12 Easy Ways to Build Your Nonprofit’s Email List
List churn — the drops in your list size as people change email addresses without telling you or unsubscribe from your list — is inevitable. Many nonprofits lose 20-30% of their lists each year to this natural turn-over. How can you combat the churn and keep your list growing? Here are a dozen tactics you can use to keep your email list growing.
1. Send a regular e-newsletter to your list. Even if it is simply a short update that you send once a month, get in the habit of regularly sending mail to your list. An active list is much more likely to grow.
2. Include a simple sign-up box on your website, ideally on every page, but on your homepage at a minimum.
3. Make changing an address very easy. Ideally, subscribers to your newsletter can update their own email addresses with just a few clicks. The harder you make it, the less likely they are to do it and the more likely they are to drop off your list permanently.
4. Encourage readers to forward your e-newsletter to friends and be sure to include a link to your sign-up form in each edition so those friends can sign up directly.
5. When people register for your events, tell them they will receive your e-newsletter too.
