6 Email Myths That Are Hurting Your Fundraising

You send the email.

You wait.

You check the open rate.

It's…fine. Not great. A few clicks. No donations.

You sigh, close the tab, and wonder:

Did that even do anything?

You're not alone. You're short on time. You're juggling multiple roles. And yet you're somehow expected to write magical emails that raise money, delight your board, and avoid annoying anyone.

Meanwhile, the internet is yelling at you:

• "Test your subject lines!"

• "Segment your list!"

• "Send at 10:07 am on Tuesdays!"

No wonder email feels overwhelming.

But here's the truth: it's not you. It's the email advice you've been following.

Let's clear the noise and bust 6 myths that are wasting your time—and quietly killing your donations.

Let's be honest—open rates make us feel productive. You send the email, see that 38% opened it, and breathe a sigh of relief: People saw it!

Except... maybe they didn't.

With Apple's Mail Privacy changes and bot activity, many "opens" are fake. Others are loaded by default. And some people only saw the subject line—never the content.

Open ≠ read.

Open ≠ care.

Open ≠ action.

So, what should you look at?

Click-through rate (CTR) is a better proxy for engagement. If someone clicks a link in your email, that means they read enough to care and took action. That's where real insight lives.

So yes, keep an eye on open rates for big swings (especially after testing subject lines or changing sender names). But don't let them drive your strategy.

Clicks are the truth serum. Track those.

Every time someone unsubscribes from your list, it can feel a little personal. Like a tiny rejection.

But here's the truth: unsubscribes aren't a bad thing—they're a built-in way to sharpen your list and focus on the people who do want to hear from you.

Unsubscribes bring clarity.

They tell you who's in and who's out. They help clean up your list, lower your email costs, and improve deliverability. You stop wasting energy on people who were never going to engage, let alone donate.

And let's be honest: someone who unsubscribed probably wasn't going to support your mission financially. Would you rather have a list of 10,000 names with 2,000 ghost subscribers, or a list of 5,000 people who actually care?

If you're not seeing unsubscribes, you're probably not emailing enough. Or you're playing it too safe.

Bottom line: unsubscribes are not rejection. They're refinement.

Let them go, and focus on the folks who are leaning in.

This one comes up in every training I lead.

There's a real fear that if you hit send too often, you're going to drive people away. That they'll unsubscribe, mark you as spam, or whisper about you in nonprofit Facebook groups.

But here's the truth: you're probably not emailing enough.

People are busy. Their inboxes are full. And if you're only sending once a month (or less), you're not showing up often enough to be remembered. In fact, they may have forgotten who you are entirely.

You think you're over-communicating.

They think you've disappeared.

What actually annoys people isn't frequency—it's irrelevance. If your emails are useful, interesting, and human, people will welcome them.

So let's talk about value:

• Snack-size emails are your secret weapon. Instead of a huge monthly newsletter with 10 things in it, send 4–6 quick, focused messages throughout the month, each with a single story, resource, or CTA.

• Emailing more often means you can ask less frequently. If you only email once a month, you feel pressure to include a donation ask every time. But when you email more regularly, you can reserve those asks for when they really matter—and use the other messages to share stories, results, and gratitude.

Email isn’t a one-shot deal. It’s a relationship.

Consistency builds familiarity. Value builds trust. And trust leads to donations.

It's easy to fall into the trap of vanity metrics, especially when you've worked hard to build your email list.

The bigger the number, the better... right?

Not exactly.

List size looks impressive, but it's not what pays the bills. Engagement does. A list of 10,000 that's mostly unresponsive won't raise nearly as much as a list of 2,000 active, loyal supporters who open, click, and give.

Your email list isn't a trophy—it’s a tool.

And tools only work if they're used correctly.

If your list is bloated with outdated emails, disengaged contacts, or folks who never interact, it could actually be hurting your performance.

Lower open and click rates signal email providers to treat your content as spam, dragging down your deliverability across the board.

So instead of obsessing over size, focus on list health.

Re-engage the people who've gone silent.

Remove the ones who never engage.

Invite your most active supporters to forward your best content to a friend.

Don’t just grow your list. Wake it up.

Click-through rate—CTR—sounds like something only the marketing team should care about.

But for fundraisers? It's gold.

Think of CTR as a window into your donor's curiosity. It's the clearest signal that someone not only opened your email but found something inside compelling enough to click.

If open rate is a wave from across the room, a click is someone walking over to talk.

Clicks tell you who's leaning in. Who's interested. Who might give.

No clicks? That means they bailed before the good part, even if they opened the message.

CTR also helps you spot weak spots.

Did people drop off because the CTA was buried? Because the button didn't stand out? Because your copy didn't land?

This one metric shows you where your emails spark action—and where they fall flat.

So yes, CTR is a marketing metric. But it’s also your donor behavior compass.

And if you're not tracking it, you're flying blind.

In theory, more data sounds like a good thing.

More insights! More clarity! More control!

But in practice? For most small nonprofit teams, more metrics just means more confusion.

You start with good intentions—maybe pulling a few email reports here and there. But before you know it, you've got 12 tabs open, 3 dashboards, and a spreadsheet so complex it requires a legend.

And still… no clear next step.

More data ≠ more clarity.

It often means more dashboard-decorating and less doing.

I've seen this over and over: smart teams spending more time building reports than building relationships.

Why? Because it's easier to measure everything than to focus on what actually matters.

So let's make it simple.

Track fewer metrics. But track the right ones—the ones that show real engagement and guide real decisions.

Things like clicks, replies, first donations, and list growth. (Hint: we've got a shortlist coming up next.)

Simplicity = focus.

Focus = better decisions.

Better decisions = more donations.

Once you stop tracking everything and start tracking what matters, things get a lot simpler—and more effective.

These are the five clarity metrics I recommend most often to small and mid-sized nonprofits. They're easy to monitor, easy to understand, and (most importantly) they give you insights you can actually act on.

• Open Rate: Yes, it's flawed. But watching for spikes or drops can tell you when something worked—or flopped. Subject lines, timing, and sender name all play a role. Don't obsess over the number—watch the trend.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Are people engaging with your content? This is one of the clearest signals of interest and intent. If people click, it means they care. If not, something needs fixing—message, format, or call to action.

• Time to First Donation: How fast do new subscribers become new donors? This tells you whether your welcome series is working or needs help. The shorter the gap, the more momentum you're building.

• List Growth Rate: If you're not growing, you're shrinking. And yet so many orgs never look at this weekly. Watching your growth rate keeps list-building a front-burner priority (not an afterthought).

• Email Revenue per Subscriber: This is your bottom-line health check. It's simple: take the total amount raised via email and divide it by your total number of subscribers. Track it over time to see if you're actually increasing the value of your list.

These metrics reveal connection, trust, and momentum, not just noise.

They give you clarity, not just data.

If you've been second-guessing your email strategy, you're not alone—and you're not behind. Most nonprofits are still stuck measuring the wrong things and sending emails that are more "meh" than magnetic.

But now you know better. You've got a new lens: clarity.

Focus on what actually moves the needle: clicks, conversions, engagement, not vanity stats. Rethink unsubscribes. Use your email list like a relationship tool, not a megaphone. And give yourself permission to test, tweak, and improve as you go.

Here's one simple practice that works: every week, pick one number you want to move. That's it.

Track less. Act more.

Because confidence comes from clarity, and clarity starts now.

What's Next?

I'm working on something new to help you apply this—think: a 5-minute email self-audit or clarity metrics mini-guide.

Not ready to share it just yet, but if you want early access when it drops, hit reply and let me know.

Thanks,

Rich Dietz
Founder, Nonprofit R+D

PS: Know a nonprofit friend who's drowning in email data but starving for donations? Forward this issue to them. Let's bust some myths together.

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