3 Signs Your Nonprofit Email Marketing Campaigns are Failing (and How to Fix Them)

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools nonprofit organizations use to engage supporters, increase donations, and drive real-world impact. But even the best-intentioned email campaigns can fall flat, resulting in wasted effort, low engagement, or, worse, alienating your most passionate advocates. 

If you’ve ever wondered why your emails aren’t getting the traction you expected, you’re not alone. Many organizations face hidden roadblocks that undermine their outreach efforts. Before you send out your next newsletter or fundraising appeal, it’s worth taking a hard look at your current approach. 

In this article, we’ll highlight three unmistakable signs that your email marketing campaigns are failing—and share tips to help you course-correct so your messages get seen, heard, and acted upon. If any of these signs feel familiar, it may be time to rethink your strategy for better results and a bigger impact.  

For more insights on email marketing, check out our free eBook, The Data Disconnect: Why Nonprofit Email Campaigns Fail and How to Fix Them.

Common Pitfalls for Nonprofit Email Marketing 

We’ve all been there: no matter how many emails you send, there’s a disconnect, and donations, event registrations, and volunteer signups aren’t where they need to be at your organization. It could be your email strategy.  

3 signs that your email marketing campaigns are failing 

1. You’re spending too much time on setup  

Planning an email marketing campaign should not take weeks of lead time. Successful emails are topical: they get your viewer’s attention by speaking to the things they care about with accurate and relevant information. If you need too much time between planning and your first email, you’re lagging behind peers who can capitalize on news headlines, trending topics, events, and more. List generation and complex processes for email approval might be slowing you down. 

Tip: Take stock of how much time it takes to plan a campaign from conception to hitting inboxes. If your team needs more than 3-4 business days to prepare, you have an opportunity to make your workflows more efficient. 

2. Performance metrics are poor  

The beauty of email marketing is its measurability. Everything from email clicks and views to time spent with your content is testable and trackable. Your organization should have a baseline sense of the average performance of emails and compare it to industry standards. 

Source: Mailchimp

If you’re struggling to get more than 10% of your audience to open your emails, your click-through rates are way under 1%, or if your unsubscribe numbers spike regularly, then it’s time to take a closer look at who you’re sending emails to and what you’re sending them.  

Tip: Have baseline metrics for open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe numbers (as well as any other useful metrics) at your organization. Compare these rates against industry norms to assess the health of your typical email marketing campaigns.   

3. Email sends don’t correspond to the impact on the organization  

This sign can be the most frustrating for marketers and the most difficult to assess. If your emails do not lead to tangible results for your organization: donations, volunteer signups, event registrations, etc., something is amiss. Some reasons for this could include missing calls to action within your emails, unclear expectations for campaigns, or a communications strategy that does not align with your broader engagement goals.   

Tip: Have a clear call to action with as few steps as possible between reading an email and signing up. Shorten forms, remove extra web pages, and tighten up the process so it’s easy for your viewers to access. 

Reasons Why Your Email Campaigns Aren’t Working  

If you’ve identified some of the signs your organization’s email campaigns are missing the mark, the next step is to find out what is going wrong. Here are some common causes of poor email marketing outcomes:  

1. You aren’t segmenting your audiences properly 

A one-size-fits-all approach to email marketing, where every constituent gets the same email communications, is not the way to get readers to engage with your content. Instead, you’ll want to target specific groups of people that share a common characteristic and send communications that resonate with this group based on what they have in common. These groups are called audience segments. Your segments should vary based on the email. 

By segmenting your emails to specific audiences, you can customize content based on the needs, wants, and behavior of your constituents. Segments can include constituent types: donors, volunteers, society members, elected officials, etc. Other segments can be based on behavior, like recent donors, event attendees, program alumni, and more. Sending supporters fewer, more targeted emails is not just a more effective way to engage with your constituents; it’s what they expect. Over-communicating with your supporters leads to email fatigue and higher unsubscribe rates.  

2. Your organization has data quality issues   

Audience segmentation is only as good as your data. If you have unreliable data on donor giving histories, volunteer experience, event attendance, and other factors, you will not be able to slice and dice your email lists to reflect supporter activity accurately.  

Poor biographical data can also limit your email marketing strategy. Outdated email addresses are the most obvious data obstacles, but things like former names, salutations, communication preferences, spouse and partner names, and geographic locations can also erode your credibility. And, while you can keep contact information up to date manually, there are solutions like Omatic Cloud, which perform automatic data syncs and save hours of staff time.  

Tip: Keep your data fresh by sending an annual survey to supporters where they can review profile information, settings, and more.  

3. Your content strategy is unfocused 

What you send to your readers is just as important as how often you send emails. Your content should serve a purpose for your organization and engage readers at the same time. For example, a well-written profile of a donor can steward that donor, inspire future donors, and show the strength of your fundraising operations to constituents. On the other hand, sharing detailed donor news with volunteers or other constituents who are not inclined to donate might be a waste of your time. Tailor your content to ensure your readers receive updates on topics they care about. 

Tip: Make sure you’re only sending content that audiences want to read. Have a handful of topic clusters (program updates, philanthropy news, research findings, etc.) for your content that correspond to your most common audience types. 

4. You’re running into technical or deliverability errors 

If your deliverability is poor, your emails are not hitting your audience’s inboxes and have no chance of being viewed. Common problems that affect your deliverability include sending to out-of-date email addresses, ignoring accessibility best practices like image alt tags, purchasing email lists, or sending as an unverified email.  

Your opt-in process for receiving emails could be a source of deliverability issues. Make sure that your audience has indicated that they want to receive your emails. Is your organization following international standards for email marketing like GDPR, and other privacy standards? Finally, make sure your lists are updated at least once a year. 

Tip: Do a regular cleaning of email addresses to ensure your lists are fresh, and the people on them want to receive your updates. Adhere to legal privacy standards for email marketing.  

5. Your data isn’t accessible 

Fundraising CRMs (including Raiser’s Edge NXT, Virtuous, and Salesforce) and email marketing systems like Emma, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact are interdependent. Yet good email campaigns require data from your CRM at your fingertips for segmentation in your email marketing platform. All of that information that lives in the database should be used to personalize email messaging to your donors. Similarly, the data from email campaigns, including what readers open, click on, subscribe to, etc., can be valuable for future solicitations and outreach. If the two systems are not exchanging information, or are doing so poorly, you are missing opportunities for personalization.  

6. Your out-of-the-box integrations are producing bad data 

Chances are high that you or your colleagues are using at least one native integration to move data into your CRM on a regular basis. There’s a reason these integrations are so popular: they are easy to use and available for no additional cost. 

Despite their convenience, out-of-the-box integration and import tools are limited in the features they provide, such as not having the flexibility to map custom fields. When an organization stretches the use of these tools beyond their limited capabilities, it frequently causes data integrity issues including duplicate records, mislabeled gifts, and incorrect donation records. Over time, these data issues become harder to fix, eroding donor trust and creating a tougher climate for raising funds. 

7. Your team has limited bandwidth 

Email marketing tools are more sophisticated than ever. Design templates, AI copywriting tools, subject line support, and timing suggestions built into popular email platforms make it simple to launch campaigns at the drop of a hat. Despite this, many organizations struggle with email marketing. Creating audience lists, cross-referencing supporter data from a CRM and email marketing platform, and routing emails for approvals can create bottlenecks for sending communications, especially for lean nonprofit marketing teams.  

8. Your email automations are due for a review  

Inherited email processes are often out of step with the times. Take a close look at automated emails from more than a year ago. They could have broken links, missing alt text, improperly displaying images or other errors that will drag down email performance.  

Many legacy email marketing practices involve time-consuming manual tasks. Sorting, editing spreadsheets, and de-duping lists by hand often lead to major errors. Audit your processes; for many manual workarounds, there’s a technological solution that can save time and improve your output.

Give Your Email Campaigns an Upgrade

If your nonprofit is struggling with lackluster campaign results, poor engagement metrics, or a process that eats up more time than it delivers value, you’re not alone. Many organizations face these email marketing roadblocks—but the good news is, every challenge offers an opportunity to do better. 

By recognizing the warning signs and understanding what’s holding your campaigns back, you can start making changes that drive real engagement and tangible results for your cause. The strategies and tips we’ve shared here are just the beginning. 

Want a deeper dive into the root causes of email marketing failure—and practical, step-by-step solutions you can put to work right away? Download our free eBook, The Data Disconnect: Why Nonprofit Email Marketing Campaigns Fail and How to Fix Them, and join us for a live discussion of this eBook. You’ll discover expert insights, real-world case studies, and proven tactics to help your organization break through the inbox clutter, nurture meaningful supporter relationships, and focus on your mission.