About this event
Presented by Idealware
Participants in this course are qualified to receive 7.5 CFRE Credits. For more information on CFRE, see their website: http://cfre.org
Email campaigns are a fundraising tool within the reach of even the smallest organizations. An effective way to communicate with donors and raise money without much expense, they’re an opportunity to provide reasons and reminders for constituents to give. Campaigns are affordable, and not particularly complicated, but a number of guidelines and best practices can help ensure successful delivery and donor-engagement.
This five-week series of classes will walk nonprofits through the soup-to-nuts process of creating such campaigns, just in time for year-end appeals. Presented by experts, this series demystifies each step involved—from strategy to success. Participants will complete worksheets for review by peers and experts, will have access to Idealware staff experts during weekly open office hours sessions, and can expect to spend about two hours each week on coursework outside of the sessions. Over five weeks, they’ll develop and take away a finished and polished email fundraising strategy and the first email in their next email fundraising campaign.
Participants will learn to:
- Create overall campaign plans that factor in their message and target audience.
- Compose emails that capture and engage the people they want to reach.
- Identify which email and online donation tools are the best fit for their organization.
- Use email tools to draft, deliver, and track their messages.
- Define and measure success.
- Improve results through specific techniques and best practices
The six 90-minute sessions will run Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. PST from October 14 through November 11 as follows:
Week 1: Getting Started with Email Fundraising – Storytelling, Goal-Setting, and Your Arc of Emails
October 14
Every successful email fundraising campaign is built on the foundation of a solid plan and a compelling story. In this first class we’ll talk in depth about what makes a story engaging to potential donors, and the various strategies for structuring an email campaign calendar. We’ll walk through how you can use these tactics to see the best results.
Week 2: Writing Effective Emails – Subject Lines, Donate Buttons and Creative Content, Oh My!
October 21
Okay, so you have a story…now what? In class number two we’ll talk through the ins and outs of effective email writing from drafting attention-grabbing subject line to the p.s. and everything in between. Drawing from real life examples, we will learn how to craft the perfect email from top to bottom.
Week 3: Audience Participation – Building Your Email List
October 28
Successful online fundraising, actions, and outreach all start with a solid and substantial list of email addresses. But how do you build your list with the addresses of constituents truly interested in your cause? We’ll discuss a wide variety of tools and techniques to gather solid email addresses, from direct mail and list appending techniques, to online registration methods, to PR and marketing tactics, to social media and viral marketing list building efforts – and how all of those things fit together.
Week 4: Tools of the Trade – Broadcast Email and Online Donation Software
November 4
Sending and tracking thousands of emails can be daunting and complex. We’ll walk through what you need to know in order to setup, send, and track email campaigns effectively covering several of the reliable and affordable (even free!) tools most commonly used for mass emailing, such as Vertical Response, EmailNow powered by Emma, ConstantContact, and more. And once your donor is ready to pull out their credit card, do you have the right tool to collect their donation online? In the second half of this session we’ll cover what you need to know in order to choose a tool and get started. What tools are available and how do they work? How do you know which one is right for your organization? We’ll look closely at some of the specific tools that are available, such as Network for Good, PayPal, Click & Pledge, Auction Pay, and more.
Week 5: Measuring Your Success – Metrics and ROI
November 11
In the final class of the course we’ll take a look at how we can effectively measure the success of our email campaign. Taking a deep dive into what email metrics mean, we’ll discuss how to use data to strategically improve email communications.
About The Presenter
Laura Quinn has been working in the software sector for more than 15 years. As Idealware’s Executive Director, she directs Idealware’s research, writing, and training to provide candid reports and articles about nonprofit software. Prior to Idealware, Laura founded Alder Consulting, where she helped nonprofits create internet strategies, select appropriate software, and then build sophisticated websites on limited budgets. She has also selected software, designed interfaces, and conducted user research for multimillion dollar software and website implementations with such companies as Accenture and iXL. Laura is a frequent speaker and writer on nonprofit technology topics.
Cost
$175 NAO Members
$200 Nonmembers
Additional Information
Registration for this event is through Idealware, our partner for this training.
Please register with the email address where you would like to receive the access and dial-in information for the online seminar.
All registered participants are granted access to the recordings of each session. If a participant cannot attend any of the sessions due to a scheduling conflict, they will still have access to all the content of the Toolkit.