Nonprofit Email Newsletter
The Gist of It
Email newsletters need clear organization and structure. This is best done with a mobile-friendly design.
Use a mixture of background colors and buttons to highlight different sections.
Write teaser copy for each section. The purpose is to entice the reader to click a call to action and read more on the website.
Transcript
Ah, the email newsletter. How did it get so complicated?
Newsletters with too much text and I quit reading. Those with too many pictures and I get bored of scrolling. Endless calls to action force smoke to escape from my ears.
I am going to say it, some newsletters are a cluttered mess. You know the ones I am talking about, right? The ones that read like a James Joyce novel.
Not all newsletters are a disaster, though. This tidied-up email newsletter will spark joy, as will going “Behind the Campaign”
Introduction
Welcome to Behind the Campaign.
A showcase of the best nonprofit campaigns. Here you will get ideas, tips, and strategies to create successful campaigns for your organization.
EarthJustice
Today, we will look at a well-designed email newsletter from Earthjustice.
EarthJustice is a nonprofit environmental law organization. They use the law to protect people’s health, preserve nature, advance clean energy and combat climate change.
Their advocacy for the environment includes 600+ active legal battles and an 85% win rate thus far. They helped enact the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
Let’s check out one of their monthly email newsletters and see how a clean design can facilitate multiple goals.
Inbox Preview
Earthjustice tells you more about the email using the sender name, Earthjustice Newsletter. You know what to expect when you open the email. This also allows them to get creative with their subject line.
I like the alliteration, “Bringing back bison…”
The preheader goes into more detail about the main story.
Email Newsletter
Email newsletters need organization, they need structure. The ones, like this one, work best by keeping supporters engaged, either encouraging clicks or continued scrolling.
The biggest difference between an email newsletter and an appeal email is the call to action. An appeal email has one call to action. A newsletter has many CTAs, offering many choices to the supporter.
This is where the confusion can and does happen. A bad newsletter is like a buffet. You eat a little bit of everything but nothing tastes great.
Here we get a newsletter more like a full five-course meal. Different food but it all works together to create a satisfying meal.
As we look at the email, notice how each section fits into a box. And how they highlight different calls to action. The donate section has a button and a gray background.
Keep scrolling and you come to another section without an image but a button. This section asks you to send a message to the government.
Even the footer is defined by the same gray background as before.
The images are a good size. Too big and they take up the entire mobile screen. With the size image EarthJustice uses it is big enough to see on mobile but also gets you into the text faster.
Each section has only a few sentences of copy. Enough for a supporter to understand but also intrigue them to click the call to action.
Supporters don’t need to read multiple articles on the email. Instead, the purpose of the newsletter is to tease supporters enough to direct them to the website.
The only CTA buttons EarthJustice uses is for the donate and take action section. This helps those calls to action stand out more.
Conclusion
The email newsletter needs tidying up and as Marie Kondo said, “Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest.”
EarthJustice provides an exemplary example of this. It is clean and organized. The important sections get special treatment with different color backgrounds or buttons. Small elements like this make a big impact for the supporter.
So to EarthJustice, who write and design tidy (and effective) email newsletters.
Bravo!
