers ready-made and customizable email templates to have as the foundation for every future campaign.

Pick a solution that scales as your email list grows and automates repetitive tasks for you. Also, you should be able to easily access campaign reports, having as your main objective to use key metrics to determine what to improve over time.

Author:

Maria Fintanidou works as a copywriter for email marketing automation software Moosend, having created the Help Articles (FAQs) and overseen the platform’s translations in Greek and Spanish. She loves exploring new cultures and ways of thinking through traveling, reading, and language learning.