An email marketing strategy for a nonprofit sets out which supporters are on the list, what each group receives and is asked for, and how the list is grown and kept healthy. It is owned by the digital engagement manager and agreed with the director of development and the people who run programs and volunteering.
This is the Nonprofit version of the email marketing strategy template.
A complete email marketing strategy for a fictional organization: regional animal welfare nonprofit with two shelters, a vaccine clinic and a foster network.
| Organization | Regional animal welfare nonprofit with two shelters, a vaccine clinic and a foster network (50 staff) |
|---|---|
| Ambition | Make email the place where an adoption, a first gift or a foster inquiry turns into lasting support, raising $500,000 a year with far less riding on December. |
| Horizon | 1 year |
The list holds 86,000 addresses and email brought in $420,000 last year, 38% of online giving. December accounted for 61% of it. We sent 64 emails, 48 of them to the whole list, and 41 were appeals. We place 3,900 animals a year, yet adopters get a confirmation and then the same appeals as everyone else: 2% give within six months of adopting. Of first-time online donors, 12% give again within six months. About 30,500 addresses have not clicked in a year, seed tests put 84% of our email in the inbox, and each appeal loses 0.42% of recipients to unsubscribes. One digital manager and a part-time coordinator run the program.
Challenges| Segment | Size | What they get |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly donors | 900 | Quarterly impact update, payment care emails, no one-time appeals except year-end |
| Active donors, gift in the last 12 months | 6,800 | Thank-you series, monthly story, appeals with asks based on their last gift |
| Lapsed donors, last gift 13 to 36 months ago | 9,400 | Reactivation series, monthly story, spring and year-end appeals |
| Adopters who have never given | 14,200 | Adopter series, adoption anniversary email, monthly giving invitation |
| Volunteers and foster carers | 2,300 | Shift and foster needs for their shelter, urgent alerts, year-end appeal only |
| Other subscribers who clicked in the last 12 months | 21,900 | Welcome series, monthly story, clinic reminders, all appeals |
| Unengaged, no click in 12 months | 30,500 | Reconfirmation series, then suppressed |
| Program | Trigger | Number of emails | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome series | Email sign-up by someone who has not adopted | 4 over 21 days | A first gift, or a foster or volunteer application, within 60 days |
| Adopter series | Adoption completed | 6 over 12 months | Fewer returned animals; a first gift within 6 months |
| New donor thank-you | First gift | 3 over 30 days | A second gift within 6 months |
| Monthly donor care | Payment fails, or card expires within 30 days | 3 over 14 days | Recover the gift before it lapses |
| Lapsed donor reactivation | 13 months since the last gift | 3 over 6 weeks | A gift before month 18 |
| Urgent foster alert | A shelter passes 90% of kennel capacity | 1, to subscribers within 25 miles | Foster placements within 72 hours |
| Appeals and monthly story | Calendar | 16 appeals and 12 stories a year | Income from January to November; clicks from non-donors |
| Sign-up sources | Adoption paperwork supplies 38% of new subscribers, vaccine clinic check-in 24%, the website 22%, and events and foster or volunteer applications the rest. In 2027 we add an opt-in to lost-pet reports and a sign-up prompt on every adoptable animal's page. |
|---|---|
| Incentive | There is no giveaway. Adopters get a first-year care guide by email, clinic clients get vaccine reminders, and everyone else is offered a monthly story that follows one animal from intake to home. |
| Sunset policy | After nine months without a click a subscriber gets three reconfirmation emails, and at twelve months is suppressed. Donors who gave in the last 24 months are the exception: they move to the year-end series and two impact updates a year, because many give by mail without ever clicking. Opens are not counted as activity. |
Priorities and measures
We meet 3,900 adopters a year at the happiest point in their relationship with us, and 2% give within six months. A series built around their animal is the largest source of new donors we are not using.
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adopters who make a first gift within 6 months of adopting | 2% | 5% | Q4 2027 |
| Adopters who click an email in their first 90 days | 22% | 50% | Q3 2027 |
December brings 61% of email income. Monthly giving and two planned campaigns in spring and summer spread the risk and give supporters a reason to hear from us in other months.
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email income from January to November | $164K | $240K | Q4 2027 |
| Annual income attributed to email | $420K | $500K | Q4 2027 |
| New monthly donors who signed up from an email | 110 donors | 250 donors | Q4 2027 |
Only 12% of first-time online donors give again within six months, and failed card payments quietly end monthly gifts. Both are cheaper to fix than finding a new donor.
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-time online donors who give again within 6 months | 12% | 18% | Q4 2027 |
| Lapsed supporters reactivated by email in the year | 240 donors | 450 donors | Q4 2027 |
| Failed monthly payments recovered within 30 days | 35% | 60% | Q3 2027 |
Three quarters of sends go to all 86,000 addresses, a third of whom never click. Tighter segments and a sunset rule protect inbox placement and stop us asking the wrong people.
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Click rate on fundraising appeals | 0.9% | 1.8% | Q4 2027 |
| Unsubscribe rate per appeal | 0.42% | 0.2% | Q3 2027 |
| Email reaching the inbox in seed tests | 84% | 95% | Q2 2027 |
The same structure with a prompt in every field. Copy it, or download it as a Word or Excel file.
| Organization | [Describe your organization in a few words, with its size] |
|---|---|
| Ambition | [One sentence on where you want to be at the end of the plan] |
| Horizon | [How long the plan runs, for example 12 months] |
[Where things stand today: the facts that make this strategy necessary]
Challenges| Segment | Size | What they get |
|---|---|---|
| [Segment] | [Size] | [What they get] |
| [Segment] | [Size] | [What they get] |
| [Segment] | [Size] | [What they get] |
| Program | Trigger | Number of emails | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Program] | [Trigger] | [Number of emails] | [Goal] |
| [Program] | [Trigger] | [Number of emails] | [Goal] |
| [Program] | [Trigger] | [Number of emails] | [Goal] |
| Sign-up sources | [Your sign-up sources] |
|---|---|
| Incentive | [Your incentive] |
| Sunset policy | [Your sunset policy] |
Priorities and measures
[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]
| Outcome | Baseline | Target | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
| [Metric you will track] | [Where it is today] | [Where it should be] | [When] |
Segment by relationship before anything else: monthly donors, one-time donors, lapsed donors, and people who came through a program such as adopters, clients, members or volunteers.
Find the moment when supporters feel closest to the mission, such as an adoption, a first gift or a first volunteer shift, and build the first automated series around it.
Work out how much email income arrives in the final weeks of the year. If it is more than half, plan two campaigns for other seasons and make monthly giving the standing ask.
Decide the ratio of stories to appeals for each segment and write it down. People who only hear from an organization when it needs money stop reading.
Write a sunset rule with an exception for recent donors, who may give by mail or in person without clicking an email.
Measure by gifts and retention, such as second gifts, monthly donors and reactivations, not by opens.
A plan only works if it is reviewed on a rhythm. This is the cadence the example assumes.
| Check-in | Outcome owners update progress and confidence weekly. |
|---|---|
| Review | Priority owners review outcomes and unblock initiatives monthly. |
| Reset | Leadership revisits priorities and targets quarterly. |
Tability keeps this cadence for you. Each priority becomes an objective, each outcome a key result with its baseline and target, and each initiative a tracked task. Owners get a check-in reminder and the plan shows what is on track.
Track this plan in TabilityStill comparing tools? See the 10 best strategy software tools.
Often enough that supporters hear what their support did, not only when money is needed. In this example most segments get one story a month plus the appeals relevant to them, and appeals fall from 41 to 16 a year. Watch the unsubscribe rate per send. If it rises, reduce frequency for that segment.
A welcome series should thank the person, show the mission through one concrete story, offer something useful and end with a clear first step. That step might be a gift, a volunteer application or a monthly pledge. Three to five emails over about three weeks is typical, and the series should differ for people who arrived through a program.
Give supporters planned reasons to give in other seasons and make monthly giving the default ask. In this example a spring matching gift, a summer foster drive and tribute gifts carry the months before December, while automated series ask new donors for a second gift. Segmenting appeals also lifts the response from each send.
Be useful to them first and ask second. People who adopted an animal or visited a clinic signed up for that service, not for appeals. In this example adopters get care advice at days 3, 14 and 45 before a monthly giving invitation at day 60, and the series is judged on first gifts within six months and on fewer returned animals.
Measure it by what supporters do after the email. Useful measures are income per recipient, new monthly donors, second gifts from first-time donors, reactivated lapsed donors and recovered failed payments. Add click rate, unsubscribe rate and inbox placement to check list health. Open rate is a poor guide because many opens are recorded automatically.
An email marketing strategy sets out who is on the list, which campaigns and automated flows each group receives, and how the list is grown and kept healthy.
Be known as a year-round hunger relief network that needs funds and public support more than cans, and make sure partners and staff hear our decisions from us first.
Fill our classes, recruit and keep enough tutors to shorten the waiting list, and turn one-time donors into regular givers, using content a two-person team can sustain.
Email marketing strategy example
Horizon: 1 year
4 priorities · 11 outcomes
Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.