Running a nonprofit organization can be challenging at times. Keeping track of all the different activities, events, departments and volunteers can be a struggle. That’s where your newsletter comes in. A well-written newsletter is an essential tool for staying organized as well as keeping your organization top of mind for your supporters. A well-tailored newsletter not only helps you keep in touch with your donors but also exposes them to new content that is relevant to their interests. In this article, you will discover how you can write a successful nonprofit newsletter that gets results!

Define your goal for your newsletter

Before you even think about writing a single word, you need to have clear goals for your newsletter. When you set these goals, you will be able to determine what content will be featured in the newsletter and what tone you would like to take when writing each article. Setting goals will also help you determine if the newsletter is reaching the people you want to be reading it.

Your goals for your nonprofit newsletter could look like the following:

• Increase your newsletter’s open rates and clickthrough rates
• Increase newsletter subscriptions
• Increase donors who give recurring gifts
• Increase donors who give one-time gifts
• Increase new donors
• Increase donors who become monthly donors
• Increase donors who become quarterly donors
• Increase donors who become yearly donors
• Increase donors who give larger gifts
• Increase donors who give smaller gifts
• Increase donors who engage with your newsletter content
• Increase donors who stay engaged with your newsletter content
• Increase donors who share your newsletter content
• Increase donors who interact with your other content
• Increase donors who become advocates for your organization

Create a content strategy for your newsletter

When it comes to writing a newsletter, there are literally thousands of different ways you can approach the content. You can write in-depth articles or you can write shorter and more frequent articles. You can write about events and activities taking place at your organization or you can write about interesting happenings in the community. You can write about topics that are relevant to the interests of your audience or you can write about topics that are of particular interest to your supporters. The possibilities are endless when it comes to the different types of content you can write for your newsletter. As you begin to think about how you want to approach your newsletter, it’s important to keep in mind your goal: To increase subscriptions, donations, new donors, repeat donors, and advocates.

Build a list for your newsletter

Building a list is one of the most important steps in the process of creating a successful newsletter. The list is where you will send your newsletter content to.

To build a list, you could incorporate some of the following:

1. Publish your newsletters to multiple email marketing services
2. Create an email list through your website
3. Offer subscriptions through social media
4. Offer a free newsletter
5. Offer a paid subscription
6. Sell subscribers through a service
7. Sell subscribers through an email opt-in
8. Give away your list to another organization
9. Give away your list to a third-party service
10. Use a marketing automation tool
11. Use a lead magnet
12. Use a tracking system
13. Use data analysis to improve your list
14. Use a script for subscribers
15. Use a call-to-action for subscribers
16. Use a visual for subscribers
17. Use a series of emails for subscribers
18. Use an autoresponder sequence for subscribers
19. Use a re-contact sequence for subscribers
20. Use a content sequence for subscribers

Use video in your newsletter

Videos are a fantastic way to engage your audience and teach your readers more about the issues, causes and people they support. You can pair a written article with a relevant video that will greatly increase the effectiveness of your newsletter.

Video commands attention and you can use video in your newsletters as follows:

• Include a short video at the beginning of your newsletter
• Include a long video at the end of your newsletter
• Include a video that is relevant to certain topics in your newsletter
• Include an infographic that links to a video
• Include a segment from a longer video
• Include a segment from a series
• Include a segment from a conference or event
• Include a segment from your podcast
• Include a segment from a guest speaker
• Include a segment from a social media account
• Include a segment from a blog post
• Include a segment from a webinar
• Include a segment from your website
• Include a segment from a gallery
• Include a segment from a live event
• Include a segment from a Kickstarter project
• Include a segment from a social media campaign
• Include a segment from a miscellaneous source

Conclusion

When creating a newsletter for your nonprofit, you want to make sure to keep your supporters informed. A newsletter is a great way to do this. Not only can you keep your supporters in the loop, but you can also build new supporters through the content in your newsletter. When writing your newsletter, it is important to keep your goals in mind. Make sure to think about the content that will best help you achieve your goals, as well as the tone of the content in order to keep your readers engaged.