Email Newsletters by Nonprofits & Other Organizations

Email still matters.

Has social media and text messaging entirely replaced email as an effective direct outreach tool?

No - not entirely. And it probably never will.

Different people are reached in different ways. Some people interact with friends and read news primarily via the most popular social media tool - right now, that happens to be Facebook. Other people are best reached by Instagram. And still others are best reached by email. In addition, some messaging - a funny photo meant to solicit comments or a reaction, a short, urgent update, etc. - is best transmitted via social media, while other messaging - an explanation of a new program, information on how to enroll in a class, an excerpt from a formal award or recognition - is still is best transmitted via email.

Remember that what you prefer in terms of online communications may not at all be what others prefer.

When I talk about an email newsletter or a group message sent via email, I do NOT mean attaching a .PDF or word processing newsletter to an email; I mean text within the body of the email. I'll explain further why that's important later on this page.

One way to find out which tools are reaching which people is for your staff to ask "How did you hear about us / this event?" to every:

Put that question on any volunteer form, order form or sign up sheet you have for new volunteers, new donors or customers. Also, make sure all staff that interact with members of the public know when to ask this question and how to track responses. And be ready for answers to change over time.

By gathering this information, you will very likely find that some members of your constituency are reading your email newsletter or mass emails (emails sent to several people).

Email Newsletters Are Still Effective!

Email newsletters allow you to say all that you need to in the way you need to, without the severe limits on number of characters that you have with social media and text messaging. It may take more than just one short pithy text message can convey to say why your upcoming theatrical production is worth viewing, your new program for women experiencing domestic violence is worth supporting, your new property acquisition was fundamentally important to your historical society, etc. Email is the perfect tool for those messages that need to say more than just a sentence or two. All of that detailed information is going to be on your web site as well, but email is in a person's mail box, ready to read - your audience doesn't have to go looking for it.

Your email newsletters and mass communications via email (one email to several people) should provide enough information so that a reader has the most important information you want them to have without having to click on anything - unless they need to take action. For instance, it shouldn't just announce a new class with dates and a link but also provide enough information so that the person will know whether or not it's something the person wants to sign up for. Email is push marketing in that it puts a product or service in front of a person, and it can also be pull marketing, in that it can, and should, draw a person into some action, usually via the organization's web site: to sign up for a program, to buy a ticket to an event, to sign a petition, to purchase a product, to watch a video to build awareness about something, etc.

Another advantage of email is that it can be be easily forwarded by subscribers to their friends, family, associates - to new contacts - provided it's been properly designed.

Am I A Hypocrite?

I had an email newsletter for more than 15 years, Tech4Impact. I haven't been sending it anymore. Why?

I asked my email newsletter subscribers to ask if they preferred to subscribe to my blog instead, and feedback was overwhelming: they wanted the email newsletter. HOWEVER, their statements didn't translate into clicks or interactions: I look at my web site analytics to see why people are coming to my web pages or blogs, and there were months when there was not even one reference from my email newsletter. And that is the same criteria you should use when deciding whether or not to continue with your email newsletter.

That said, sending emails to new contacts is rivaled only by Twitter as the best way for me to market my services to new contacts. Email still helps me connect to new organizations and people. I still undertake email campaigns where I prepare a message for a specific audience and send the message to that audience via email - each person getting a separate email, because putting everyone in the "CC" line is rude and putting everyone in the "BCC" line often results in the email getting blocked by the recipients email provider.

What Goes In Your Email Communication

With any communication you undertake, whether its an email newsletter or a billboard or a paper poster, you need to answer these questions:

In fact, your email should still make sense to a reader even if they don't see the graphics. I am someone that blocks all graphics within emails unless I choose to download such, because I read emails on my phone sometimes and don't want to spend the bandwidth to download graphics. Many times, that has meant an email makes no sense to me, because essential information is in a graphics file - a jpeg, for instance - instead of just text.

I have received email newsletters that are entirely in a jpeg file, and I do NOT automatically download graphics files when I open an email. Usually, I just delete such a newsletter, and unsubscribe from it, rather than open it. Graphics files eat up up data on my phone and make it harder for me to read the information I want to read in an email when I'm on my phone. In addition, any information you put into a graphics file cannot be read by any assistive technology that reads information to a user: if I am a sight impaired user who uses a tool that reads messages to me in a computerized voice, I cannot access the information in your graphics file.

As noted earlier, by email newsletter, I do NOT mean attaching a .PDF or word processing newsletter to an email; I mean text within the body of the email. Many, and maybe most, of your readers will never open that PDF you send as your email newsletter. That also means they aren't going to forward it.

How long can your newsletter be? As long as you feel it needs to be to get information to readers, enough information that they would not have to click on any link to a web page or blog to know the essentials of what you are trying to say.

How often should you send?

There is no magic formula for an email newsletter or a regular mass communication to all volunteers, all committee members, etc. Some people want monthly communications. Some people want weekly communications. Some people think both of that is too much. Just don't do mass communications only on an ad hoc basis: have a plan, with publication dates and a goal for each of those communications. In short, treat your email newsletter or regular mass communications as a real publication, just like a paper newsletter or something sent via postal mail en masse.

How do you get subscribers?

You may want to make a newsletter for volunteers something mandatory that volunteers must subscribe to. If so, you need to let volunteers know that upfront. But like following someone on social media, it's usually best to make subscribing to newsletters entirely voluntary.

Just as your newsletters should point back to your web site, blog, videos, social media channels and other online products, as well as talk about any of your paper publications, those other online channels and traditional publications should mention your email newsletter and explain how to subscribe.

It's best if people can self subscribe and unsubscribe themselves, rather than having to be added or removed by anyone else. You will be quickly overwhelmed with trying to keep your mailing list up-to-date if you try to maintain your email newsletter subscriber list manually.

Sending the email to subscribers

You can send your newsletter manually, meaning that you note on some kind of database who is subscribing to the newsletter and, when you are ready to send the publication, exporting subscriber email addresses from this database and putting them in the BCC (blind carbon copy) line of your email. However, this if quite labor intensive; someone has to input the addresses of new subscribers into the database regularly.

YahooGroups is still around, and still free, and doesn't require someone to create a Yahoo Login in order to subscribe or unsubscribe from a YahooGroup you would use for your email newsletter. It's also a terrific way to provide people who do have a Yahoo account a way to view past newsletters. The downside is that YahooGroups attaches advertising to your newsletter, and not just advertising for Yahoo. A reader may think an advertisement is in someway related to your business. You have no control over what is advertised or how it looks as a part of your newsletter.

Purchasing or subscribing to software may be worth the money. MailChimp, Constant Contact and SalesForce are but three examples of for-profit companies selling software you can use for email newsletters. I'm not linking to them because I don't want to be seen as endorsing any of them - I have been a recipient of email newsletters sent via these platforms but I have never used them myself to send newsletters.

Measure Success!

How do you know if your email newsletter is having any impact?

When people call or email your company asking for information, they should be asked how they were referred to your program or organization. How many come from your email newsletter? Are these people already subscribers, or was it forwarded to them by someone else?
When people sign in to any event, always ask how they were referred.
How many new subscribers are you getting each month? How many people are unsubscribing?
Do you see a jump in visitors to your web site, your blog, your online video, or your online event after sending your email newsletter?
Track the responses that result from your posts (just as you should track responses to your advertising). It will help you plan more strategically for future posts and online activities.

Also see Evaluating Online Activities: Online Action Should Create & Support Offline Action. Hundreds of "friends" on an online social networking site. Thousands of subscribers to an email newsletter. Dozens of attendees to a virtual event. Those are impressive numbers on the surface, but if they don't translate into more volunteers, repeat volunteers, new donors, repeat donors, more clients, repeat clients, legislation, or public pressure, they are just that: numbers. For online activities to translate into something tangible, online action must create and support offline action. What could this look like? This resource can help organizations plan strategically about online activities so that they lead to something tangible - not just numbers.

Also see the article "5 Emails That Foster Volunteer Engagement and Community Building," from Wired Impact, which reminds nonprofits, charities & others that email is still a powerful, important way to engage & support #volunteers & to show they are valued.

And see

Outreach Via the Internet for Mission-Based Organizations
It's more than just putting up a Web site; it involves finding and posting to appropriate Internet discussion groups, sending emails to current and potential customers, perhaps even starting your own online community.... it's proactive, interactive and ongoing. It needs to be nurtured and fully supported, just as with all your public interactions. Online outreach and online service delivery should accurately reflect your agency's mission and culture.
Handling Online Criticism
Online criticism of a nonprofit organization, even by its own supporters, is inevitable. It may be about an organization's new logo or new mission statement, the lack of parking, or that the volunteer orientation being too long. It may be substantial questions regarding an organization's business practices and perceived lack of transparency. How a nonprofit organization handles online criticism speaks volumes about that organization, for weeks, months, and maybe even years to come. There's no way to avoid it, but there are ways to address criticism that can help an organization to be perceived as even more trustworthy and worth supporting.

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