Charity email campaigns are vital for charities because an email list is the only digital asset you truly own. Social platforms change their algorithms constantly, ad costs rise and organic reach changes, but your email list stays yours. However, it only works well if you build it with people who want to hear from you. As well as this, you need to give these people a reason to keep opening your emails and stay engaged with you.
Why email outperforms social for donor engagement
To be able to understand how to build a charity donor email list, you need to know why email is so important to use. The average open rate for charity emails is between 25% and 35%, which is a lot higher than Facebook organic reach for most pages. As for peak times, such as end-of-year appeals and Ramadan, open rates in highly engaged lists usually pass 40%. When you properly manage your charity’s email list, you can easily achieve these numbers or reach an even higher target!
One of the biggest advantages of email compared to social media is the intent. If a donor gives you their email address and has given permission to hear from you, they’ve opted in for a different type of contact than on social media. This means that they expect to hear from you and want to. Your emails sit in their personal inbox, which means they are visible and always there, unlike a social media post that can easily be scrolled past and forgotten about.
As well as this, email marketing for charities in the UK is the most cost-effective channel, meaning anyone on any budget can easily use it. Email is very accessible, and charities and non-profits can receive different pricing from most established email platforms, such as Mailchimp, Brevo and Campaign Monitor. With this, the cost per contact that can be reached is just a fraction of what it costs for paid social advertising.
A 5,000-person email list of engaged donors who open your emails reliably is worth more than 50,000 social followers who scroll past.
How to build a charity donor email list
With your donor email strategy in the UK, it’s best to start by building your email list. For most UK charities, they face a full CRM of historical contacts but have a weak and slow-growing active email list. To build the list means that you need to have active intent across every touchpoint where someone engages with your organisation.
✓ Website sign-up with a clear value exchange: A great place to start when it comes to building your donor email list is with a clear website sign-up that offers value to donors. This means that you need to go beyond just “Join our mailing list” because this offers no value. It’s best to reframe messaging to something like “Get our monthly update on the impact your support is making” because this offers donor value for signing up. You need to make sure that every sign-up form has a specific reason for donors to give their email addresses. Once this is done, place it above the fold on your homepage, within cause pages and on your donation thank-you page.
✓ Post-donation sign-up: You should invite every donor who completes a transaction to receive updates on the impact of their giving. Doing this is effective because they’re more likely to sign up after making a donation. They want to see the outcome of their donation and what difference their money has made, allowing you to capture the intent in the highest moment.
✓ Event attendees and volunteers: It’s great to capture people who attend your events or volunteer with your charity because they are high-engagement contacts. With appropriate permission collection at the point of registration or sign-up, these become some of the most responsive email subscribers you’ll have.
✓ Lead magnets for cause-aligned content: You can also create lead magnets for cause-aligned content. This means putting an email sign-up in front of an annual impact report, a research briefing of a practical guide relevant to your cause, so that people need to sign up to view the content. The people who download these are showing interest in your cause, which is a strong signal that they’ll give to your cause.
✓ Social media to email conversion: Regular posts that promote the value of your email list, with a direct link to sign up, convert social followers into an owned audience. This is the most effective way to convert social engagement into a channel you control.
The welcome sequence is your most important emails
As a part of your charity email list growth, you need to create a welcome sequence of emails, which are the most important messages you can send. This should be made up of three to five automated emails that are sent to a new subscriber in the days following their sign-up. The open rates on welcomes emails are usually two to three times higher than they are on regular newsletter rates. This is because the relationship between your charity and the new subscriber is fresh, so they have the highest engagement intent instantly after joining.
The majority of charities don’t use this welcome sequence and just send a single automated confirmation email with nothing for weeks. Some charities may create a single welcome message that’s quite generic and not follow up after this either. You need to have more than one email at the beginning when the new subscriber’s interest is the highest. We’ve outlined what a good welcome sequence should look like to help you:
✓ Email 1 (immediately): Straight after someone has signed up to your list, you need to confirm their subscription and deliver on the promise you’ve made. This means that if they’ve signed up for an impact update, give them an interesting one. You should include one specific piece of impact data, a real story and a link for them to learn more.
✓Email 2 (day 3): 3 days after the subscription, you should send an email that introduces your charity’s mission through a beneficiary story. Make sure that you avoid operational language and focus on telling them about one person whose situation changed because of donors like them.
✓Email 3 (day 7): After 7 days of them subscribing, you need to email them with a message that shows the bigger picture. This should answer specific questions, such as “How many people did you reach last year?” and “What is the funding gap you are working against?” Doing this builds urgency without creating any pressure on your list.
✓Email 4 (day 14): 14 days after signing up, you should send your first donation ask. This should be a soft ask and should be written around a specific need and connected to a real outcome. You need to include a clear CTA and avoid asking for too much or too many things.
We build and optimise email programmes for UK charities, from welcome sequences to Ramadan campaigns. Get a free strategy consultation with no obligation.
