The majority of money raised online comes from email, making your email program a great place to invest time and effort ahead of a busy election season! Whether you’re experienced in the email fundraising game or are just starting out with a small team, we have resources to help you figure out what to do right now to boost your email program and meet your small-dollar donors where they’re at (in the inbox!).
Assess your program
Regardless of team size or budget, map and consider your donors’ experience, from initial fundraising email to receipt. What parts of your email program could you grow or improve? Ask yourself: Do you have a great writer on staff with some extra time on their hands? Or some room in the budget to upgrade your email service provider? Take this opportunity to brainstorm with your team!
If your program is small or just starting out, make sure you have the essential components. Teams with more capacity could explore using personalization in emails or revamp the language in your ActBlue “thank you” receipts.
Craft your message
Take a look at your last couple fundraising emails and see if you can spot these two concepts: The theory of change and the hard ask. Theory of change is a way of using language to show donors how they’re part of the solution to the problem at hand, and the hard ask is being explicit about what you’re asking for. Both help build horizontal relationships, which means you’re working hand-in-hand with your supporters rather than directing them.
Using these ideas is necessary to center the grassroots in your work and be direct about how donors can support you. Writing in a way that recognizes that your donors’ impact goes beyond any dollar amount helps you build genuine horizontal relationships with your supporters that make your movement stronger. Learn how to incorporate theory of change and the hard ask into your email program here!
Establishing a horizontal relationship in your ask builds mutual respect and accountability. Your supporters are part of this community, and they are part of the solution.
Prepare for your moment
Rapid response is a strategy you can use to quickly respond to an event that affects your candidate or supporters, like being mentioned in the news or an urgent community issue. When your campaign or cause is in the spotlight, be ready to help people take action! Create a plan to give small-dollar donors a clear path to invest in your work during those unexpected moments.
Take a look at email strategy resources for even more tactics to try now, and schedule a call with us to get support! We’d love to chat about how to strategically incorporate our tools into your email program to help you find success.
