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Julia Campbell
Planning a nonprofit fundraising event can feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to. Download Bloomerang's free event planning checklist that walks you through every critical step before, during and after your event. Save time, reduce stress, we don't need more stress. And give your supporters an event they'll remember. What you're going to find in the checklist A step by step pre event guide. A post event checklist to help you close the loops Building built in reminders to boost visibility like prepping social media posts and how to collect on site donations and help turn a good event into a great one. So just get your copy by going to www.jcsocialmarketing.com backslash checklist jcsocialmarketing.com checklist now on to the episode.
Hello and welcome to Nonprofit Nation. I'm your host Julia Campbell and I'm going to sit down with nonprofit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the Nonprofit Nation podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently find your voice, definitively grow your audience and effect build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie or an experienced professional who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started.
Hello, welcome to another episode of Nonprofit Nation. I'm so thrilled that you are here with us today. This is Julia Campbell, your host and I'm joined by Amanda Nicholson, an email fundraising strategist with a background in special education and a deep commitment to advocacy and social justice. And all my listeners, you know, I love that. With nearly four years of experience helping nonprofits close critical fundraising gaps, Amanda brings a unique mission centered approach to digital strategy. Today we're going to talk all things email, namely, why email? Why do it now in 2025? Why ramp it up? How to ramp it up? How to strengthen relationships through your email list. How to craft that kind of authentic copy that really reflects your mission, but also gets people to act and some kind of best practices and trends like what's really happening right now. So Amanda, I'm happy to have you here.
Amanda Nicholson
Thanks so much Julia. I'm a longtime listener and glad to be here.
Julia Campbell
So to start us off, can you tell us a bit more about your journey from special education and advocacy to becoming an email fundraising strategist?
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah, so my first career was in special education. I did that for a few years. I live in Nashville So I taught here in our public schools, and then I had my daughter. And so I was looking for, you know, more flexibility. I've always loved writing. A friend suggested, like, you should be a copywriter. And so I just started and I have not looked back.
Julia Campbell
You just had your baby last year?
Amanda Nicholson
She just turned four.
Julia Campbell
Oh, okay. Well, she's still very young. Yeah, I start. Exactly. I started my business right after I had my daughter, who's now 16. So my business is 16 years old because I started it right after her.
Amanda Nicholson
She was about two months old. And then I got a couple of my own clients, and then a couple agencies also brought me on. So it was, you know, I started it. I did some projects. They like what I did. They said, hey, can you come on and, you know, work with us regularly? So I've not gone back.
Julia Campbell
I love it. I find you'll find that you're going to be unhirable. I mean, unhirable as an employee. You'll want to be your own boss forever. It's the best. You and I, I think I actually agree with this. You've stated that email fundraising is still one of the most important channels in 2025. So why do you believe that email continues to be so effective, especially when so many of us tend to hate our inboxes?
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah, I get it. Inboxes can be super overwhelming, especially whenever we have so much.
Julia Campbell
Especially back to school time, which we're in right now.
Amanda Nicholson
Yes, back to school, the news, the everything. Social media, just keeping up with everything. But email is a direct line of communication. There's not as much noise on social media, no algorithms. You're not really competing with ads or anything like that. Whenever people sign up for your email list, they're opting in to hear from you. Like they are saying, yes, I want to hear from you. So it keeps that direct line of communication going, you know? You know, you can send them an email and they'll probably see it, but even if they don't see it and they see your name pop up in their inbox, even if they don't read it or they just delete it, they still saw your name. They're still thinking about you.
Julia Campbell
That's such a good point. Yeah.
Amanda Nicholson
You're still staying top of mind. You know, you. An inbox is, I would say, more controllable than social media. Chances are they're probably going to see you. You can't control who sees you on social media. It's still a great tool, but your social media should be leading them somewhere. Else. And that's where your email list can work with your social media to keep them engaged.
Julia Campbell
No, I completely agree. So I love that top of mind idea because I try to trim my inbox and only receive newsletters and information that I really want to receive. But there's so much that I want to receive because I'm interested. And I've so many different consultants and writers and thought leaders and nonprofits that I follow. And I don't necessarily read their emails every time they come through, but I'm. I know they're always there. It's almost like comforting. And then sometimes I save them to read later or sometimes I put them, you know, in a file. So I think you're absolutely right about that. And I also completely agree with the algorithm aspect of it. I mean, social media controls what people see, but people control their inbox. I know that a lot of people, you know, maybe things go to spam. You don't like the promotions tab in your Gmail? There's a lot of different tabs in your Gmail. I eliminate all the tabs. Everything just goes to one place. But I think we have more control over our email inboxes and I think that's really powerful. I wonder, do you follow Liz Wilcox at all?
Amanda Nicholson
Yes, I actually just met her in June.
Julia Campbell
It's a convert kit conference. Oh, my gosh. Craft and commerce. I really wanted to go. I am a huge fan of, had her on the podcast. She was on Survivor. She's absolutely amazing.
Amanda Nicholson
And I will say shout out to Liz because she was a keynote speaker, but she also did a breakout session. And I have had so many ideas over the past year or so. And Julia, I'm sure you can relate. Like, you get ideas and a lot of the times whenever you work by yourself or at home, it's like they can just cycle through and not actually come out on paper. But in her breakout session, she's also a former teacher, just like I am. She was like, all right, guys, yes. You know you're going to work with the people next to you. We workshopped and within 45 minutes I had like, new offers, new freebies, like, set up for the rest of this year.
Julia Campbell
Everyone that's listening. Liz Wilcox, she calls herself the fresh princess of email marketing. She's very into like 90s references. She has an email marketing membership that I've been a member of since its founding. I will put the link in the show notes. And she has a lot of the same philosophies that you do around email marketing. I Think she's phenomenal. I'm so jealous that you got to meet her. We're, like, fangirling, fangirling over Liz. Liz, if you're listening, we're fangirling over you. We love you.
Amanda Nicholson
She also had a dance party that Friday night.
Julia Campbell
Of course she did. And was wearing her 90s everything. I know. And for the survivor people, you're going to know who Liz Wilcox is. She was the one that had the. The Arby's meltdown. That was, like, her memeable moment.
Amanda Nicholson
Yes.
Julia Campbell
So for nonprofits, I mean, I think what they struggle with is how to be effective. Like, how do we. We have an email list. Or maybe we're trying to build our list, but if we have a list and we have a donor file, how do we use email to build, like, a stronger, longer term relationship with our donors?
Amanda Nicholson
And going back to the importance of email and fundraising, too, I'd like to highlight, for anyone who has not read it, but the M and R benchmarks.
Julia Campbell
From last love M and R. I'll put it in the links.
Amanda Nicholson
Mm. They showed that email brought in 16% of all digital fundraising revenue last year.
Julia Campbell
Wow.
Amanda Nicholson
So, yeah, with people, especially the craziness this year and the knockoff sector getting threatened and funds cut and all of that, people are pivoting and they're realizing, hey, we need more revenue streams. How can we do that? And connect directly with your people is a big way. And that can even be as well as going back to how do you build the long term relationships with email? Send them emails.
Julia Campbell
Send emails, please.
I want to shout it from the rooftops.
Amanda Nicholson
Yes, I had. I just gave this example the other day to somebody else. But I want to say, two weeks ago, I got an email from a huge organization. They're a national organization. My state has a chapter. I've been a part of it for, like, a decade. At this point. I got really excited because I saw an email from them, and it was, hey, stop by this place. X percent of proceeds go to us if you stop by today. And so I'm like, oh, cool. And then I was thinking, I don't think I've ever gotten an email from them. And I'm a donor. And so I searched my inbox, and that is the only email I searched both my personal and my work email. I searched both. That is the only email I've ever gotten from them in about 10 years. And I'm like, come on, guys.
Julia Campbell
And it was when they wanted something from you, right?
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah. And email is effective, but nonprofits aren't sending enough. I know people say, oh, I don't want to overwhelm people. I don't want to.
Julia Campbell
We don't want to annoy people.
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah. But guess what? Target and Amazon have no problem sending me sometimes multiple emails a day and push notifications. So, you know, if you're not getting annoyed by all these bigger brands doing it, or even if you are, you can just unsubscribe. People will just unsubscribe if there's. If they think that you're annoying them, but chances are you're not. They do want to hear from you. If they're on your email list and.
Julia Campbell
You talk about segmentation, can you talk more about that? I know that is some. That's like a word that's a big buzzword. And I don't know if people really know what it is, how to use it. And it sounds kind of intimidating. How do we start with that?
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah. So if you want to. Well, I'll say you should segment your list. Whenever people sign up, I recommend having them go through sort of a welcome sequence that gets them more in tune and helps them find out more information about what you're doing. And then from there, I would recommend segmenting your list. So if you're unfamiliar with that, segmenting is basically putting people in, I'll call it different branches of your email list. So you could put prospects in one segment, people who haven't donated, haven't volunteered, maybe people who are new to your email list, new to what your organization is doing. And then you could have a segment for recurring donors, mid level donors. And then you can send them direct and intentional communication. Right. You can meet them where they're at. If you were emailing within that segment. If you have something that directly aligns to prospect people who haven't donated yet, you probably don't want to send that to your whole list because then the people who had donated is like, well, I've already done that. And what do you mean? And things like that. So the more direct and intentional you can be with your communications, the better. You can also automate these things. And you can see really your automated sequences within your segments with touch points. So if you have a nonprofit CRM that you keep track of your touch points, or however you keep track of that, let's say with, especially with mid level and Nader donors, you can organize all your communications to figure out how often are they hearing from you. What are these communications saying? Are you asking them for donation back to back to back or Are you also trying to engage with them more? Are you giving them updates? Make sure it's a good cycle and that you're not just asking for money all the time every time they see your name? I recommend less automation with major donors. Of course, that's. Those are the people you want more personal one to one touch points with. It's great to send them updates, newsletters, reports, things like that. Of course they want to hear that, they want to get those updates. But I do recommend keeping that less automated and more one to one there.
Julia Campbell
How do we sort of strike the right balance? So we want to provide value, we want to do emotional storytelling. Hopefully we are doing this. I hope everyone listening is doing that. But we also want to strike that balance with the clear calls to action. So how can we sort of strike this balance between the providing value emails, the storytelling emails and the emails? You know, we do need to raise money at some point. So how can we combine all of them into maybe an email marketing strategy that works really well for us.
Amanda Nicholson
People connect with stories, right? And I know that, yeah, a big struggle for a lot of people is, well, I don't want to go into the story and then at the end just be like, and by the way, give us money. And the thing is, you don't have to it that way. So the PS sections of emails would be at the very bottom. And current email marketing statistics are showing that the PS sections have really high engagement. You may have also seen people put TLDR at the bottom like too long, didn't read. And that's where you can sort of summarize what you said, what the email's about and then put a call to action. Please, please, please, no matter what, put a call to action in your emails. It can be a button, you can also hyperlink. You can do both. Just please have lead them somewhere, have an action for them to take.
Julia Campbell
And it doesn't have to be fundraising. That's what I think people get wrong. It could be something else, right?
Amanda Nicholson
It is not. You could engage with them by saying, hey, reply to this email, ask them a question, say reply to this email, give me your answer, things like that. But the PS section is a great way if you've done a big story and you say even their call to action after the story is look at this report or watch this video. A lot of people are doing video now, so especially with impact stories, and say watch the full video here. But then the PS says, you know, you can make this possible for other people like Sally or Bob or Whoever for just $5 a month and then have a donation. So that's where you can, you can have both of those touch points in there. And that's not pushy. That is a good balance and that's a good way to make sure that you've been able to tell the full story. And also say, by the way, you're the people who make this possible. Here's what you can do next. Here's how you can help us. And I know a lot. A big obstacle I feel, I heard from a lot of my clients is they feel like they don't have anything valuable to send and everybody with me. You do? Yes. Just yesterday, actually, I had an executive director I work with, she sent me a screenshot and someone had texted her saying, hey, they're an education nonprofit, so they have a whole bunch of resources. They said, hey, you shared a resource this summer. And just letting know our whole, like, thank you for sharing that. Our whole team, my entire school is using this as the baseline for all of our professional developments that we're having for this whole school year. You know, this one tiny little, the short video and resource that's like less than 10 minutes that they probably thought wasn't very significant. One person saw it, brought it to whoever gave the green light to say, oh, hey, we can actually use this strategy to guide everything that we do this year.
Julia Campbell
I'm amazing.
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah. Then they're, you know, they're going to go on to impact students at the whole school like those. Also, whenever we talk about email marketing, we talk a lot about analytics and open rates and click rates, things like that. But also take note of things like this that you can't track on your analytics report. Like, this is not something that's directly tracked from an email. Nobody knew until that woman said something that she even read that email. I mean, you know, we probably could have looked, but. Yeah, exactly. That she read it, told all these other people about it. And now how many people know about this organization and what they do? Who didn't know before?
Julia Campbell
Oh, that is such a great story.
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah, like take, take note of things that you can't. It seems like you can't directly track because they make a difference.
Julia Campbell
So this is a question that I get a lot. I teach digital marketing. I tend to focus on social media, but I do delve into email and, and websites a little bit. The question I just thought of it is, and I know you probably can't answer this because you don't know the specifics, but how many emails should we send per month? I guess I get this question all the time. And of course it's like, it depends, but. And what's your advice on that?
Amanda Nicholson
I recommend at least one email a week and go back to. It does depend. Yeah, it depends on what you're in. But the good news is this is something you can track. So I would start with one email a week if that feels like too much. Maybe an email every other week at very, very minimum, once a month. Because again, you want to stay top of mind, you want people be remembered. And you know the chances of them seeing an email that you send once a quarter, that's very slim. Like, yeah, that's probably going to be very low. Engagement, very low.
Julia Campbell
And then if you. Yeah, I have clients that they send one email a quarter and I think if I don't, if I delete that, I don't hear from you for six months and then I forget and then you're going to be asking me for money or I'm going to hear something else from you. Just this constant imposter syndrome that nonprofits have where we think we're annoying people and we think that we are harassing people. We're actually providing much needed services and our donors want to hear from us. So that's an important, it's an important point. Let's dive more into structure. So when we talk about email, an email fundraising sequence or an email fundraising campaign, what would that look like? Kind of from start to finish.
Amanda Nicholson
So I always say it starts before you send the fundraising sequence because again, going back to what we've, we've been saying here, you should be engaging people and you should be giving them updates. You should be asking for their opinion, maybe have them participate in polls, send them videos, send them resources. They want to hear from you and they don't want to hear from you, only whenever you're asking them for money. Yeah, you know, if you have a friend who only calls you whenever they ask for money, you're going to see their name pop up and be like, I don't want to answer this call. People feel the same way about emails. So before you do any kind of fundraising, I recommend just sending some emails first on a regular cadence, whether it's once a week or every other week, because you want them to re engage with you before you make the ask. Whenever you remind them who you are, what you do, the people you're helping, where the donations are going, they're more likely to follow along and then say yes. Yes. Whenever you do make the Ask. And especially before, you know, we have giving Tuesday and end of year giving coming up. September is a great time to do that.
Julia Campbell
Absolutely.
Amanda Nicholson
And again, that doesn't mean you have to email them every day, but make that start re engaging. Now, even if you have a list you haven't emailed for like two years, you can start emailing them. They're on your list. They've given you permission to email them.
Julia Campbell
Absolutely. They've given you permission. They want to hear from you.
Amanda Nicholson
So once you have re engaged or started engaging more with your email list and you're ready to send a specific fundraising campaign, I recommend an email sequence of at least five emails. The more touch points, the better, I always say. So I'll walk you through how I usually frame my fundraising sequences. Start with thanking them for being there. They, you know, people want to feel valued. They also want to be a part of something that bigger than them. They want to be a part of a greater purpose. They are, they feel aligned to your mission in some way. So speak to that and let them know that you appreciate them just for being there. And then introduce yourself in that first email, I recommend the call to action being one per engagement. So this would be a good opportunity to say, hey, ask them a question. Say, hey, click reply, let me know. Or another way to engage and directly reply to you or to directly engage with something else, whether that be a poll or something else that where they can relay their opinion. Then this is where PS comes in again and you can have a direct ask in the P.O. but yep. And for the second email, I recommend giving a brief overview of your work and highlighting data here. Chances are you've got some numbers, people who want to see some statistics and if they're thinking about giving, they want to know where their dollars can be going. And from the second email on, I recommend direct call to actions. Third email, share an impact story. And again, going back to what we said earlier with you can share a whole story and you could do a direct ask at the end or even a PS or both. There's nothing wrong with both. Then I always say frame everything in a positive light. Don't be one of those non profits who's like, oh, these poor people, like, we're so good for helping them. Or, you know, no, no. ASPCA, right. Commercial.
Julia Campbell
Oh, yes, Sarah McLachlan, arms of the Angels. We all know that one.
Amanda Nicholson
So in this next email, I recommend paying a vision for how their support can help make a bigger difference. So whatever you do, what does that look like? Whenever you're programmed or fully funded, whenever you, you have enough money to help this person or this family, what does that look like? And paint that picture structure, paint the transformation of what does it look like whenever we are fully funded. And then, hey, here's how you can help us get there. And that's your call to action. Again, people want to be part of a greater purpose and they want to know that they're making a difference.
Julia Campbell
Yes.
Amanda Nicholson
And then for the last email or even two, I recommend a shorter impact story with a little bit of urgency, maybe even an update if you're running a specific campaign, say, like, hey, we're this close to our goal. Can you help us meet it? And the more direct quotes or testimonials you can pull out from beneficiaries as long as confidentiality allows it. Put those in your emails, too. Or if you have videos of people that you've helped, link those in the emails. People want to hear from other people, and again, they want to see that they can help make a difference. And hearing it from the people who have directly been impacted by your organization, that's going to be really powerful.
Julia Campbell
Absolutely. Oh, I really think that's great. I love to have a structure. I love a structure. And I also, I think where nonprofits also struggle is figuring out what to do next. So they have this campaign sequence, or maybe someone came in on Giving Tuesday. I teach nonprofits how to, you know, sort of set up. Yeah, like the thank you and the welcome. But then what happens next? We're in it for the long term. How can we continue to ensure donors are opening our emails and receiving our emails and, and engaging with our emails.
Amanda Nicholson
First and foremost, nurture them. Again, send emails.
Julia Campbell
I know, I think there's a team here.
Amanda Nicholson
Yes. And, you know, we can get to the nitty gritty of, like, testing subject lines, things like that, but those are all things you can test, but you can test effectively when you send them the emails. So if you want to run some tests to see how your audience specifically responds to certain kind of subject lines, you can a, B test and things like that, then depending on what email service provider you use, they probably have a lot of tools and resources you can use that will help you with that. If that's something you would like to do. Otherwise, I just recommend keeping consistent updates, keeping consistent communication. Again, speak to them. If you've segmented your list, speak to them directly where they're at and keep them informed of all the updates. Any upcoming events, if you do have an event coming up and you've got people locally send them a little invitation like, hey, we want to see you there. And then if they come, that's another touch point and that's face to face engagement. So, I mean, I hope you see the cycle here where yes, you're sending emails, but you can also invite them and engage them in different ways, whether it's in person, virtually as a recurring donor, things like that. And also use personalization, all pretty much all emore platforms. Email platforms will let you personalize and use people's names in your communication. So I recommend that too, because that feels way more personal. Instead of just an email blast, you can say, hey, Julia, because you're a recurring giver. Here's what we've done with these donations.
Julia Campbell
No, I love that too. I think that's really helpful. What are your tips for email subject lines? Because I see some newsletters that I get that I do open. For instance, Acumen, a huge organization, they just say acumen's monthly newsletter, August, which I would never recommend doing, but it works for them. But what are some subject line tips that you have to get more opens?
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah, I say make the subject line interesting enough to where someone would think, ooh, what are they talking about? Let me open that. It doesn't have to summarize what's in the email. It can a lot of people like that. Or, you know, if you've named your newsletter, maybe you could include the name in the subject line and then say like August edition or something like that. I don't necessarily recommend that either. Like you said, just saying like August newsletter. But if you are someone who's sending emails outside of your newsletters, then maybe I would recommend in either the subject line or preview text, naming your newsletter. Even if your subject line hints at what's inside or says something else that's interesting to avoid going to spam and things like that. And actually.
Julia Campbell
Oh, and we need all these tips.
Amanda Nicholson
Yes. Avoid. Avoid exclamation marks in the subject lines. Because.
Julia Campbell
What about emojis?
Amanda Nicholson
Emojis, but not too many.
Julia Campbell
I love a one emoji. I tend to use one emoji, but I test it out like you said, I do an emoji and not an emoji, right? Yeah, but exclamation points. Okay. Avoid them.
Amanda Nicholson
Avoid them because that tells the email bots that you're a scammer, even if you're not. And then they can send you straight to spam and you don't want to end up in spam. So it's A good way to avoid that. And then other fanny words like free or stale in the subject line and send you to spam. That's probably not a huge deal in the non profit world unless you are selling something. But yeah, just avoiding a bunch of exclamation marks. I recommend not using any at all, just in case. And then avoiding the spammy words that makes it sound like somebody's fishing for something. That way the email bots will be on your side.
Julia Campbell
I agree. Is there any particular day that's best to send an email?
Amanda Nicholson
When I look at the 2024 reports, it said Fridays and Sundays.
Julia Campbell
I love a Friday and I get a lot of email newsletters on Sundays that are from journalists, like long form. Because I feel like they might, you know, maybe they. And it's true, they think we have more time on a Sunday. So that's interesting. Fridays and Sundays, you would never think.
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah, and I, I think Sundays too, because I know this is true for me and always has been. I'm, no matter what Sunday night, I'm preparing for my week. And so I think whenever you meet people who can be in, in that preparation mindset of what's up for my week, what am I thinking about, what am I going to give my time to? And then they see your email, that could be good timing. I know in for a few years everybody was saying Tuesdays, but then what started happening was everybody was sending email.
Julia Campbell
Right. That's what happens.
Amanda Nicholson
But yeah, Friday and Sunday, according to reports, have performed the best. Again, you can always see what your audience is responding to. If they like emails on Thursdays, send an email on Thursday. You know, that's, it's a good, good thing to test and track and see what your people respond to.
Julia Campbell
Exactly. If you had just one tip. For someone looking to really revamp or change their email strategy today, what is sort of like what is one thing that I could do that a nonprofit marketer, a nonprofit leader could do today to really ramp up or level up their email or just make it better, improve it.
Amanda Nicholson
Be clear. Direct, clear communication is best. I know a lot of people try to be cute or sound funny or you know, try to be engaging in some other way, but people are busy and they want to know what's up as soon as possible. So if you can give clear communication, that's always best and always have a call to action in your emails, your donation pages, your social media, everything. Have a call to action. Send them somewhere else. Again, the call to action does not have to be a donation. It can be, but give them an action to take to keep them engaged. So be clear, give them an action.
Julia Campbell
Well, this has been amazing. Where can people connect with you? Where can they meet you online? What sort of tools and templates and resources can they get from you and your website or your work?
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm Amanda Nicholson and my website is amandanicholson.com I do have a free five day email challenge that gives you templates and a video overview of how to write your own by your own five email sequence. And that's more of a welcome or nurture sequence. So by the end of five days you could have a whole email sequence ready to go.
Julia Campbell
All right, I will put those links in the show notes Amanda. I will put a link to your LinkedIn, a link to the M and R report that you mentioned, and a link to the templates that you have talked about. This was so phenomenal and just thank you so much for coming here today and sharing your expertise with my listeners.
Amanda Nicholson
Yeah, thanks so much Julia.
Julia Campbell
Thank you Foreign.
Thank you for tuning into my show and for listening all.
The way to the end.
If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app and you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or a review because this, this tells other people that my podcast is worth listening to and then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode, but until then you can find me on Instagram. Juliacampbell77 Keep changing the world, you nonprofit unicorn SA.
Episode: How to Fundraise with Email with Amanda Nicholson
Date: September 10, 2025
Host: Julia Campbell
Guest: Amanda Nicholson, Email Fundraising Strategist
In this episode, Julia Campbell hosts Amanda Nicholson, an email fundraising strategist with roots in special education and advocacy. The conversation centers on the enduring power of email for nonprofit fundraising in 2025, exploring why email remains an essential tool, how organizations can strengthen donor relationships through their lists, practical tactics for segmentation and storytelling, and actionable best practices to boost digital fundraising results.
Amanda’s 5-Email Campaign Formula:
On email’s continued value:
“Even if they don’t read it or they just delete it, they still saw your name. They’re still thinking about you.” — Amanda (05:18)
On missing communication opportunities:
“That is the only email I’ve ever gotten from them in about 10 years. And I’m like, come on, guys.” — Amanda (10:29)
On imposter syndrome in nonprofit fundraising:
“We think we’re annoying people…We’re actually providing much needed services and our donors want to hear from us.”— Julia (19:33)
On measuring impact:
“Take note of things that you can’t directly track, because they make a difference.” — Amanda (18:22)
The conversation was practical, encouraging, and rooted in the real-world challenges nonprofits face with digital fundraising. Amanda emphasized clarity, consistency, and authenticity, while Julia reinforced the importance of overcoming reticence and the “imposter syndrome” endemic to the sector. Throughout, the tone remained friendly, insightful, and geared toward both new and seasoned nonprofit professionals.
Be bold and intentional with your email strategy. Communicate consistently, segment for relevance, tell authentic stories, and never miss an opportunity to offer a clear action—whether it’s donating, replying, or simply engaging. The inbox is still your nonprofit’s most powerful direct line to supporters—don't let it go silent.