You open an email from a nonprofit. Four seconds later, you close it. No donation. No action. No connection.
In this episode, we take you inside a real fundraising email from a major organization. We don’t name names to take shots. We do it to learn. Together, we break it down. Line by line, design choice by design choice. We ask: What’s working here? What’s missing? And what can every nonprofit learn from this?
From subject lines to CTAs to the psychology behind a donor’s decision to give, we unpack the choices that make or break an appeal. Some of what we found surprised us. Some of it frustrated us. All of it will make you think differently about your next fundraising email.
This isn’t theory. It’s a hands-on teardown with insights you can put to work right away.
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and Good of the Week
02:40 Fundraising Emails: What Nonprofits Get Wrong
05:23 Dissecting the ADL Email
08:06 Best Practices in Fundraising Emails
10:53 Personalization and Emotional Appeal
14:07 Calls to Action and Urgency
16:55 Problem-Solution Framing in Fundraising
20:00 Empowering Donors in Messaging
25:29 Donor-Centric Fundraising Strategies
27:03 Transforming Donor Engagement
29:00 The Power of Personal Stories
31:18 Emotional Impact in Fundraising
33:14 Simplifying Communication for Better Engagement
35:21 Design vs. Personalization in Fundraising Emails
37:56 The Importance of Specific Donation Requests
40:03 Balancing Design and Authenticity
42:24 The Challenge of Fundraising Messaging
47:04 Final Thoughts on Effective Fundraising Emails
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Good of the Week:
1. Coach Thibodeau, formerly of the @NYKnicks
2. Jeff Brooks of @moceaniconline
H/T Ephraim Gopin @1832communications
Double H/T @Anti-Defamation-League