Dear {{first_name|Friend}},
We just finished analyzing 11,430 fundraising emails from 9 nonprofits, matched against millions of news stories. The aggregate number came back about where you'd guess: emails sent while relevant news is breaking bring in 77% more revenue, $485 per thousand delivered versus $274 in the less-active stretches versus $168 when nothing relevant is happening at all.
That’s something every fundraiser already knows on instinct. Every digital team in the country sent an email after Dobbs, and every environmental organization sent one when the EPA got gutted. That’s just us doing our jobs.
Below the surface, though, things get interesting. We had three regional food banks in the dataset that are doing similar work for similar constituencies, but they turned out to have completely different relationships to the news cycle.
Organization | Low-news revenue (per 1k emails sent) | High-news revenue (per 1k emails sent) | High-news Lift |
|---|---|---|---|
Regional food bank, Midwest | $133 | $253 | +90% |
Regional food bank, Mountain West | $521 | $808 | +55% |
Regional food bank, Northeast | $239 | $251 | +5% |
The Midwest food bank nearly doubles its revenue per email when national coverage of food insecurity heats up. On the other hand, the Northeast food bank barely budges. The news that moved its supporters is hot and hyper-local, like stories about SNAP cuts to families in its counties or a shutdown hitting its own service area.
Our study uncovered that every organization has a news fingerprint, and it's a product of its particular audience and issue portfolio. Unfortunately, you can't borrow it from a peer organization, but you can understand it and build a news-informed response strategy to take advantage of it.
The no-brainer sends are five or ten moments a year when everyone in the building knows to hit send. Analysis can surface the other 200 mid-tier opportunities that never rose high enough to trigger anyone's instinct.
Thanks,
Sam
P.S. Want to learn more about Chorus or read the results of our research in detail? Reply to this email or book a walkthrough.