According to the newly released 2020 Global Trends in Giving Report, it is! This surprised me as our Nonprofit Communications Trends Surveys usually has nonprofit communicators ranking social media as more important than email.
Maybe it’s time for that mindset to switch?
Here is what the report says:
26% of donors worldwide say that email is the communication tool that most inspires them to give with social media coming in a close second at 25%.
If you are in the US or Canada, that number is even bigger with 33% saying that email is the communication tool that most inspires them to give, up two points from 2018. Only 18% say that social media inspires them to give them most.
Worldwide, other channels that inspire included websites ( 17% ), print (13%), TV ads ( 8% ), phone calls ( 4% ), radio ads (3%), text messages (2%), billboards (1%), and messaging apps (1%) .
Not in the US or Canada? The report breaks down other regions around the world including Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. Download your copy.
Why is email more inspiring?
With it’s shareable memes, pretty pictures, and live video, you would think social media would inspire more people to give than email.
While the report doesn’t get into why donors were more inspired to give through email, I suspect it has to do with how much more personalized email marketing can be.
From segmenting your lists to including first names and other contact information, email acts more like a conversation between friends than social media can.
For more on how you can up your email marketing game, see our many blog posts on that topic.
