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End of year fundraising is critical for nonprofits and we’ve collated Giving Tuesday email examples to help your outreach.
Emails drive 13% of all online nonprofit revenue. While it may seem like a small share, it does make a significant difference when that revenue is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Giving Tuesday is one of the most valuable campaigns for nonprofit fundraising. In 2019, it brought in over $511 million through online donations, a significant chunk of which came from emails.
You need to craft compelling emails to achieve your fundraising goals. In this post, we’ll review 6 Giving Tuesday email examples to inspire you to create emails that people can’t help but click (and donate).
Giving Tuesday email campaign timeline
Knowing the kind of emails and content you need is essential before creating them. Understanding the campaign timeline can help you with that.
For emails, the following days will be the most crucial:
- One week before Giving Tuesday – This is when you’ll announce the campaign and start building anticipation.
- Thanksgiving – On this day, you’ll engage people with holiday wishes and give them a subtle reminder of the upcoming giving day.
- One day before Giving Tuesday: This is the day when you’ll send a final reminder about Giving Tuesday.
- Giving Tuesday—On this day, you’ll send prospects fundraising emails encouraging them to donate. While you can include donation appeals in previous emails, these emails will be highly focused on appeals rather than nurturing.
- Days after Giving Tuesday – After Giving Tuesday, you’ll send everyone appreciation emails (whether they donated) and showcase what you achieved on Giving Tuesday.
Based on this flow, here are the emails you must prepare to nurture prospects and convert them to donors.
This flow can guide you in determining the main focus of each of your emails. With this focus in mind, designing and creating content for Giving Tuesday emails becomes a bit easier.
Giving Tuesday email examples
Let’s look at a few Giving Tuesday email examples from successful campaigns to inspire your emails.
1. Announcement emails
The announcement email informs your existing and prospective donors that you need their support.
This is also an excellent opportunity to inform people about Giving Tuesday. A study showed that only 18% of people know Giving Tuesday and its significance. Informing them about it is an excellent way to grab their interest.
Here’s an example of an announcement email from Charity: Water:
Source: Campaign Monitor
Takeaways from the email
- Visual appeal: The email doesn’t just use a standard header image to grab your attention; it leverages visuals to keep you hooked and convey important information throughout the email.
- Statistics: While visuals are needed to grab attention, numbers are what convince people. The email uses statistics to showcase how others have helped them reach closer to the goal. This also adds to the social pressure and convinces readers to get on board.
2. Informational emails – giving tuesday email examples
While the Giving Tuesday announcement email may cover some information about the campaign, prospects will need a little more convincing before they convert.
After the announcement, you can follow up with an informational email explaining:
- Why they should donate
- What you are trying to achieve
- How it works/how to be a part of the campaign
Here’s a perfect example of an informational Giving Tuesday email from Dismas Charities.
Source: Kindful
Takeaways from the email
- Calls-to-action: If you go through the email, you’ll notice that they don’t use a prominent call-to-action. The buttons are visible but are subtle. This ensures that the informational email focuses not on conversion but on conveying information. The email gets people interested in the campaign and avoids being pushy, reaching out only to raise funds, which could put off prospects.
- Social sharing icons: The ladder of engagement concept states that to get people to take a more prominent action, start by making smaller asks. The social icons serve that purpose. By getting people to share the email on social media or follow your handles, you get them to take small steps before asking them to overcome a more significant barrier (donating).
3. Beneficiary stories – giving tuesday email examples
In her study on fundraising, Deborah Small concluded that people are more likely to give if you appeal to their emotions with a story. Showcasing a story with a single relatable beneficiary works best.
In collaboration with Sears, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital implements this well in their Giving Tuesday email.
Source: Sendinblue
Takeaways from the email
- Video: Not a lot of people are going to read through your entire email. That poses the risk of people not connecting with the story as well. Since a video is more engaging than big blocks of text, adding the story as a video is a great way to avoid people skipping it. Note that the email doesn’t have much text and tries to get the reader’s attention to the video immediately.
- Corporate partnerships: If you notice, the email is sent by Sears (and not the nonprofit) showcasing their corporate partnership. This is a good strategy for relatively new and lesser-known nonprofits among the masses. Partnering with a business can give you access to the business’s contacts and, hence, a larger audience.
Check out this article to learn more about creating the perfect story for your emails.
→ The perfect nonprofit storytelling approach to create effective messaging
4. Giving Tuesday reminder email examples
A week before Giving Tuesday, Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday, and Black Friday marketing texts and emails may distract prospects. Therefore, it’s a good idea to send them a brief reminder about the campaign a day before.
Remember why it’s important to give and how to give so they’re prepared at the right moment. Here’s an example of Coral Acres sending a simple reminder email about Giving Tuesday.
Source: DonorPerfect
Takeaways from the email
- Email copy: Notice how concise the email is. That’s how a good reminder should be. You don’t need a long copy explaining everything since you’ve covered that in previous emails. Just a brief highlight with a call to action works best.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising: People are more likely to give to someone they know rather than an organization, which is why P2P fundraisers are so effective. Giving them a chance to set up a fundraiser is a great way to get donors more closely involved with the campaign and get more funds out of them.
5. Solicitation email – giving tuesday email examples
Finally, on Giving Tuesday, your focus is now on getting people to convert. A few elements that can give people the final push and inspire them to donate include:
- Inducing a sense of urgency
- Leveraging beneficiary stories
- A result-oriented approach
- Leveraging social pressure to get people to give
Here’s a Giving Tuesday email example from the International Rescue Committee.
Takeaways from the email
- Leverages social pressure: At the start of the email, the organization points out how others, like the receiver, have shown their generosity. The social influence and the sense of urgency (to act before midnight) give prospects the extra push to donate.
- Result-oriented appeal: The email ends with an appeal stating how the prospect’s donation will be used. This highlights the importance of the donation, encouraging people to act.
6. Thank you email
Thanking donors is the most important part of your campaign. Appreciating their support and making them feel valued is the first step to donor retention. You don’t want them to think that you don’t need them after their donation, because clearly, you do!
A good thank you email is:
- Simple but personalized
- Talks about the impact the donor made (or will be able to make)
Here’s an excellent Giving Tuesday thank-you email example from Bestwa
Takeaways from the email
- Personalized thank-you: This email is great because it addresses the receiver by name, includes a personal note, and has the signature of the organization’s director. These small elements make the email extremely personalized and more impactful in making the recipient feel appreciated.
- Highlight the impact: The email also talks about the amount raised and the number of people benefiting. Talking about the effect reinforces the importance of giving. Reminding people about that sets the foundation for future nurturing and repeat giving.
While these examples cover most tips and best practices, you must address a few more aspects to create impactful Giving Tuesday emails.
Read Next: Done With Giving Tuesday? Here Are Some Of The Best Ways To Thank Your Donors.
Giving Tuesday Email Examples: Best Practices To Pick
1. Giving Tuesday email subject lines
Your subject line is the first thing that your prospects see. Your efforts to create the perfect email won’t pay off if the subject line doesn’t compel them to open it.
The perfect email subject line for Giving Tuesday campaigns is one that:
- Is concise. A study showed that shorter subject lines had higher open rates.
- Forces them to think. Typically, questions work best for this.
- Induces urgency. Adding a time factor has also proven to work well for subject lines.
2. Best time to send Giving Tuesday emails
A study by NextAfter Institute showed that the peak time for sending emails was between 7 am and 1 pm.
Since most organizations might use this as a reference and send emails during these hours, sending it during this period could lead to your email getting lost in the crowd.
Instead, you could plan to send emails when the competition for the inbox is lower.
- Between 5 and 6 p.m. During this time, people may be on their way home and would have the time to review your email.
- Between 1-3 pm. When people are not focused on work during lunch hours, it is also a good time to get their attention.
You May Also Like 30+ Fundraising Giving Tuesday Script Samples to Ease Your Job
3. How many emails to send on Giving Tuesday
A survey by MR Benchmarks showed that multiple fundraising emails tend to outperform single emails in terms of responses and average gift size. Typically, a 2-3 email series could quadruple the response rates.
On Giving Tuesday, you could plan for an email series that would include:
- A kick-off email that marks the beginning of the campaign with a donation appeal.
- Campaign update email highlighting how much was raised or how many people donated to leverage social pressure.
- A campaign-ending email inducing a sense of urgency to motivate people to act.
Keep in mind that no single solution will work best for all these best practices. Therefore, make sure to A/B test your emails to find out what works best.
For more insights on email marketing best practices, check out this article:
→ Email marketing for nonprofits: Best practices and tools
To conclude giving tuesday email examples
Hopefully, these Giving Tuesday email examples have given you some ideas for your campaign. Use these insights to get started on creating the perfect fundraising emails.
However, remember that while email accounts for a significant share of online fundraising, it’s not the only channel you should rely on. Along with email, social media is also something that you must leverage. Check out these social media fundraising strategies that you could also benefit from.
Featured image source: Brett Jordan