NONPROFIT MARKETING EDIT

What nonprofits keep getting wrong about the one channel that still works

I read a piece from Nicolas at Beyond The Inbox last month that stopped me on one line.

"Volume is not the problem for most brands. Irrelevance is."

He is writing about e-commerce. But I have not been able to stop thinking about my nonprofit clients since I read it.

Because almost every nonprofit leader I work with is quietly terrified of email.

Terrified of unsubscribes.

Terrified of overwhelming their donors.

Terrified of showing up too often in an inbox they are not sure they belong in.

So they send one newsletter a month.

I want to sit with this for a minute, because I think the fear underneath is worth naming.

Where the fear comes from

Most nonprofit leaders were taught, somewhere along the way, that emailing donors is a delicate business. That donors give you their inbox as a favour, and you should be careful not to abuse the privilege. That every email you send is a small withdrawal from a relationship account that only fills back up slowly.

That framework is not entirely wrong. Donors are giving you something precious when they let you into their inbox. But the framework is incomplete.

Because it treats email as a burden your donors are politely tolerating, when the reality is that a well-run email program is one of the most important tools your organization has for building the relationship that keeps donors giving year after year.

Email is the only marketing asset you genuinely own. Your social followers belong to the platform. Your website visitors belong to Google. Your press coverage belongs to the outlet. But your email list belongs to you. And when you shrink from using it, you are not being respectful. You are leaving the most important door in your organization mostly closed.

And about CASL

I want to name something specific for the Canadian nonprofit leaders reading this.

A lot of the email fear I see in Canadian organizations traces back to CASL, the anti-spam law that came into effect in 2014. I've had clients quietly assume they can barely send anything without breaking the law. That's not true.

Here's the short version.

If you're a registered charity in Canada, CASL gives you a specific exemption. When the primary purpose of your email is fundraising for the charity, you're exempt from most of CASL's consent and content requirements. That covers most of your donor communications.

You still need to include a few basics: who you are, how to reach you, and a working unsubscribe link. These aren't optional, but they're not new either. Every good email platform builds them in automatically.

For nonprofits without charitable status, CASL is more restrictive, but there's still room to send well. Implied consent from members, donors, and event attendees generally covers most of the people already on your list. The bigger question is what you're sending, and whether it's worth their time.

The point is, CASL isn't the reason your organization is sending one email a month. Fear of CASL is. And most of that fear isn't matched to the actual rules.

If you want to be thorough about it, talk to a lawyer for your specific situation. But please don't let a vague sense of legal risk keep you from building a real relationship with your community.

The math your donors are NOT doing

Here is what I want you to hear.

If your content is good, your donors are not counting your emails.

They are not sitting at their desk thinking "this is the third email from this organization this month, that is too many." They are opening what interests them, skimming what does not, and building an unconscious impression of who your organization is based on what shows up.

The nonprofit that sends one email a month is not seen as respectful. It might seen as absent.

The nonprofit that sends every week is not seen as annoying, as long as what they send is worth reading. It is seen as present, active, and worth paying attention to.

The math your donors are actually doing is much simpler than we think. It is a running gut check on whether your organization is doing something interesting enough to be worth their continued attention.

When you send more often, and each send earns its place, you are not spending down a relationship account. You are building one.

What changes when you show up more often

​
I want to name what actually changes for a nonprofit that starts sending more, because the shift is bigger than most leaders realize.

Your open rates get better, not worse. When you show up consistently, your donors learn to expect you, and their inboxes learn to prioritize you. Deliverability improves. Engagement compounds.

I want to repeat that last one: ENGAGEMENT COMPOUNDS!

Your fundraising asks land differently. The nonprofit that only emails when it needs money teaches its donors to associate the organization's name with an ask. The nonprofit that shows up in between, with stories, updates, and thanks, has built enough goodwill that the ask feels like part of a conversation instead of a cold interruption.

Your donors feel closer to the work. Not because you told them they were part of the family, but because you actually let them in. They saw the volunteer story. They read the founder's short reflection after a hard week. They got the update on the program they helped fund last summer.

Your team stops treating email like a crisis. When one email a month is your only channel, every send carries the weight of the whole year. When you send weekly, each email is smaller, lower stakes, and much easier to write.

How to actually find your rhythm

I don't want to hand you a formula, because rhythm isn't the first decision. It's the third one.

Before you decide how often to send, you need two things in place.

First, build a Big Picture Communications Plan. Map your whole year on one document. The events out of your control (awareness days, cultural moments, holidays). The events within your control (fundraising campaigns, program launches, volunteer recognition, your AGM). The campaigns and moments that matter to your organization. When you can see the whole year at once, you can see where email actually needs to show up.

Second, build an editorial calendar. Everything on the plan gets a slot. Every email, every campaign, every story. This is where the plan meets the send button. Without it, you're back to guessing what to send next Tuesday. (Your big picture comms plan should feed the editorial calendar)

Third, find your rhythm. Once you can see the year and the calendar, the right rhythm becomes obvious. Some organizations land at every two weeks. Some at weekly. Some at once a month plus segmented sends. There's no universal right answer. There's only what your plan and your calendar are asking for.

​
A few things I've learned about email inside that rhythm.

​
Keep each email focused if you're sending a newsletter, four things at most. When people open an email with fourteen sections, they close it and unsubscribe. When they open one with three or four clear things, they actually read it.

Be creative with your subject lines and section titles. "Available Programs" is not going to get opened. "Here are the wins we're celebrating this month" or "Three things from the field this week" will. Talk like a person, not a corporate newsletter.

Segment your list, and not just by behaviour. Segment by who people actually are. Past donors are different from current donors. Program participants are different from volunteers. Members are different from newsletter subscribers. When you send the right email to the right group, everything performs better.

And don't only email your donors when you're asking for money. This is one of the biggest mistakes I see. Your donors should hear from you throughout the year, whether or not there's a campaign happening. Send them the story. Send them the win. Send them the founder's note. Build the relationship so that when you do ask, it lands in a real conversation instead of a cold interruption.

​
​The one thing that has to be true​
​

None of this works if what you are sending is not worth reading.

You cannot send twice as often and hope volume covers for weak content. That is the trap Nicolas is naming for e-commerce brands, and it applies to nonprofits too.

Every email you send should do at least one of three things. Move your donor closer to the mission. Give them something they did not have before. Or ask them for something specific, with a clear reason why.

If an email does not do at least one of those, cut it. Do not send filler. Do not send generic. Do not send a newsletter that tries to say everything and ends up saying nothing.

But if the content is good, send it. Send it more. Send it more often than you think you should. Your donors are not counting. They are watching to see if you are worth the space in their inbox.

Where to start this week

If you want to move on this, here is what I would do.

Look at your last six emails. Actually pull them up. Read them the way a donor or the target audience would.

Ask yourself, honestly, which of them did anything for the reader. Which felt like real communication and which felt like a broadcast that could have come from any nonprofit in your sector.

Then pick one email you can send next week that would break the pattern. A story. A note. A specific update to a specific segment. Just one email that would surprise your donors in a small, meaningful way.

Send it. Track what happens.

You have permission to show up more. Your donors are waiting to see if you will.

See you on the next one,

Marcela Zafra Hands-On Marketing Support For Nonprofits ​www.marcelazafra.com​ ​marcela@marcelazafra.com​ ​