Do You Get Too Much Email?
Donor email receives considerable criticism. How often have you heard any of the following?
- “I am flooded with hundreds of emails from charities!”
- “I give to one organization and then my name is sold to a bunch of them.”
- “We just block all those emails asking for money.”
- “I do not read any of this stuff—I just hit delete, delete, delete.”
As we like to do, Grey Matter Research wanted to investigate where the truth really is. We partnered once again with Infinity Concepts, as we’re two companies specializing in serving organizations that raise funds. The result is You’ve Got Mail: Evangelicals and Donor Email.
You’ve Got Mail explores how evangelicals receive email from ministries and charities, whether they read it, and what they do with it.
Let’s put to rest a few of these complaints.
“I’m Flooded with Emails!”
Do some people receive a flood of emails from donor-supported organizations? Sure. But that is atypical. Our study shows the average evangelical adult receives 5.8 emails from ministries or charities in a typical week. People who actively give receive more, but it’s an average of 8.8 emails per week (versus 2.7 among non-donors). One or two per day is hardly a flood.
“My name is being sold!”
We cannot address whether names are actually sold, but if that were common practice, people would be receiving a ton of emails from organizations they don’t support. Evangelicals report an average of 3.1 messages per week from organizations they do not support. Among active donors, this increases to 4.8 per week (the other four per week are emails from organizations they do support). Again, one might argue whether or not this is too much, but it is hardly overwhelming.
“I just block them all!”
Three out of four evangelicals say they do not block, unsubscribe from, or send to spam any emails they receive from organizations they support. Even when they’re prospecting emails from organizations they have not supported, 67% do nothing to block them. If the numbers were really overwhelming, more people would be taking steps to stop receiving them.
“I just hit delete, delete, delete!”
No, they really don’t. Only 12% of evangelicals typically delete emails from organizations they support without reading or skimming them. Three out of four review them upon receipt, either reading them right then or skimming them to see if there is anything worth reading. The rest save them to read or review later. Delete, delete, delete is actually very uncommon.
What’s the Real Problem?
Our research finds the problem with donor email for most evangelicals is not frequency, but content. They estimate only 48% of the donor email they receive from organizations they support is “just a waste of my time.” The other 52% is actually “important, relevant, interesting, or otherwise worthwhile.” Eight out of ten say at least some of the donor email they receive is a waste of their time.
And those who have taken steps to reduce or avoid donor email most commonly do so because of correctable mistakes from the organizations sending it. We reveal these mistakes in the full report.
Don’t miss the new report You’ve Got Mail: Evangelicals and Donor Email, from Grey Matter Research and Infinity Concepts. You’ve Got Mail is free by request – just email ron@greymatterresearch.com.
How Can We Help You?
Grey Matter offers this research free to anyone who wants it, but most of our work is for individual clients, whether the topic is donating, branding, religious beliefs, consumer behavior, or anything else.
What important decisions could you make in a more informed manner if you knew what your target market thinks and feels about your organization? Why they chose you, how likely they are to stick around, how connected they feel? We answer these kinds of questions for ministries, denominations, non-profits, companies, and the agencies and consultants which serve them.
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