As everyone makes their final preparations for their year-end email campaigns, it may be helpful to reflect on what we saw on Giving Tuesday. We read through all of our emails and wanted to share a few items things we liked and emails that you can learn from.
Placement of Donation Button
A common issue that comes up from during Giving Tuesday and year-end is a reluctance to include a donate button before you’ve explained why someone should give. In this example from Playworks, the primary hook of the email is sharing the impact Playworks had on Cyrus.
From a Communications perspective, it feels out-of-place to put this button before the story. However, it’s a best practice in email communication. Ideal income development focused emails have the following elements:
- A button after the first two paragraphs – that is visible when someone opens their email
- A hyperlink to the donation page in the text
- And if the email is more than a few paragraphs include two text-based links
- Add another button at the bottom of the email
Below is an example of something to avoid. While this is a GREAT organization that we used to work with, their first donate button is after six images and five paragraphs of text. This is too much scrolling (even at high speed) to get to the donate button.
Examples of Good Donate Buttons
There is a small part of the potential donor pool that reads an email and thinks, “I want to donate, but don’t have time now. I’ll come back to it.” And often they don’t come back.
This button structure from Black Lives Matter is a great counterbalance to that. Having “express” included with “donate” may help a potential donor think that it is a quick checkout process.
Donate buttons are like subject lines. It can be challenging to find the right phrase to capture the emotion of your email. These two examples from Bay Nature fit their emails perfectly.
Text in buttons is a great A/B test for your organization. As you approach year-end, think about trying a few different buttons and see what is best for your email group. While something like “Donate Now” or “Donate Today” may perform best, you may learn something new about your email audience.
Sending Emails Before Giving Tuesday
As I’m sure you noticed, there is a growing trend in sending emails (and posting on social media) about Giving Tuesday before Giving Tuesday.
This email from BayNature did a great job of explaining that if you give before Giving Tuesday, it would still count for their campaign.
However, this organization sent an email about how important it was to give for Giving Tuesday but did not dedicate copy to clarifying that you don’t need to wait until Tuesday. While this is obvious to those of us in the nonprofit world, your average potential donor may be confused about whether they should make a donation after receiving this email or wait until Giving Tuesday.
Repeating Emails
Data shows that for some donors, it takes a few emails to have an impact. Each organization works to find the email frequency that works best for their constituents. When some organizations increase email frequency, there are a variety of ways to do it.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights implemented a creative second send on Giving Tuesday by sending a second note that is a forward of the original message. This may help increase open rates as folks may think that it’s a different email.
An example that can be improved is sending the same exact email about Giving Tuesday twice, an hour apart, and the day before Giving Tuesday. While there is nothing wrong with repeating a message – especially for those that haven’t opened the first email – there should be more time between sends.
Get the Name Right
If you don’t have the recipient’s name, be careful using the address field. In this example, the organization left it blank, but still included space and then a comma. This is a minor note, but something that some email recipients may notice.
Email us at info@socialchangeconsulting.com if you saw something you especially loved on Giving Tuesday or if you need help with future income development campaigns.
Finally, kudos to the organizations that we featured in this email. If you would like to donate to any of them, please visit the links below.
Bay Nature: Visit their Website or Make a Donation
Black Lives Matter: Visit their Website or Make a Donation
California State Parks Foundation: Visit their Website or Make a Donation
National Center for Lesbian Rights: Visit their Website or Make a Donation
Playworks: Visit their Website or Make a Donation
Justin (he, him) is a Principal and Co-Founder of Social Change Consulting. He has over fifteen years of nonprofit experience, with expertise in online fundraising, digital communications, and data management. Justin helps organizations connect their communication strategy to their income development needs. When he’s not on the clock, Justin is exploring Berlin, running, listening to too many podcasts, and drinking too much coffee.