Nonprofit Email Marketing Best Practices You’re Missing Out On

You might have a fancy newsletter template and the occasional donor thank-you email queued up, but if you’re not being strategic, data-driven, and supporter-focused, you’re leaving serious results on the table.

So, if you’re here to learn the usual fluff about “send valuable content” or “know your audience”, you’re in the wrong place. This is your no-nonsense guide to nonprofit email marketing that actually works in 2025. We’re talking specific email types, proper segmentation, practical automation, and tools that save your team time without sacrificing impact.

And if you're thinking, “this sounds like a lot,” we’ve got you. We share all the tea in our HubSpot for Nonprofits guide!

Know who you’re emailing (like, really know)

If you're still exporting spreadsheets and blasting the same message to every contact, you're not doing nonprofit email marketing, you’re just… emailing with hope, not a purpose.

Centralise your data

Your donor and supporter data are probably scattered across tools. Donation platforms, event systems, spreadsheets from 2019, you name it. Start by pulling all of that into one CRM (yes, one), like HubSpot. This gives you a 360° view of each supporter’s journey.

No more guessing who’s who. Now you know who attended the gala, donated online, and ignored your last five emails.

Segment like a pro

Here’s where real nonprofit email marketing kicks in. With that centralised data, you can segment based on:

• Past donations (big spender vs. one-time donor)

• Event attendance

• Interests (kids’ education vs. environmental issues)

• Region, age, even communication preferences

This makes your messaging relevant, and relevance gets clicks, conversions, and ultimately, donations.

Create donor personas

Think “Recurring Rachel” who donates £20 every month and “Corporate Connor” who wants CSR brownie points. By giving shape to your audience segments, you start writing emails that actually speak to people, not just ‘supporters.’

You can use this ICP workbook to define or revisit your ICP and personas. 

Use fit & engagement scores

Tools like HubSpot let you assign scores based on how well a contact matches your Ideal Supporter Profile and how engaged they are. That means no more guessing who’s worth reaching out to. Here's a quick preview of HubSpot's lead scoring:

Nonprofit email marketing 101: Make your emails worth opening

Nonprofit email marketing isn’t just about sending emails, it’s about sending the right email, to the right person, at the right time, in the right tone.

Personalisation isn’t optional

Gone are the days of “Dear Supporter.” Use their name, reference their last donation, sign off with a real person’s name. You’ll see higher open rates and donations, full stop.

Tell real stories

People donate to people. If you're only pushing stats, you're missing the point. Share impact through stories, real ones. Highlight the people (or animals or communities) your mission supports. Tie donations to outcomes: £50 equals school supplies for five kids. Simple, clear, powerful.

Use email types strategically

Email Type	Purpose	Frequency
Newsletters	General updates, educational content	Monthly
Appeals	Specific donation requests, tied to a story or campaign	As needed
Advocacy Emails	Mobilise supporters on issues (e.g., petitions, campaigns)	Quarterly
Thank You Emails	Immediate follow-up post-donation	Always
Success Stories	Showcasing impact through testimonials or photos	Bi-monthly
Day-Specific Emails	Tie-in with key awareness days (Giving Tuesday, etc.)	Opportunistic

 

 

Automate the boring stuff (and free up hours)

Let’s be real: you don’t have the time to hand-craft every email. That’s where automation and AI come in.

Set up smart workflows

• Welcome Series: New donor or subscriber? Send 3-4 automated emails introducing them to your mission, your wins, and how they can stay involved.

• Thank You & Retention: Automatically send a heartfelt thank-you post-donation. Then follow up a few weeks later with an impact update.

• Behaviour-Based Triggers: Someone downloads a report? Great, follow up with a related video or case study.

• Donor Nurture Sequences: Set reminders, updates, and follow-ups on autopilot for major donors or grant prospects.

Use AI to scale (without hiring more people)

Nonprofit email marketing tools like HubSpot and Breeze AI can help you:

• Generate email and blog content from reports

• Analyse donor behaviour and predict drop-offs

• Enrich donor profiles with missing info

• Auto-schedule and optimise social media content

You get more done, with less sweat.

Design matters. A lot.

Email design isn’t about looking fancy, it’s about being readable, clickable, and deliverable.

Keep it mobile-friendly

More than 40% of emails are opened on phones. If your layout breaks or takes too long to load, it’s getting deleted.

Use clean templates

Stick to professional, mobile-optimised templates. Avoid clutter. Keep your calls to action upfront and obvious.

Make headlines count

Most readers skim. Your subject line and headers need to work hard. Be clear, catchy, and urgent without being spammy.

Use buttons, not just links

Want someone to donate? Make it painfully easy. A bold button saying “Give £25” performs better than a hyperlink buried in text.

Boost deliverability

• Avoid spammy language or excessive punctuation!!!

• Send from real people, not no-reply@ accounts.

• Don’t overdo frequency, 60 emails a year is about the max for most nonprofits.

• Always use permission-based emails (double opt-in if possible).

Don’t forget accessibility

Your emails should be readable for everyone. That means alt text for images, high-contrast colours, easy fonts, and even multiple language versions when needed.

Don’t work in silos. Measure everything.

Nonprofit email marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Pair it with social, ads, and offline efforts, and track what’s working in your overall nonprofit content strategy.

Run integrated campaigns

When you’ve got a fundraising push, don’t just send one lonely email. Think: postcard > email > Facebook post > Google ad > thank-you email. Multi-channel = more impact.

Track the right metrics

If you're not measuring, you’re guessing. Here's what to keep an eye on:

Optimise based on insights

Send times, subject lines, button colours, test it all. The best nonprofit email marketing teams constantly tweak and improve based on real-world data.

Time to step it up

Nonprofit email marketing has come a long way from plain-text donation requests. To truly nail it in 2025, you need to think like a modern marketer: driven by data, powered by automation, and obsessed with your supporters’ journey.

The good news? You don’t have to start from scratch. We’ve packaged all this (and more) into one practical, nonprofit-specific playbook.