Monetize Your Email List

by Randall Mains

Email fundraising has proven to be one of the best emarketing channel you can leverage to develop online fundraising sources for your not-for-profit organization. A good qualified internal email list should generate substantial gifts toward your annual fund, add to your monthly donor groups, and even raise funds for special projects. I will show you how to monetize your email list later, but for now I want to focus on how to begin building your lists, since many charities are literally at ground zero when it comes to their email lists.

Most companies don't know how to start building their email lists. While there are numerous methods you can use, both online and offline, you're best to grow your email lists by addressing your website traffic conversion plan first, which is generally an overlooked subject. I personally prefer incentive-based email sign-up offers, which I'll explain later.

Much of the focus I hear about is on generating visitors to your website, rather than converting the visitors you'll get. Generating traffic to your website without having a plan to convert the traffic into non profit marketing assets is the equivalent of having a billboard on the highway--you do get brand awareness because of the traffic that sees your ad, but you don't get many tangible assets to work with after your ad ends.

We here at Pathmaker Marketing believe that a non profit website design strategy that concentrates on traffic conversion will add people onto your email list. Using this method you collect as many names as possible that you can convert into gifts or sales today, plus names that are likely to convert in the weeks and months to come through online fundraising.

Most companies will dedicate zero real estate, or very little online real estate, to traffic conversion efforts. Installing a good one will increase the size of your email lists, and eventually lead to significant results out of your email fundraising.

Questions To Ask Fundraising Companies

If you’re a non profit or church who raises funds, then you need to include online fundraising in your marketing tool kit. And when you start doing that, you’ll want to consider the advantages of working with various fundraising companies. Just because you work with someone who has been managing your direct mail for the last several years doesn’t mean they’re the right choice for your email fundraising or search engine marketing efforts. You’ll want to look for Internet savvy fundraising companies for that.

When interviewing fundraising companies, here are some helpful questions you’ll want to ask.

• What is your experience raising funds online?


• What is your strategy for raising funds online?


• What is your experience in my industry?


• What is your billing schedule and terms?


• How do you resolve conflicts and disagreements?

These basic questions may launch you into other discussions, but these will help you springboard into a thorough understanding of how various fundraising companies stack up against one another.

Pathmaker Marketing is ready to help you raise funds online and would love to talk to you about how our strategies and experience fit with your organization. Call us at 623-322-3334.