How to Drive Traffic to Your Donation Page: Use E-Mail Fundraising

For all that your web page and your social media outlets are valuable ways to get people to your donation page, many nonprofits forget about an equally important tool — e-mail fundraising.

E-mail isn’t a hot, up-and-coming new way to spread your organization’s message, but it is one of the most effective way to reach your supporters. Social media is an unbelievably important way to connect with your audience, but the fact is that e-mail audiences tend to be much larger than audiences on social media. On average, nonprofits have 1,000 e-mail subscribers for every 149 Facebook fans. So, while a positive presence on social media is an important part of your fundraising toolkit, efficiently using your e-mail fundraising campaigns is a great way to reach a wide number of people.

Here are some things to keep in mind the next time you send out an e-mail campaign:

1. Keep Your Readers’ Attention

Compelling content is a must in e-mail campaigns. Sending your supporters a wall of text with a tiny logo in the corner might have worked well in direct mail campaigns, but today’s average e-mail user is so inundated with information that keeping their attention is harder than ever.

Make sure your e-mails include photos, videos, good stories — anything that will get their attention and tug at their heart-strings. Your audience isn’t going to interact with your message if they lose interest.

2. Ask For Donations

This might seem obvious, but a lot of organizations don’t explicitly ask for financial support in their e-mail fundraising campaigns. Really!

Imagine you get two newsletters from two different charities. One just told you a nice story about what they’re doing. The other one told you a story about what they’re doing and asked you to get involved and donate to their organization. Which one would you give your money to? You can’t expect your supporters to donate if you never ask them for help.

3. Include a “Donate” Button In Your E-mail

Your supporters will be more likely to give to you if you ask them to make a donation. They’ll be even more likely to donate if you give them a direct link to your donation page!

If you’re intimidated by putting an actual button in your e-mail, adding a hyperlink might be the next best thing. A hyperlink won’t have the same visual impact, but it’s better than nothing!

Check out the ultimate guide to donation pages!