Email deliverability for nonprofit fundraising
Where the addresses come from
- Donation forms, where the address is attached to a financial transaction and is usually accurate.
- Event and fundraiser sign-ups, entered quickly at a table by somebody else.
- Volunteer sign-ups, typically solid and often using a work address.
- Petition and campaign signups, high volume, low commitment and the weakest source in the sector.
Giving is seasonal and concentrated
A large share of annual giving arrives in December, and the campaigns that drive it run in a compressed window against the whole file. That concentration means one bad send has an outsized effect on the year.
Donor value is concentrated too. A handful of long-tenured supporters can represent a substantial share of revenue, and those are precisely the records captured longest ago and least likely to engage with an email newsletter.
Applying a business sunsetting rule to that file removes the people who fund the firm, because low email engagement and high giving are not the same axis.
What the results tend to look like
Consumer-weighted and skewing older, which means more AOL, Yahoo and ISP domains than a typical business list. Those accept every probe by policy and come back unresolved, so coverage on an older donor file runs lower than on a younger audience.
What to do about it
Cross-reference engagement with giving history before removing anyone
Email engagement and donor value are separate axes. A business sunsetting rule applied here deletes your most valuable relationships.
Check in October, before the year-end appeal
December is when the file gets its heaviest use and the least room for a mistake.
Expect lower coverage on an older donor file
AOL, Yahoo and ISP domains dominate older audiences and none of them can be resolved at mailbox level by anyone.
Keep petition signups separate from donors
They behave completely differently on bounces, complaints and engagement, and merging them lets the weaker source set your reputation.
Questions people ask
Should unengaged donors be removed from the list?
Not on email engagement alone. Check giving history first, because a donor who gives annually and never opens an email is a supporter rather than a dead address.
Why does an older donor file resolve poorly?
Because it is heavy in AOL, Yahoo and ISP addresses. Those providers accept every probe by policy or route through Yahoo's systems, so no checker can confirm the mailboxes.
When should a nonprofit check?
Before the year-end appeal, in October or early November, so the largest campaign of the year runs on a list you have actually checked.
Related sectors
See the breakdown on your own list
100 free checks a month, no card. Addresses we could not get an answer on come back labeled rather than guessed at, and we do not bill them.