Introduction
Since you clicked on this article, you’re probably looking for the best email marketing tools for nonprofits.
If so, you’re not alone.
There are hundreds of email marketing tools for nonprofits on the internet. And all of them are good in one way or another.
But you need (and probably can afford) only one.
This is your guide to finding the best email marketing tool for your nonprofit.
Why Nonprofits Need Email Marketing
First, let’s start with why nonprofits need email marketing tools in the first place.
Email marketing is important for all nonprofits. Email marketing allows nonprofits to build stronger connections with their supporters.
Creating an email newsletter for your nonprofits makes it easier for your supporters to learn about new initiatives and campaigns launched by your nonprofit. This can lead to more support and backing for your new campaigns, leading to more success.
Similarly, creating an email newsletter can build deeper connections between you and your supporters. By updating your progress and discussing your accomplishments with your donors, you can show donors the impact made with their contributions. You can use this discussion to drive more donations and support, leading to more successful initiatives for your nonprofit.
Additionally, an email newsletter can have the same impact for volunteers as it has for donors. Updating volunteers about progress towards your nonprofit’s goals can lead to more support, since volunteers can directly see their impact.
Note: You can learn more about building strong relationship with your nonprofit’s supporters here.
If this still doesn’t convince you that you need an email newsletter, I’ll pull out the secret weapon used by email marketers: email marketing consistently has the best ROI for all major marketing platforms.
How To Use Email Marketing As A Nonprofit
Now that I’ve (hopefully) convinced you that you need an email newsletter, let’s talk about how you can use email marketing as a nonprofit.
Thank You Notes
One way you can use email marketing tools is to create personalized thank you letter for your supporters.
Sending thank you letters to your supporters can build trust with donors and volunteers, which can hopefully lead to support from them in the future. Thank you letters are also a great way to regularly show appreciation for your supporters.
With email marketing, you can go one step further. You can collect subscriber data, which you can use to personalize these thank you letters. By personalizing your letters, you can build even stronger relationships with your supporters, leading to more support for your charity.
Event Invitations
A benefit of email marketing is that you can quickly send information to many people. With nonprofits, this means you can quickly send information to many supporters.
When launching a new event like a charitable sports game or a summer camp, email marketing can help you spread the information fast. You can quickly send personalized email invitations to your supporters. This will lead to more participation at your event.
On top of increasing participation, making a personalized event invitation can make supporters feel more engaged with your charity. This engagement can lead to volunteers and donors down the line.
Ask For Donations
Asking for donations is a great way to use email marketing as a nonprofit. Although most nonprofits usually ask for donations as part of a new campaign, there are other situations where asking for donations makes sense.
You can ask for donations on specific days that make sense for your nonprofit and relate to your nonprofit’s mission. For example, an Arctic conservation nonprofit would likely have success if they asked for donations on International Polar Bear Day (February 27).
Ask For Volunteers
Along with asking for donations, asking people to volunteer is another great way to use email marketing.
Using personalized emails when asking people to volunteer is a killer tool for getting more volunteers. Your supporters would feel that they are valued and appreciated, making it more likely for them to volunteer.
Progress Updates
Updating your supporters about your progress can be a great way to encourage more donations. By showing your progress in your nonprofit’s initiatives and campaigns, you can show the true impact of your donors’ contributions.
Seeing the real-world impact of their money can drive more donations from donors, leading to more support for your nonprofits.
Similarly, sending an end-of-year report to all your supporters can show the impact everyone has had, whether they are volunteers, donors, or simply supporters of your cause.
Success Stories
In addition to sending progress updates, you can also send “success stories” through your email newsletter. For instance, an animal shelter can share an emotional story about an animal that was recently adopted.
If your nonprofit can connect an emotional story to donations from supporters, you can create a compelling reason for donors to further support your charity.
Best Email Marketing Tools For Nonprofits
Next, let’s talk about the best email marketing tools for nonprofits.
Mailchimp
With Mailchimp, nonprofits get a 15% discount for verified nonprofits. For US nonprofits, this means providing proof of official 501c3 status. For nonprofits outside the US, Mailchimp requires a website link. If your website doesn’t emphasize nonprofit status, Mailchimp will ask for further proof of nonprofit status.
If you’re looking for a free tool, Mailchimp is a great option. Mailchimp has a free plan that allows up to 2,000 contacts and 10,000 monthly sends.
Mailchimp has a simple drag-and-drop builder for emails, and Mailchimp is great for email automation. Mailchimp also has integrations with your website, can target customers based on behavior, and has many other useful email marketing features.
Mailchimp is a good choice if your nonprofit is looking for a simple email marketing option. In fact, A Digital Initiative currently uses Mailchimp to run our email newsletter, which you can sign-up for here.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is an email marketing platform known for its high email deliverability rates. This means that it’s less likely that your nonprofit’s email newsletter will be marked as scam by your supporters’ email service.
The platform also has some features meant for nonprofits, like segmentation, fundraising integration, and event RSVPs sign-ups.
Constant Contact offers a 20% nonprofit discount if you sign up for a 6-month plan and a 30% discount if you sign up for a 12-month plan. Their plans start at $20 per month, so the prices for nonprofits would be $16/month (6-month plan) and $14/month (12-month plan).
Constant Contact is great for medium to large charities, where the high email deliverability rates make a major difference in terms of their impact.
Campaign Monitor
Like Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor offers a 15% discount for nonprofits. Campaign Monitor uses a drag-and-drop email builder, and is focused on analyzing email data.
Campaign Monitor makes it easy to track customer data through integrations with various platforms, and offers advanced data tools for email marketing. Campaign Monitor helps you find and improve ROI for your email marketing campaigns, making it useful for larger nonprofits.
Campaign Monitor’s basic plans costs $9/month ($7.65/month for nonprofits) with 500 contacts and up to 2500 monthly emails.
Like Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor is a great option for medium to large charities, who can effectively use the data to significantly improve email marketing. If you’re a small nonprofit with a marketer on your team, however, Campaign Monitor is worth a look given its ability to track customer data.
Benchmark
Benchmark offers a 25% discount to non-profits. They offer a free plan and a paid plan starting from $13/month ($9.75/month).
Benchmark is known for its great template and autoresponder system. It has a library of popular templates, but you can also create your own. Benchmark’s tracking system can track subscribers from emails to your website, and its autoresponder system can send automated emails to supporters.
While some nonprofits use Benchmark, the only nonprofits who could benefit from Benchmark over another platform (like Mailchimp) would be those that need a powerful tracking system or a powerful autoresponder system.
AWeber
Like Benchmark, AWeber offers a 25% discount for nonprofits. On top of the 25% off discount, AWeber also gives three free months of access to nonprofits. AWeber offers a free plan for 0–500 subscribers and a paid plan starting at $16.15/month ($12.11/month after three months).
Like Benchmark, AWeber offers email autoresponders and many email templates for nonprofits to use. AWeber also has great tracking, segmentation, and variety of other useful tools on its email marketing platform.
AWeber can also connect to your blog to automatically send blog posts to your newsletter subscribers, which can be useful for nonprofits who consistently publish content. Here are 20 post ideas for your nonprofit’s blog.
AWeber’s 3 month “free trial” is a great opportunity for nonprofits to test out the platform. I recommend that nonprofits should try out the platform given the length of the “free trial” and the access to premium features.
SendinBlue
On top of email marketing, SendinBlue offers SMS, a landing page builder, integrations with Facebook ad campaigns, and more. Like the previous email marketing platforms, SendinBlue offers email templates as well as the ability to build custom templates.
SendinBlue offers a great feature called the “send at best time” option, which lets you send an email to a newsletter subscriber based on when they are likely to engage with your content.
SendinBlue offers a Forever Free plan at 300 emails/day and their cheapest paid plan starts at $25/month. For nonprofits, SendinBlue offers a 20% discount on all paid plans.
SendinBlue is great for nonprofit looking to scale up digital marketing efforts. Its integration with Facebook Ads makes it a powerful tool for organizations running ads on Facebook.
GetResponse
GetResponse offers a major discount for nonprofits. Your nonprofit can get a 30% discount in exchange for nothing and a 50% discount if you add the GetResponse logo to your website.
With up to 50% off, GetResponse is a great option for nonprofits. Their basic plan starts at $15/month, meaning $10.50/month and $7.50/month if you add the GetResponse logo. As an additional benefit, adding their logo to your website can let you add a GetResponse affiliate link, which you can use for extra revenue.
GetResponse offers a variety of options for your emails, and lets you A/B test many options to optimize your email marketing campaigns. GetResponse also has a major library of templates, and you can setup autoresponders on the platform. GetResponse also has some great features, like Perfect Timing (similar to SendinBlue’s “send at best time” option) and Time Travel (which synchronizes emails for contacts in different time zones).
GetResponse is good for nonprofits who either have prior experience with email marketing or have team members with prior experience in email marketing. The platform can be a bit overwhelming, which is important to note for email marketing newbies.
MailerLite
MailerLite’s segmentation features make it a great option for everyone (note: segmentation is the division of email subscribers into different categories for different emails). MailerLite also has a drag-and-drop editor, form builder, and other important email marketing tools.
MailerLite offers a 30% discount on paid plans for nonprofits, starting at $7/month for nonprofits (normally $10/month). MailerLite also offers a free plan for 1–1000 subscribers and an email limit of 12,000 per month.
MailerLite is a great beginner-friendly tool for small to medium-size nonprofits who are just entering the field of email marketing. MailerLite offers a beginner-friendly interface and a cheap premium plan for nonprofits, making it a great option for smaller charities.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is great for automating emails and has an simple and intuitive drag-and-drop builder. ActiveCampaign is also great for collecting data like geo-tracking and tracking page visits.
ActiveCampaign also lets you segment contacts with email content, and ActiveCampaign lets users assign scores to subscribers based on their engagement with your nonprofit’s content. Additionally, ActiveCampaign also offers integrations with many services like Google Sheets, Salesforce, and more.
ActiveCampaign offers a 20% discount for nonprofits, and plans start from $9/month ($7.20/month for nonprofits).
Conclusion
As a nonprofit, email marketing is crucial for your growth.
While I listed 9 email marketing tools for nonprofits, you can only choose one. Taking into account your nonprofit’s needs, size, impact, number of supporters, and a variety of other factors, you should choose the email marketing platform that suits your needs.
Hopefully, this article helped you find the best email marketing tool for your nonprofit!
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