715. Working Session: The Email Infrastructure Every Nonprofit Needs - Katelyn Baughan

Summary

We Are For Good Podcast – Ep. 715

Working Session: The Email Infrastructure Every Nonprofit Needs
Guest: Caitlin Bond
Date: June 8, 2026
Hosts: Jon McCoy & Becky Endicott

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Episode Overview

This working session dives deep into building the “email infrastructure” every nonprofit needs for meaningful donor engagement and sustainable fundraising. Email strategist Caitlin Bond, whose clients include international nonprofits, shares her blueprint for transforming sporadic email campaigns into automated, donor-centered systems that work behind the scenes—helping nonprofits nurture relationships and boost giving throughout the year.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Mindset Shift: From Megaphone to Relationship-Building

• Most nonprofits treat email as a “megaphone” for campaigns, only sending appeals during year-end or major events.

• Caitlin stresses the need to “show up consistently, not just in November and December” (02:20) for lasting donor relationships:

  “You don’t only show up when you need something... Before any ask will land, donors need to feel known, valued, and connected to your mission.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 02:20

• Long-term mindset: Sustainable fundraising stems from continuous engagement, not one-off asks.

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2. What is Email Infrastructure? (04:18)

• Email campaigns = One-time, labor-intensive sends (e.g., annual appeals).

• Email infrastructure = An automated system (“plumbing”) that runs in the background, using behavioral triggers and sequences to nurture donors even when you’re not manually sending emails:

  “Think of it like plumbing. Nobody thinks about their plumbing when it’s working—it just sort of runs in the background.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 04:36

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3. Where to Start: The Three Core Automations

A. Subscriber Welcome Series (06:08)

• Highest-leverage starting point: Welcoming new subscribers via a three-to-five email sequence.

• Key components: Introduce mission, tell a compelling story, set expectations, then invite involvement or a gift.

  “When someone first joins your list, they're at really peak interest. They just raised their hand... A strong welcome series capitalizes on that momentum.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 06:08

B. New Donor Onboarding Flow (07:32)

• Often neglected; most orgs send only a tax receipt.

• Essential for turning first-time givers into repeat donors—reinforces donor’s identity and builds emotional connection.

  “I have clients that send a tax receipt and then go silent... This is your window to make [new donors] feel like they know about your organization, that their... identity... I became a generous person.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 08:23

C. Monthly Donor Welcome Series (08:54)

• Tailored communication for recurring donors; reuses some onboarding content but highlights loyalty and special status.

  “A lot of nonprofits are putting more emphasis on their monthly donor programs...make sure if we’re asking people to become a monthly donor, there is some sort of communication that is personalized to that relationship.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 09:19

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4. Advanced Automations & Segmentation (10:44)

• Abandoned Donation/Cart Emails: Triggered when a prospect clicks but doesn’t complete a gift; gentle nudge increases conversion.
• Monthly Donor Upgrade Automation: Identifies engaged donors with multiple gifts to invite them into monthly giving—targeted rather than broad campaigns.
• Automations reduce overwhelm: “It cuts out all that time... it just runs in the background.” (11:49)

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5. Best Practices for Email Automation

• Exclude recipients in an automation from other emails to avoid overload/confusion.
• Consistent “broadcast” emails (updates, stories) keep list warm after automation sequences are completed (12:19–13:10).

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6. Email Delivery vs. Deliverability (13:41)

• Delivery = Did it reach the inbox (any folder)?

• Deliverability = Did it reach the primary inbox, not spam or promotions?

• Use tools like Google Postmaster Tools to monitor and troubleshoot deliverability issues:

  “You want to be checking...Google Postmaster Tools...it will tell you if someone marks you as spam, if there’s an issue with your domain or your IP.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 15:09

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7. Common Mindset Barriers & Encouragement (15:49)

• Don’t fear “bothering” your list—inbox fatigue comes from irrelevant or infrequent contact, not genuine, mission-centered communication.

• Most people on your list have opted in and want to hear from you. Be brave, be consistent.

  “Stop holding yourself back...people want to know about what you’re doing. It’s really important that you communicate regularly and consistently.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 15:49

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8. Standout Case Studies & Results

• Cornell University: Shifted to five emails per week (only one with a fundraising ask), focusing on stories and engagement (e.g., themed puzzles, community stories). Result? 60% increase in giving (17:33–18:11).

  “They saw 60% increase in giving after they started moving to daily emails. You just have to change the way we’re talking to them...”
  — John, 18:00

• Consistent, story-driven updates—without constant asks—build anticipation and deepen support.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “You’re not going to make money overnight. It’s a long, long-game strategy.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 02:55

• “Nurturing at scale...it's gotta feel responsive to everybody's individual journeys.”
  — Becky, 13:10

• “You don't always have to start from scratch...take the ones [emails] that performed really well and repurpose them.”
  — Caitlin Bond, 08:54

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Summary of Actionable Steps (with Timestamps)

1. Audit Current Practices: Are you only sending a few appeals per year? (03:26)
2. Map the Donor Journey First: Before writing emails, plan the cadence and donor experience. (04:18)
3. Implement Core Automation Flows: Start with Subscriber Welcome, New Donor, and Monthly Donor series. (06:08–08:54)
4. Experiment with Advanced Automations: Add abandoned cart and monthly upgrade emails. (10:44)
5. Maintain Consistency: Support automations with regular mission updates. (13:10)
6. Check Deliverability: Use tools to monitor inbox placement, not just sent rate. (13:41)
7. Change the Mindset: Email is service, not a burden—communicate often, not just when you need something. (15:49)
8. Learn from Others’ Success: Story-rich, consistent emails yield measurable upticks in engagement and giving. (17:33–18:11)

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How to Connect with Caitlin Bond

• LinkedIn: Connect and DM for direct email strategy questions.
• Newsletter: Subscribe for weekly nonprofit email insights—see show notes for link.

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Final Takeaway

Don’t wait for year-end or urgent needs to show up for your donor community. Build an automated, relational email “plumbing” that keeps the connection strong year-round. Start small, iterate, and remember: people subscribed because they care—keep them close, informed, and inspired!

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For more hands-on guidance, join the We Are For Good Community app or check out Caitlin’s newsletter for weekly tips.

Transcript

[Caitlin Bond]

When most people think about email, they think about campaigns. So your year end appeal, for example, is a campaign infrastructure is different. It's a system underneath the campaigns that's automated so there's sequences that are always running in the background and they're responding to donor behavior in doing the relationship building work, even when you're not hitting send.

[Becky]

Welcome to working sessions on the We Are for Good pod podcast. In every session, we're tackling one essential topic and give you practical steps to take meaningful action within your mission. Today we're bringing you the experts and playbooks to help you move forward with clarity and confidence. Let's get to work. Hey, Becky, what's happening?

[John]

Hey, John. We called our phone a friend for all things email today and I am jazzed about this working session live.

[Becky]

Yep, it's like the thing that we all have in our pocket. But I think there's a mysterious component to email that I hope that we're going to cut through for everybody today because we have tapped in expert Caitlin Bond's in the house. She's worked with some of the most recognized organizations in the world, including unhcr, Amnesty International, National Breast Cancer Foundation. I could keep going, y'.

[John]

All.

[Becky]

She works with incredible organizations because she believes that email is the number one driver of online fundraising success. So many nonprofits are leaving serious money on the table when you are just stuck in campaign mode. So Caitlin's here to break down a smarter approach. We're talking everything, building email flows that work automatically in the background. More of that, please. We're going to meet donors exactly where they are and we want to invite them to give more when the moment is right. Caitlin, always a delight to see you, my friend. Welcome back to the podcast, John.

[Caitlin Bond]

Becky, thank you so, so much for having me again. And I'm so excited for this working session. We can get right into it. Tangible, actionable items. I'm so excited for this.

[Becky]

Well, it's going to be fun. And we'll link up Caitlin's last episode here to hear her full story. Like definitely go check that out. But you're right, we're going to jump into the tactics today, but you know, we got to like starting with mindsets a little bit. Wonder if could help set our mind right for this working session. And let me just say this email is the number one driver of online fundraising, but most nonprofits are treating it like a megaphone. What is the mindset shift that has to happen before any of these tactics are going to work?

[Caitlin Bond]

Yeah. And before we started this, you And I were talking about email and how it is one of the oldest but also most successful channels and it's not going to die. A lot of people come up to me, they're like, email's going to die. Email's dead. I'm like, well, Amnesty international just raised $2 million in their campaign just through using email. So I'm just really excited to get into this. I think it's really important to not treat email like a megaphone. You don't only show up when you need something. I have clients that come to me and they're like, why am I not raising money? And then when you look at their strategy, they're only reaching out at end of year at their spring campaign. And there's nothing in between. Total quiet pause in between. So you're not going to make money overnight. It's a long, long game strategy. So before any ask will land donors need to feel known, valued and connected to your mission. This means showing up consistently, not just in November and December when it's giving season.

[John]

Thank you for talking about this. And I think if you are just getting into the email game and you are only sending three email a year, we're missing the journey, we're missing the delight, we're missing the impact, we're missing connection. So I want you to kind of take us, Caitlin. And I just think I've watched you do this with so many organizations. I think like what you did for the Trevor project is particularly sticking out in my mind because I'm one of their donors. And I just think the way that you allow someone who could be a one person and a 50,000 person email list feel seen, this is possible. And so walk us through your playbook for building like the email infrastructure for nonprofits. What are those steps? Where do people start and what does a system that actually works look like? Start to build that for us and break it down.

[Caitlin Bond]

Sure. So the first thing that I tell every nonprofit that I work with is don't start with the email. Start with the donor journey. Email is part of the journey. But before we even get there, we need to talk about what we mean by email infrastructure. Because it's not a word that I think most people associate with email marketing. I think when most people think about email, they think about campaigns. So your end appeal, for example, is a campaign. Those are really one time sends and they require you. They're a ton of work. I mean, sending a campaign, people hire me just to do their campaigns. It's so much work. And infrastructure is different. It's a system underneath the campaigns that's automated. So there are sequences that are always running in the background and they're responding to donor behavior in doing the relationship building work, even when you're not hitting send. So sometimes you get these emails and you don't even know they're automated. And they're how a lot of the bigger nonprofits are able to communicate with their donors so consistently over time. So think of it like plumbing. Nobody thinks about their plumbing when it's working. It just sort of runs in the background. And a lot of small nonprofits that have teams of like three, you just can't really keep up with these huge campaign lifts, hoping that someone's going to make a donation. Right. So building the infrastructure is really something that I see as missing in most nonprofit email programs.

[Becky]

So Caitlin, what are like some.

[John]

Oh, we're saying the same thing. I'm like, where does somebody start, you know, if, if that, if they have no infrastructure, where is the place that someone would start to build?

[Caitlin Bond]

I would say build your subscriber welcome series first. So typically there is some way for people to get onto your list, right? It's a forum on your website. Maybe it's a lead magnet. Maybe you're bringing people in through ads. So people are coming onto your list and they need to be welcome. So I would start there. If you don't have anything in place, that's your highest leverage place to start. Because when someone first joins your list, they're at really peak interest. They just raised their hand and said, I care about what you do. I want to learn more. And so a strong welcome series capitalizes on that momentum. And usually it's around like three to five emails over the first couple of weeks. Introducing your mission, sharing a powerful story, setting expectations for what's coming next. And then the last email is typically either an invitation to get involved or an invitation to make a donation.

[Becky]

I mean, I think the welcome series is the first place to like audit too of just like what's the front door to your organization. It's such a natural way. And it's not lost on me that you didn't say you're not asking for a gift right out of the gate. It starts how you welcome somebody into your organization that there's a lot of conversation and relationship to be built before you move into the ask what other automations are top of mind to you that run in the background as part of this infrastructure outside of the welcome series.

[Caitlin Bond]

So there are really three main automations that I like. Nonprofits to have in place. So one is the subscriber that's anyone who's not a donor that's joining your list that may need a little bit more of an intro to your organization and what you do and a little bit more building of relationship. The second one is your new donor onboarding flow. This is probably the second most important, if not the most important. And it's right after someone makes their first gift. So most nonprofits just send a tax receipt and then they go silent. And you'll probably see there are some audits out there of one friend, Rachel Baerbauer, who signed up for 20 different nonprofits. She made 20 donations and then she tracked how many of them actually sent.

[Becky]

Shopper is out there. Oh my God.

[Caitlin Bond]

Thank you.

[John]

She would know. Yeah.

[Caitlin Bond]

And it's, it's like two of them did it. And so that's. Yeah. So that's a great place to start is when a new donor is joining your list. How are you engaging with them? So this is really, really important. This is your window to make them feel like they know about your organization, that their identity of who they want to become by giving to your organization is I want to be a generous person. And by giving I became a generous person. So just start somewhere. Start with 1, 2, 3 emails and build on them and optimize them over time. See how they did, how many clicks, how many opens. And I always tell nonprofits with small teams that don't want to write emails from scratch, look at all of your emails from the last year. Take the ones that performed really well and repurpose them. You don't always have to start from scratch. And then the third one is your monthly donor welcome series. So you have your one time new donor and then you have your, your monthly donors. And a lot of nonprofits are putting more and more emphasis on their monthly donor programs. And so we want to make sure if we're asking people to become a monthly donor, that there is some sort of communication that is personalized to that relationship. So you are our most loyal supporter. You've become a part of this. Maybe you have a branded monthly donor program and then bringing them through that journey. And you can also repurpose some of the content from your one time donor welcome series as well. So it doesn't need to be brand new content, but people need to feel seen. Like I'm making a monthly gift, you're receiving it and you're thankful for it. I think after you have your three struct your three foundational automations in place, then you can start thinking about how else can we use automation. It's so cool. There's so many different things you can do with it. So one is an abandoned cart or abandoned donation automations. And I've seen this work so well. So if somebody clicks on your donation form but they don't ever make a donation, you can actually send them an automated email sequence after that. Like, hey, you forgot, do you want to continue filling out your donation form? So that one is really cool. Let's say you want to do. This is another one where you can replace a campaign with an automation. Right. So I have some clients who are like, we want more monthly donors. We're going to do a monthly donor campaign and that's usually like eight emails to five segments in. It's a heavy lift and you don't know if anyone's actually going to become a monthly donor. So with automation you can go through and say I want to figure out anybody who has given two gifts in the last year over a certain amount. Maybe they're more engaged with your emails or they attended event. You can kind of discover what those parameters are for your monthly donors and have it automatically sent out a monthly donor upgrade automation. So that when the time is right, let's say they made a second gift or a third gift, then they're prompted. Hey, I noticed you made several gifts in the last year. You're such a loyal supporter. Would you consider becoming a monthly donor? And this is what that, you know, looks like.

[John]

Nice.

[Caitlin Bond]

So it, it cuts out all that time that it takes you and it just runs in the background so you don't need to launch, launch, launch, launch every, you know, quarter or something like that. It does it for you and it

[John]

takes the mass email scaries out of it. We, you all know what I'm talking about. When you're about to send an email to like thousands of people and you check it 84 times and you're just so afraid of what's going to happen. Yes.

[Becky]

Automatically test those kind of messages.

[John]

Yeah, totally, yeah.

[Caitlin Bond]

And then just state a few other like little things to mention is when someone's in an automation, you do want to exclude them from any other emails that are going out during that time. You really want to make sure that they finish whatever the journey is that they're on before you lump them in with your, you know, newsletter or whatever else you have going on. So make sure that you're excluding them and then stay consistent with your broadcast emails. So flows are really the foundation or automations flows, journeys, whatever you want to call them. But they work best when they're supported by consistent emails that are going out after they're finished those flows. So mission moments, impact updates, stories from the field. You want to keep your list really warm so that when you do ask them, they have been properly nurtured.

[Becky]

I mean, that's what this is all about, is nurturing at scale. You know, I think we all want to build community around our work, but it's got to feel responsive to everybody's individual journeys with us and, like, play into the individual journey that someone is taking with our organization starts with how we communicate with them. So I love this. I wonder, can you break down the difference between email delivery and email deliverability and what nonprofit leaders really need to understand about how we reach the inbox? Cause it's a lot more complex than it used to be.

[Caitlin Bond]

It is very complex and something that I only learned about because I had a client who was getting a ton of spam complaints and we didn't understand why they weren't getting donations. And once we dug deeper into it, we were like, oh, this isn't a delivery problem. This is a deliverability problem. So there is a big difference. Delivery is like if you send the email from, let's say of Mailchimp, and it says 99.9% delivery rate, that means that it got into the inbox, but it doesn't tell you which folder in the inbox it got into. Right. Your spam, your promotions, your, I don't

[Becky]

know, primary or whatever.

[Caitlin Bond]

Yeah, starred.

[John]

I have a whole starred section from certain people. Yes, there are many, many inboxes that that could go into.

[Caitlin Bond]

Yeah, exactly. So that is deliverability. So after it's sent, what happens? Does it actually get to the person that you intended it to get to? The delivery will tell you if an email bo or if the email has failed for some reason, if it's, you know, an old email address or something. And deliverability is going to tell you if it ended up in spam. If people hit that, an email is spam, and it means that your deliverability needs work. So that's something to really keep an eye on. If you feel like something is not right, you want to be checking something called Google Postmaster Tools. And all you do is you set it up. You have to put a little Txt record on on your website and then it will tell you if someone marks you as spam. Or it will tell you if there's an issue with your domain or your ip and all of that other stuff, but I always just make sure I check it for every client, because if there's an issue, it could be that the emails are just not landing in the inbox.

[John]

That could be a huge portion. And so how can someone get started and start moving that needle this week? What would be one good thing you would leave with them?

[Caitlin Bond]

Getting back to the mindset of things, because I see this over and over from my clients worried that they're bothering people. We don't want to send too many emails. We're bothering people. And truly, and this is the reason why Becky, John, Julie, and myself are in this work, is because nonprofits are changing the world. You're trying to make the world a better place, and people want to hear about it. They actually opted into this list. If you have a list that's clean and people are opting in or they made a donation, they care about what you're doing. So just, I want you to communicate more. People want to see more from you and stop holding yourself back with these mindsets of, we don't want to bother people because they want to know about what you're doing. And it's really important that you communicate regularly and consistently and just stay patient. You know, people will definitely, at some point want to make a donation and help you raise more over time for your mission.

[John]

And I want to loop it back to something else you've said, which is every single time you're emailing, don't ask for something, because then what you're training people to do is read your stories and see themselves in the story. And that creates a shift where it's like, oh, I'm excited to read this because I know I'm going to see impact. I know I'm going to see who's actually getting the help or what's needed. And it changes the dynamic of the relationship to where, oh, gosh, it's Giving Tuesday. Here they come again, the flood of emails when it could just be this little daily dose of joy. And I, and I, I will give a case study for people. I know we talked about this right before, but Cornell did this and sent an email five days a week. I remember them doing this in the middle of the pandemic, and only one day a week were they asking for anything. And half the time they weren't asking for money. They were asking for, hey, go over here and check out this little puzzle and download it for your kids. That's a picture of something on campus. Or, hey, tell us a story of how you met your spouse. You know it's Valentine's Day. We want to celebrate that. Those are such joy bombs. And they saw 60% increase in giving after they started moving to daily emails. You just have to change the way we're talking to them and change these long held beliefs that we've had about how a non profit should up an email. So I say listen to Caitlyn, watch what she's doing. Caitlyn, tell people how they can connect with you and where you hang out online and give them all the deets about how they can elevate their email beyond this conversation.

[Caitlin Bond]

Sure. So I'm on LinkedIn a lot so you can DM me there, follow me there. And I also have a weekly newsletter that I send out so you can sign up to that. I'm guessing you could put it in the show notes maybe where I send out a weekly trend or tip from the nonprofit email marketing space. So thank you so much for having me. This has been really fun.

[Becky]

Go subscribe to Caitlin. You can see how this is done in practice.

[John]

I'm a subscriber. It's fantastic.

[Caitlin Bond]

Yeah.

[Becky]

What an awesome conversation. Always good to see you my friend. Thanks.

[John]

Thanks buddy.

[Caitlin Bond]

Thank you.

[Becky]

Hey friend, thank you so much for joining us today. If you find yourself looking for a place to stay connected and keep learning between episodes, I hope you'll come and join us inside the We Are for Good community. Yeah, it is free. It's full of incredible nonprofit leaders like yourself and it's now an app in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. So you can take this community with you wherever you go. Head over to weareforgoodcommunity.com to find us. We cannot wait to see you inside.