How to send engaging donor e-newsletters using LGL

Sending engaging e-newsletters to your donors doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. With Little Green Light and our built-in email feature, you can create and send emails to your nonprofit’s donors—and doing so consistently can help you build stronger, more authentic relationships with them.

In this article, we’ll share some great advice from Sandy Rees of Get Fully Funded about creating the ultimate nonprofit email newsletter as well as walk you through how to develop a repeatable system of generating donor e-newsletters using LGL Email.

Why send donor e-newsletters?

When it comes to developing stronger relationships with your nonprofit’s donors, it’s important to have a communication plan to inform them and engage them in the life of your organization’s mission. E-newsletters sent to your donors are a great way to make that happen.

Here’s why: If your donors only hear from you when you need something, they may not feel as connected to your organization as you’d wish, and at some point may even feel a bit burned out by giving. Sandy Rees suggests balancing each Ask with 3 non-Asks (i.e., communications.). She refers to this as the 3:1 Ratio.

What kinds of content should I include in a donor e-newsletter?

Being clear about the purpose of the donor communication will help you stay focused when drafting your content. Sandy says, “your email newsletter is there to keep the lines of communication open and to meet the donor’s need to feel good about your nonprofit.” When you make the content about the donor and their wants and needs versus what you want or need from them, you’re well on your way to developing an authentic, two-way relationship with them.

Here are some of Sandy’s suggestions for your e-newsletter content:

1. Don’t write too formally or in the third person
2. Don’t ask them for money, to buy a ticket to your next event, or to volunteer at your organization. Not only is that too many asks, these communications are meant only to inform and engage your donors between asks
3. Make your donor the main focus of your newsletter—don’t try to make it a newsletter for all your constituents (volunteers, members, families, etc.)
4. Share one (just one!) success story with real results to show how the donor’s contribution has made an impact

This illustration is a great reference when developing your donor e-newsletter content:

Tips for formatting your donor e-newsletter

The format of your e-newsletter is an important consideration as well. Because if your communication isn’t eye-catching and ultimately doesn’t get opened, what good is sending one?

Here are a few tips from Sandy about formatting your e-newsletter:

1. Make your e-newsletter readable by avoiding jargon and acronyms. Use sections and brief sentences, along with headings
2. Use good, crisp images to break up the content
3. Draft a catchy subject line—and NEVER use the word “newsletter” in it
4. Make it mobile-friendly; half of email newsletters are viewed on mobile devices, so don’t use columns. Keep it streamlined and simple
5. Try to keep the read time to 60 seconds or less!

Using LGL Email to send your donor e-newsletters

Little Green Light can help simplify the process of identifying the donors you want to send your e-newsletters to as well as sending out readable, engaging content consistently.

Let’s imagine that you’ve made a commitment to send out donor communications once a month and want to ensure that all of your current-year donors will receive it. In Little Green Light, this is as easy as creating a search of all donors who made a gift this year and saving that search as a list.

Then when you’re ready to send your e-newsletter on the 15th of the month (for example), you can simply go to List Manager in your LGL account and click Send Email for that list. The list will automatically update as new donations are entered, so you’ll be sure to have an accurate and complete email list each month.

You can also create an email template in LGL and re-use that template each month, updating the content as desired.

Check out this example of a donor e-newsletter template created in LGL Email using some of Sandy’s best practice e-newsletter tips:

Since not every donor will necessarily want to receive your e-newsletters, it’s important to include an opt-out link in your emails (you should include your physical address as well). Learn how to create an opt-out form and add it to your email template by editing your email sender signature.

Want more info about LGL Email? Learn all about sending emails directly from LGL by visiting the Little Green Light Knowledge Base section on Emailing.