I signed up to 100 charity email lists

Glyn Thomas

Email: glyn@glyn-thomas.co.uk
Twitter: @glynmthomas

Why?

1. Deliverability

2. Welcome journey /
first 8 weeks

3. 'Email doesn't work for fundraising.'

Two email addresses

• One for general sign up forms
• One for petitions

Which organisations?

• A mixture of small, medium & large
• Organisations that do some campaigning/advocacy

The rules

• Tried again next day if it didn't work or couldn't find the form
• Only filled in mandatory form fields
• Only opted in to receive emails

What happened?

98

• 1 form broken
• 1 form so complicated I gave up

13

• could not find a way of getting on the email list
• found other organisations instead

3

• required me to create an account

17

• not one single email
• no confirmation
• no welcome 

2

• no email
• a letter in the post

Welcome emails

• 31 - no welcome email
• 48 - one welcome email
• 2 - two welcome emails

29

• sent welcome email
• no email since

19

• one email a month

9

• one email a fortnight

18

• one email per week

6

• two emails per week

Deliverability

• 51% of emails go to promotions
• 48% go to main inbox
• 1% spam

Emails in promotions tab

Heavily branded template

• Around half the emails in promotions
• Banner at the top
• Lots of images

No preheader text

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Logo

Salutation - not personalised

Dear Supporter

Dear Friend

Emails in priority inbox

Simple template

1-2 images

Logo

Preheader text

or the first line of the email at least

Confirmation

• Double opt-in
• 30%
• More than half went to spam

Email content

• 36% of emails were predominantly donation asks
• 26% of emails were newsletters
• 20% of emails were campaign actions
• 9% of emails welcome emails
• 9% reporting back

16

• First email I received was a donation ask

6

• All I received was donation asks

Reactivation

5 top tips

1. Test the sign-up process and how emails look in different email clients regularly

2. Keep your email templates and designs simple

3. Email more frequently, especially during first 8 weeks (welcome journey)

4. Include plenty of opportunities for supporters to engage actively with your content

5. Be strategic with the donation asks - use email to create a dialogue and build a relationship with supporters

Thanks for listening!

glyn@glyn-thomas.co.uk