Did you know over 16% of emails from nonprofits either go to spam or don’t get delivered at all? Meaning many of you still aren’t maintaining healthy email lists even though we’ve been talking about this for several years now. Your email list needs to be ready for year-end fundraising which, believe it or not, is right around the corner!

A clean email list is essential for making it through the more rigorous filters inbox providers put up to handle the influx of holiday messaging.

Here are 6 things you should do NOW to have your email list ready for a successful year-end email campaign:

1. Try to re-engage lapsed subscribers.

• 6 Messaging Options for Email Re-Engagement Campaigns
• We Are Running an Email Re-Engagement Campaign and People Have Feelings
• We Want You Back! How to Re-Engage Inactive Email Supporters

2. Delete or suppress those who haven’t engaged in AT LEAST 90 days.

• Is a Bigger Email List Always Better? Nope.
• Why Deleting People from Your Email List is a Good Thing
• When to Stop Snail Mailing and Emailing People, Part I
• Should You Contact People Who Unsubscribed from Your Email List?

3. Run some list building campaigns to get new subscribers.

• Nonprofits Should Try Some New Email List Building Techniques
• 3 Email List Building Pop-Ups for Your Website

4. Think of different ways to segment your list.

• Powerful Segmentation Ideas for Year-End Online Fundraising Campaigns
• You Need to Fix Your All or Nothing Email List

5. Create (or freshen up) your welcome series.

• Email Welcome Series Best Practices
• Do You Have an Email Welcome Series for New Subscribers? Probably Not

6. Test your automation processes

Create test email accounts from various inbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Apple, etc) to check the subscription/unsubscribe process works like it’s supposed to and to make sure your emails are getting through and look right.

I know it’s September, but taking the time to get your email list ready now will make life so much easier in a few months!

Need more help? We have resources and discussions happening in our private community right now! Not a member of our community? Join now! It’s free.

Nonprofits need people to do things. That’s the only way we can achieve our mission of changing the world. And if you need someone to do something, you need a good call to action (or CTA). Calls to action are our instructions for what we want people to do.

And yet, nonprofits sometimes make what should be simple, clear instructions too complicated and vague.

Let’s use the 5 W’s and H to improve your calls to action.

Who

The who is always the person you ask to do the thing. Speak directly to them as an individual. So, if you need to use a pronoun, that pronoun is always YOU.

What

Be specific! Words like support, help, and a dozen other common nonprofit words are not good enough because they include too many possible actions.

Don’t be sheepish. If you seem embarrassed or guilty when asking, that’s a clear sign to your volunteers or donors that they might feel embarrassed or guilty themselves by following through. Remember, asking is about giving people an opportunity, not taking something away from them. We often mirror emotions in these situations, so if you want someone excited to volunteer or donate or register, you should show a little enthusiasm yourself.

When

One of the most essential elements of conversion copywriting (all the words around your call to action) is a sense of urgency. If we can do something later, most of us will because we are too busy now. So, a good call to action will also include urgency. Even adding the word now can help.  Donate Now is stronger than Donate.

Why

We always need the why. We especially need the Why when asked to do something new, different, or hard. Always be clear about your why in your conversion copywriting around your ask. Please (Insert Call to Action) so that (Result Will Follow). 

In some cases, you can even turn the call to action into the results you are seeking:

• Feed a family
• Rescue 10 kittens
• Find a cure

Where

In a presentation I saw by Dan Heath, co-author of Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard, he said, “A jerk with a map is better than a saint without one.” 

In other words, with clear directions, even people who are otherwise labeled as selfish will give more than good-hearted people who aren’t told how to help.  When you obsess about the path, you greatly increase the odds that people will follow your call to action. That’s why it does matter how many clicks it takes to get to your donation page or register for your event.

Be sure to prioritize your call to action so people can see it and that path very clearly!

How

Dan Heath also said that most people think the change process goes like this: Analyze > Think > Change.

But it doesn’t. It’s much more like See > Feel > Change.  This is precisely why you should tell stories and set the context for what you are asking people to do. Help your supporters see the problem, feel empowered to help fix it, and then learn how to follow through quickly.

Here’s more advice you might like:

40 Nonprofit Call to Action Examples that Drive Engagement

Perfect Your Nonprofit Call to Action in 3 Steps

It’s getting pretty exciting on the U.S. national election front, regardless of how much you love or hate the candidates. Have you started to think about your election year messaging?

According to our 2024 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, only 17% of nonprofits expect the elections to have at least a moderate influence on their messaging. Less than a third (29%) said they expect the elections to interfere at least moderately with their ability to communicate effectively.  Communications teams with fundraising responsibilities were somewhat more concerned.

Honestly, I think these results reflect a naivete in our sector about just how hard it will be to break through the coming-soon onslaught of political noise with meaningful messaging. 

It’s like the first year of the pandemic . . .  nonprofits that put their work into the context of what EVERYONE was experiencing fared better than those that either stopped messaging or just tried to ignore what was happening.

So what should you expect? What does that context look like for you? What should you do? 

Every nonprofit in the U.S. will need to sort through its own election year messaging strategy. Even those outside the U.S. may need to think this through, especially those with large U.S. donor bases and those working on international issues where the U.S. has great influence on policy.

Here are a few points to get you started . . .

Know Your Rights

It’s a common misperception that 501(c)(3) nonprofits can’t say anything about election politics. That’s not true. You can absolutely speak to the issues you work on. You can even criticize or praise politicians for their specific activities or policies. For example, you could fact-check the debates on your issues and get your opinion pieces ready.

But you CANNOT support or oppose the candidate themselves. So it’s a fine line and one you need to understand. But that doesn’t mean you should be silent on anything election or policy-related this fall. Alliance for Justice has some great fact sheets to get you started.

Acknowledge the Challenges in Swing States

The election year messaging barrage is not felt equally across the country. Swing states get pummeled with campaign messaging in every conceivable channel now through the election.  That includes Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in 2024 and may also include North Carolina and Florida.

The competition for attention there will be fierce and unavoidable. So think through your calls to action in your election year messaging. You probably want to tightly limit the number of calls to action and expect to repeat them at least three-four times more often than you usually do. Candid offers some advice for fundraising during election years, especially in swing states.

Of course, on the flip side, you could also benefit from “reactionary” or “rage” giving, where people give after getting fired up by a specific issue or concern during election years. Classy talks about rage giving and more here. 

Prep Your Rapid Response Team

Rather than trying to compete with the election year messaging news cycle, prepare to surf in on it when the wave comes your way. Identify the key spokespersons and the key talking points that you feel confident in now, so when the moment arrives, you are ready to respond. That’s called newsjacking.

For example, let’s say a candidate says something you either strongly agree or disagree with. If you prepare now, you can follow up directly with reporters covering the story or be ready for their calls. If you wait to develop your strategy until the issue is actually in the news, you will miss the moment, just like a surfer can’t catch the wave from the beach. You have to be in the water, ready, and watching. Media Cause shares some additional messaging advice for nonprofits during election season. 

Think Beyond Election Day

While we are focused on the “before” now because we are in it, it’s probably even more important that you start thinking about what happens after election day. Regardless of the winners and losers locally, statewide, and nationally, what do you care most about during the “transition period” between the election and when people take office in January? What do you care about during the first 100 days of new administrations? These are also fabulous times to get your values and viewpoints out there.  This is the last point on an Election Outcomes Checklist from Lightbox Collaborative. 

You can see a great example of post-election day messaging from 2020 here: Audubon Nails Post-Election Email Messaging

Want more? I highly recommend the M+R blog. While you may know M+R for their annual benchmarks report, they also do a great deal of work on election year messaging for nonprofits and share advice before, during, and after elections. For example, see We Exist in the Context: The Memeification of the Harris Campaign.  If you haven’t already added your email to their list, now is a good time to do so!

Ever thought about how we, as communicators, can build deeper, long-lasting relationships with our stakeholders, especially our donors? It’s crucial because donors are emotionally connected to our mission. Plus, it’s more cost-efficient to retain a donor than to find a new one. We should honor their commitment by viewing them as long-term relationships rather than transactional interactions. Good donor communications is a part of that!

Having a good grasp on the wants and needs of your donors, can really make a difference in your donor communications. The concept of love languages, popularized by Gary Chapman in his book “The Five Love Languages,” is all about understanding how people prefer to give and receive appreciation. By applying this idea, we can enhance our donor communication and thank you strategies in a truly fresh way.

Here are some ways to apply the love languages to your donor cultivation and outreach strategies.

Words of Affirmation

Let’s start with telling your donors how awesome they are! This language is pretty familiar to most of us, but using positive, uplifting language helps to affirm their impact and make them feel like the hero. Personal notes that mention specific contributions, public shoutouts on social media, and personalized stories of how their donations make a difference also show them that they’re truly valued. This type of donor communication builds a strong emotional connection.

Acts of Service

Or you can show your appreciation with actions. Acts of service can demonstrate that you’re willing to go the extra mile for your donors, enhancing donor cultivation. Some ideas that would align with this love language are:

• Offering to customize their donor engagement journey by asking for their preferences on communication and interests.
• Providing a dedicated contact person for inquiries, and invite them to special events that make them feel valued.
• Meeting them where they are when asking for a meeting or other engagement.
• Providing easy access to updates or materials for them to share with others in their network.

Quality Time

You can take it a step further and spend some meaningful time with your donors. One idea is to host one-on-one meetings, either over coffee or virtually, and invite them to exclusive behind-the-scenes tours. Personalized updates and regular communication also shoes your commitment to keeping them in the loop fand feeling like part of the team. Quality time strengthens the relationship and shows that you value their time and investment in your mission.

Gifts

Some people much prefer the warmth of a thoughtful gift. Send small, meaningful tokens like custom bookmarks, artwork from program participants, or branded items to connect with donors on this level. You can also celebrate significant milestones with relevant special gifts or share customized and personalized updates to show donors their own specific long-term impact. Thoughtful gifts serve as tangible reminders of their contributions and strengthen donor loyalty.

Physical Touch (Adapted)

This final love language can certainly be tricky in our professional connections, but there are ways to tap into the concept.

• Create a warm and welcoming environment during events or tours with friendly handshakes and personal greetings.
• Offer VIP treatment with special seating and exclusive access.
• Even virtual high-fives through enthusiastic messages can convey appreciation and connection.

These adapted forms of physical touch helps make donors feel physically connected and appreciated.

The Great Donor Communications Formula?

Engaged Donors are Long-term Donors.

Having a good grasp on the wants and needs of your donors, whether that is looking at their love language or otherwise, can make the difference between an engaged donor and a passive one. By incorporating words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time, thoughtful gifts, and adapting the idea of physical touch into your donor thank you messages, you create deeper, more personal connections with your supporters.

If you are looking to go deeper on this topic, join us as we host a webinar at the end of this month on crafting messages that build stronger donor communications and connections. We will be talking about about how to keep your donors appreciated and engaged all year long!

As nonprofit communications has evolved over the years, we started exploring the concept of brand archetypes and how nonprofits can use them. While there are 12 brand archetypes, we think some of them make more sense for nonprofits than others. Today we’ll share the ones we think work best for nonprofits and which archetypes are the most popular for nonprofits.

Brand archetypes are human character traits that most accurately reflect your brand. They represent a universal personality that followers can easily relate to and provide a framework for creating a consistent and recognizable brand.

The 12 Types of Brand Archetypes

1. The Innocent
2. The Everyperson
3. The Hero
4. The Outlaw
5. The Explorer
6. The Creator
7. The Ruler
8. The Magician
9. The Lover
10. The Caregiver
11. The Jester
12. The Sage

We believe the following seven archetypes best suit nonprofits:

• The Innocent. For those organizations trying to make the world a more hopeful and optimistic place. Example: UNICEF
• The Everyperson. This is a trusted friend, approachable and relatable. Example: One
• The Hero. If you help others overcome challenges, you should consider The Hero. Example: Save the Children
• The Outlaw. Trying to change established norms or disrupt the status quo. Examples: PETA and Greenpeace
• The Caregiver. Many nonprofits naturally fall into this category. Example: Meal on Wheels
• The Jester. If you are looking to create shareable, engaging content or primarily focus on social media, this is a great option. Example: The National Parks Service
• The Sage. Great for education organizations, trade associations, or if you have a lot of informative content or how to guides. Example: The Cleveland Clinic

The Most Popular Archetypes for Nonprofits

For our 2024 Nonprofit Annual Trends Report, we asked survey takers to select the three words that best describe their nonprofit’s personality. Unbeknownst to them, those words corresponded to one of those seven archetypes we think best suit nonprofits.

The results showed that 83% of nonprofits embody just four of the brand archetypes – the Caregiver, Sage, Hero and Everyperson.

Are you already a member of our community? If so, you can find all of the Trends Reports in the Free Resources section. (Not a member? Join now. It’s free!)

The Caregiver is the most popular archetype in the nonprofit sector, followed by the Sage not surprisingly.  The top two archetypes chosen are two of the easiest concepts to understand

• The Caregiver (warm, supportive, selfless): 26%
• The Sage (wise, informative, insightful): 23%
• The Hero (courageous, bold, motivational): 18%
• The Everyperson (relatable, down-to earth, approachable): 16%

The least popular archetypes surveyed were

• The Innocent (happy, optimistic, pure): 6%
• The Outlaw (disruptive, unconventional, revolutionary): 3%
• The Jester (light-hearted, witty, humorous): 2%

Why is this important? Because leaning into your brand archetype or personality helps you humanize your brand and create a narrative around it. It can guide your decisions on what to say and how to say it, making it easier for you to create content.

For more on brand archetypes and to find out which one works best for your nonprofit, join us June 26th for Master Class: Aligning Your Content Strategy with Your Brand Archetype. During this engaging and interactive workshop, we’ll help you find your archetype and create a content strategy that matches the personality you want to present to your community.

How do you create great content as a nonprofit communicator? Or, more specifically, what should you put on your website, in your emails or newsletter, and on social media? You should put content in those places that’s “PUT” — Personal, Useful, and Timely. 

This has always been true — we first blogged about PUT as an email newsletter content strategy in 2016. But it is definitely as relevant as ever, especially with more AI-generated content and Google’s interest in highly ranking content that is helpful, reliable, and people-first. 

AI can help with the U in PUT: being useful, or helpful.

AI is not necessarily reliable as it’s trained on old data, not the most recent information or breaking news.

And AI is certainly not people-first.

That means it is really up to you, no matter how you use AI to support your writing, to supply the Personal and the Timely. 

Here are some of our favorite ways to do that.

Easy Ways to Create More Personal Content

• Tell even more stories than you already are.
• Share more first-person accounts (“I” or “we”).
• Do more personal videos.
• Include more direct and attributed quotes from real people.
• Uses phrases that express values like, “We believe . . .”
• Add bylines and bios

Think about Personal Content Strategically

Beyond implementing these tactics, you should consider strategically adding more personality to your content plans.

• Lean into brand and reputation building as a marketing goal so people will want to hear from you directly.
• Lean into thought leadership writing that clearly expresses opinions and human points of view
• Be clear about your target audience within the content itself. As search engine AI gets better at knowing who is asking the question, it will want to direct people to content developed specifically for that type of person and “information gain” for that person.

Easy Ways to Create More Timely Content

• Update your nonprofit’s important website content more regularly (at least every six months) – and add the “updated on” date.
• Respond to breaking news or cultural moments with relevant insights and resources.
• In your content introductions, reference breaking news or other timely topics (and on evergreen pages, remember to go back and regularly update those references).

Stretch Your Nonprofit to Create More Timely Content

• Use polling and surveying to create new data and research to share. AI and those ranking more highly that you won’t have it!
• Don’t be stingy with your expertise and lived experiences as an organization and individual staff members. As your knowledge and experience grow, share it sooner than later on your nonprofit’s website. Again, this is a great way to beat AI-generated content.

How nonprofit communicators work – especially with social media – is changing all the time.  But no matter what platform you are on or whatever algorithm changes the social media companies throw at you, if you focus on earning trust and influence then you’ll be fine. A great way to earn the trust of and influence your followers is to share updates, photos, graphics, and videos that are relevant to them.

But how do you do this?

Well, we just happen to have a handy-dandy checklist for you and lots of blog posts that show you how.

The 6 Rs of Message Relevance

When you are trying to create messaging that is more relatable to your readers, use the following characteristics:

1. Rewarding
2. Realistic
3. Real-Time
4. Responsive
5. Revealing
6. Refreshing

It basically boils down to answering the question: So What?

Why should your followers care about that update, photo, graphic, or video you shared? Using the 6 Rs of Message Relevance will help you answer that question.

1. Rewarding. The benefits of following through on the call to action in the message are clear.
2. Realistic. Following through on the message is doable, because any obvious barriers are addressed.
3. Real Time. The message feels timely and works within the context of current events and other influences.
4. Responsive. The message proves that you are listening, and taking people’s concerns and ideas into account.
5. Revealing. New information or perspectives are shared, or you are telling a dramatic, engaging story that unfolds over time (in other words, you get us hooked).
6. Refreshing. The message is delivered with personality — with an interesting, authentic style.

For tips and ideas on how to use each R see these previous posts:

• Relevant Messaging Ideas: Be Rewarding
• Relevant Messaging Ideas: Be Realistic
• Relevant Messaging Ideas: Be Real Time
• Relevant Messaging Ideas: Be Responsive
• Relevant Messaging Ideas: Be Revealing
• Relevant Messaging Ideas: Be Refreshing

And here is that checklist I promised you. You can save the image below or download the pdf.

I am working on the slide deck for Thursday’s webinar Social Media Trends for Nonprofit Communicators in 2024 and thought I would share some of the data I am finding on how people feel about using AI to generate content.

One of the themes I am seeing is that AI use will skyrocket, but that is causing social medias users to be leery. Hootsuite research found that “62% of consumers say they are less likely to engage with and trust content is they know it was created by an AI application.”

Part of this distrust comes from not knowing what it real or fake on the internet. But with all signs pointing to AI use by marketers only increasing in the coming years, how can we utilize this helpful, time-saving tool while retaining our followers’ trust?

7 Ways to Build Trust Even When Using AI

1. Know your audience and how they feel about AI
2. Share authentic moments
3. Focus on how your content makes someone feel or the experience they have when interacting with your brand
4. Let your personality shine to humanize your content
5. Show REAL people from you organization
6. Be transparent if you do use AI for images
7. Create AI policies to ensure regulations are in place to combat things like copyright infringements and bias

How to Find Authentic Moments

• How you keep doing it, even when it’s hard
• Talk about the flubs and frustrations
• What do you love?
• What do you talk about after work with friends and family?
• What are you learning?
• Honest reactions to news and culture
• Occasional memes that reflect how everyone is feeling

Ways to Show Personality

• Writing in first and second person
• Letting us know who is doing the posting
• Expressing an opinion
• Sharing losses as well as wins
• Making us smile
• Telling stories

We’ve all heard the criticisms about using AI (artificial intelligence). For example, AI-generated content has included

• Misinformation or inaccuracies
• Harmful bias
• Unvetted or unclear sources
• Illegal use of proprietary, copyrighted, and private information

In our 2024 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, despite these problems, we found that most nonprofits use AI. Only 19% of nonprofit communications professionals said they weren’t using AI. Yet, 93% of nonprofits do not have an internal policy about using AI.

Concerns from Nonprofit Communications Directors about AI

The aforementioned issues, along with more general concerns about replacing the human touch with automation, lead nonprofit communicators to voice many specific worries about the use of AI on communications tasks, whether performed by the communications team or others on staff.

These include

• The need to train staff to expect and look for problems in AI-generated copy, including factual errors and implicit bias, rather than simply trusting it.
• Discerning whether the AI-generated content has been filtered through or embraces points of view that are inconsistent with or contrary to the organization’s values.
• The fear of producing repetitive, unoriginal content that sounds like every other organization using AI.
• Taking the heart and lived experiences out of organizational messaging.
• Undervaluing content writers on staff for their ability to produce original, tailor-made content.
• Staff relying on AI rather than on their own subject matter experts.
• Creating complacency among staff (e.g., staff relying on AI to write copy and getting disconnected from listening to and building relationships with real target audiences, including donors).
• Bearing responsibility for AI content developed and approved by complacent staff members outside the communications team when problems are discovered after publication.
• Overreliance on easy and fast AI solutions rather than investing in staff and in professional development and skill building.
• Inconsistent use among staff members, leading to inconsistent expectations (e.g., whether all drafts should be run through AI for optimization before being reviewed, or how quickly certain tasks should be completed when relying on AI assistance or not).

AI is Here to Stay to It’s Time to Create Policies About AI Use

No question, AI can save nonprofit communicators a great deal of time and energy. For example, nonprofits have been relying on early forms such as spelling and grammar checkers for decades. More recently, nonprofits have used these editing tools to minimize the wordiness and complexity in their writing and to tweak the tone or style of the writing as well.

With the rise of ChatGPT and other similar content-generating tools, AI now goes well beyond editing assistance. If you provide the right prompts, AI can create all of the content needed for months-long multi-channel marketing campaigns. And if you give it feedback with additional prompts, it can produce even better drafts, improving each time you ask.

But ultimately, it’s just another tool that requires some form of regulation by its users. We encourage nonprofits to consider the concerns listed here as they develop policies.

Nonprofit Marketing Guide is also working on a set of best practices and sample policies around AI that we will share later this spring.

Until then, check out these resources:

How to Create a Generative AI Use Policy  — Tech Soup

Eight Steps Nonprofits Can Take to Adopt AI Responsibly — SSIR

A Guide to AI Ethics and Governance for Mission-Drive Organizations – Board Effect