Email remains as such a powerful tool to talk with people interested in the hard work of your organization. It helps to keep your organization in the front of the minds of current and potential donors, as well as helping build their trust in you. The more they think about your organization, the more likely they are to donate when they are ready to do so. 

But how do we persuade them into allowing you into their inbox? Buying or renting a list from a company is greatly frowned upon by email service providers because in many cases those emails will end up being marked as spam. The more times your emails are marked as spam, the more your organization starts looking like a spammer to the email service provider. Email service providers avoid those types of users because it also gets them into trouble for servicing spammers. It is best to collect email addresses yourself, instead of purchasing from a third-party… but what are some ways to gather emails honestly?  

Current Donor Emails 

People and Businesses that have donated to you in the past are always a great place to start. They have already shown you they are interested in what you are doing by investing in your mission. In the case of online donations, most submissions will require you provide an email by default. Those forms should have a place that stores all the donations and the donor information, either on the administrative side of your website or on the website of the business providing the form for your website. If it was a donation given at one of your events, there’s a good chance you did ask for their email. If your current in person or website donation form(s) do not have a place to provide an email address, this would be a valuable thing to add. 

Website Popup 

With your website, it is possible to do a lot of different things to help encourage people signing up for your newsletter. One of the most common ways to ask website visitors is by using a popup. It’s that small window that shows up in front of the browser window you were looking at and it typically asked if you want to sign up for that organization’s email messages. Sometimes it will have those show up after a visitor has been on their website for a certain amount of time. Other times it will show up after the visitor has seen a certain amount of the page they are on. Whatever is used for the trigger, it will show up encouraging the person to give their email address. 

After Blog Post 

For the organizations that blog, which I highly recommend either having a blog or podcast, this is another great opportunity to ask your visitors for their email. Whether you use your blog to post content or you use it to publish podcast transcripts, it is important to ask the reader for their email at the end of each post. If they have gone through your post, even just skimming it, they have been able to see first-hand some of the value you have to offer. That preview of value can help a potential subscriber feel more comfortable about sharing their email address with you.  

Now I know what you’re thinking… “If I have a popup on my website already, should I ask for their email again after the blog post?” I’m here to tell you that yes, you should use both and here’s why. Let’s say you have someone find your website link while on Facebook and that link takes them to your homepage. While on the homepage the person sees your popup, but they know very little about you and don’t feel ready to share their email. As they are looking around, they decide to look at your blog. While on your blog they found a post that really resonates with them. Since they already closed the popup it doesn’t show up while they are on that blog post, but they do see the form at the bottom asking about signing up. Now that they have created a connection with you through that post, they are now ready to sign up. Without the second layer of asking, you would have missed a chance to have another subscriber. 

Offer a Freebie 

Freebie can come in all shapes and sizes. Most of them are related to giving away free content created in as a PDF, so that it can be printed or stored on a mobile device to easily read later. But what do freebies look like for a nonprofit? 

Let’s imagine you are a foundation focused on helping more children be excited about the idea of writing. You could create a list of different things you have found to be very effective at helping those children become excited. With a little design and typing, you could make a PDF document that talks about the concepts so that they might also be able to do something like that for their children or grandchildren. With that newly created document, you could do one of two things with it. If the list is small (for example, no more than ten) in size, then you could keep it as a full document and offer it to those interested in it. If the list is larger in size, then you could give a “sneak peek,” of three to five, on the website page talking about the list and then if they wanted to see the rest of the list they could take the free offer.  

Something to keep in mind when using a freebie to gather emails. With the changes that have happened in the last couple years, it has become frowned upon to force people onto your email list when they request a freebie on your website. It is best to ask them on the form if they want to also sign up for your newsletter or if they just want the freebie. It does mean that there’s a chance some people will want the freebie, but then you have less chance of getting into trouble for forcing them to sign up to your newsletter. 

Form on Social Media 

Many of the social media platforms have a few ways that you can customize what is showing on your organization’s page. One way to customize it that is very beneficial is adding on a way to ask for people to sign up for your newsletter. Like the popup and form after your blog post, this is another immediate way to ask for their email. Keep in mind that people like to do things as quick and as easily as possible when they are on the internet, especially if they are browsing from a mobile device. 

Tips on Encouraging Sign Ups 

With these ideas, there are a few things to keep in mind when asking for their email. Remember that people prefer to do things that are as quick and easy as possible. The more time they must spend on signing up for something, the more likely they are to change their mind and not sign up. Let’s look at a few ways to help encourage people to sign up for your newsletter. 

Keep the Form Short 

Most people are not interested in having to fill out a long form, especially if it is to sign up for a newsletter. With a little over 50% of the world’s users browsing from a mobile device, it’s easy to see that they are interested in getting things done as quickly as possible. When it comes to asking on a popup, at the end of your blog post or through the form on social media, it’s best to go as simple as possible. In most cases that looks like just their first name and email address is more than enough information. If there comes a time where you want to segment your email list into different groups, you can always send out an email asking for feedback at that time.  For the people getting the freebie, it’s generally okay to ask an additional question or two… you still want to keep it as simple and quick as possible. 

Use an Enticing Name 

People love to get exciting messages in their email. Suggesting they are just getting another newsletter is not as exciting as something with a fun name. Creating an enticing name for your email messages not only creates intrigue and excitement for the potential subscriber. Just remember that you don’t want the name to suggest one thing and then have your messaging be something completely different. The feeling of “bait and switch” can create a very negative experience for the subscriber and could end up causing you trouble with the email service provider. 

Be Honest About the Frequency 

One of the biggest reasons people do not sign up for a newsletter, even if they are very interested in what the organization does, is because they don’t want to get a ton of messages in the inbox. Because of that concern, it is extremely important to be up front and honest with how often you plan to send out messages to them. Are you planning on a weekly update on things? Maybe you only want to send them information once a month. Let your potential subscriber know what your plan is for the frequency of messages to them. Is there a chance that you might send one or two extra emails, but only on a rare occasion? Let them know, but make sure to help them understand that the extra messages will be added value to them and not something they should ever be concerned with receiving. 

In Conclusion 

There are a variety of ways to provide enough value to people they are willing to give their email address. Once they are subscribed to your newsletter you will have the opportunity to continue to tell them about your mission, as well as deliver high value to their inbox. With new knowledge about your cause and added value being offered, you will be able to stay in the front of their mind… especially when they become ready to invest in an organization.