Year-end Fundraising Email Roundup
Ah, the holidays. The time of year for awkward family gatherings, ugly sweaters, and an avalanche of fundraising emails from donor-supported non-profits.
While everyone loves to complain about getting another fundraising email at 9 pm while they’re at a New Year’s party, the reality is that Canadian and US non-profits rely on year-end fundraising for a large part of their annual revenue. And most importantly , Canadians and Americans step up big time when non-profits ask.
So here’s my roundup of the email fundraising trends I saw* at year-end 2017.
*Author’s note: I’m subscribed to these lists as a “non-donor”. Due to list segmentation or other factors, other individuals may have received different sets of emails in the same time period.
First, the big picture:
This year I followed 44 email lists from Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. As a digital campaigner, I like to see what innovative organizations — progressive, conservative, and non-political — are up to.
I looked at every email these groups sent from December 1–31, 2017. There’s a list of the organizations at the end of this post.
I only examined emails from organizations that were engaged in fundraising. I did include non-fundraising emails from groups who were fundraising — for example, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) sent a number of survey emails out late in December, and those are included in this roundup.
This list is certainly not exhaustive — and I welcome any additions you might have. Feel free to email me at mikelroy@gmail.com.
What I found
I examined a total of 747 emails sent in December, looking at timing, frequency, the number of emails sent, and a few other fun metrics.
December 31st was the most popular day to send a fundraising email — organizations sent an average of 2.6 emails that day, with a combined total of 81 emails landing in my inbox. One organization (Ontario NDP) sent 7 total emails on deadline day.
The four days leading up to the 31st were also among the most popular, but I was interested to see a pre-Christmas spike, with 30 total emails going out on December 20th. Many organizations are now using a pre-Christmas deadline to help boost their year-end fundraising.
I mapped out the average number of emails sent per organization per day (I excluded any organizations that sent zero emails on a given day).
Interestingly in the mid-December window, both the number of emails and average number of emails tend to grow and shrink based on day of the week. December 9, 10, 16, and 17 are all weekend days—generally not when non-profit staff are working.
Does day of the week timing work to your organization’s benefit? Are there days you prefer to send on — weekdays vs weekends?
Key Metrics
Least emails sent: 1 (UK Labour & CCPA)
Most emails sent: 73 (DNC)
Average number of emails sent: 16.98
Largest number in a single day by one org: 7 (Ontario NDP on December 31st)
2nd largest number in a day by one org: 6 (Federal Liberals on December 15, Democratic National Committee on December 30, all 3 federal parties on December 31st)
Organizations using emojis in subject lines? 10
Organizations using matching programs? 8 (including 6 Canadian orgs)
2nd most popular sending day: December 20
Political Parties
Political parties have long been trend-setters in the digital space, especially in fundraising. The Obama campaign set the gold standard in 2008 and again in 2012, and Canada’s federal parties continue to lead the way.
Among the organizations I monitored, political parties in both Canada and the US significantly outpace other donor-funded organizations in the volume of email they sent.
Among Canadian political parties, the Liberal party sent nearly 40% more email than the other two national parties. The Liberal campaign also made more frequent use of graphic emails, animated GIFs, and emoji than the NDP and Conservatives.
Trends heading into 2018
Three main themes emerged in looking at 2017’s year-end fundraising emails:
1. Organizations are sending more email
The volume of email continues to rise as donors continue to respond in ever-increasing numbers. Email creative and tactics also continue to evolve, and new tactics are being used as donors shift away from direct-mail and phone.
2. “Matching” programs have become popular
2017 saw a spike in the use of “donor matching” programs — where an organization recruits a large donor to “match” every grassroots donation during a specific timeframe. Eight organizations used matching programs as part of their year-end campaigns in 2017.
2017 Year-end Matching Programs
Action Canada
BC NDP
OpenMedia
Democratic National Committee
Greenpeace USA
Evas
Broadbent Institute
BCSPCA
3. Emoji are 🔥💩
2017 saw the widespread use of emoji in email subject lines. Organizations like Emily’s List have long used emoji — but new organizations including the Conservative Party of Canada and Press Progress took up the practice this fall (it’s possible the Broadbent Institute went a bit far with it!). When I tested the use of emoji in 2015, I didn’t find that they provided any sort of lift — just something fun to add. Has your organization tested them to different outcomes?
2017 Emoji Users
Andrew Gillum for Governor
Broadbent Institute
Conservative Party of Canada
Democratic Congressional Campaigns Committee
Democratic National Committee
Liberal Party of Canada
Emily’s List
Ontario NDP
Press Progress
Donald Trump Campaign/RNC
4. Saved payment still not being used
Saved payment systems — like BSD’s “Quick Donate” introduced by the Obama campaign in 2012 — are still not seeing widespread use, especially in Canada.
The Liberal Party of Canada has a saved payment system, as does the Democratic National Committee in the US. However, despite saved payment features being available in Bluestate Digital Tools and Engaging Networks, their use is quite limited.
I rolled out the use of saved payment systems at Canada’s NDP when I was digital director. Our “QD segment” — that is, “Quick Donate” donors — were an incredibly motivated group of supporters who would chip in $20 or $40 on a very regular basis.
In this time of huge shifts towards mobile for web and email, saved payment systems are increasingly important for online fundraising. I hope to see more widespread use in Canada in 2018.
SMS
A quick note about SMS: with the launch of Hustle and Relay.txt in Canada this year, we saw the first early attempts at online fundraising through peer-to-peer SMS.
I received two texts from Broadbent Institute staff as part of their year-end fundraising program. I didn’t receive follow-up texts when I replied — but I’m very curious to hear how that trial worked, and what they might do differently.
Conclusions
As we head into 2018, online fundraising is only becoming more important for Canadian and US non-profits. Many are still playing the catch-up game — setting up their first online giving program, or revamping an older program to introduce new features and better creative.
One thing is certain — the scale of these programs is only going to grow, and non-profits are working hard to innovate and better engage their supporters.
What did you think of the 2017 year-end fundraising cycle? Any successes or failures you want to share? Comment below!
Happy 2018!
