Do’s & Dont’s: Using AI in Nonprofit Email Campaigns
Using AI in nonprofit email campaigns can transform how your organization connects with supporters. AI can save time and improve engagement, but it’s not foolproof. A few simple do’s and don’ts can help you make the most of this technology and avoid its pitfalls.
Why Use AI for Email Marketing?
AI can be a powerful lever in your nonprofit email strategy. Especially for small nonprofits lacking a dedicated content team, AI helps reduce the time and cost of an effective email strategy. Even just by generating the first draft of an email, nonprofits can save hours on monthly newsletters or fundraising campaigns.
Along with its ease of use, a key benefit to AI is its data-backed creativity. Depending on the prompt used, copy can be tailored for your audience, including for specific donor segments. AI tools can also reference email marketing data to optimize your campaigns.Tools like Mailchimp’s “Write with AI” draw on years of campaign data to generate content backed by evidence.
With all of its benefits, AI can certainly be a gamechanger. But it isn’t magic – AI needs the appropriate prompt and references to deliver results. Here’s how to make it work for your organization.
Writing an AI Prompt
The quality of an AI’s output depends on a high quality prompt. Here are a few tips to build prompts for nonprofit email campaigns, with examples you can use:
- Be specific & contextual: Provide specifications for your email’s content, length, goals, CTAs, and brand voice in order to get the best results.
- Example: “Write a 200–300 word fundraising appeal email to lapsed donors (those who haven’t donated in 18 months). Tone: warm, encouraging. Focus on the impact of our free community classes. Include a CTA to donate now.
- Include examples: You can paste a past email and ask for a quick re-write, or provide a bullet-point outline and let AI fill in the blanks
- Example: Write a 4-part email with the following sections: Intro, problem, solution, CTA). Each section should be no longer than 100 words and must start with a subheading.
- Use follow-up prompts: Working with AI is like a conversation. Once the AI responds to your request with a draft, follow up with further prompting to refine the result.
- Example: Good start! Condense this email’s length by 30%, make the tone more conversational, and add our tagline “Making waves in wellness.”
- Repeat your successes: Before you start a draft of your next email, paste in a few previous campaigns and results. Then, ask the AI to reference what’s working in your next campaign.
- Example: Our last 3 emails to monthly donors are pasted below. All of them had open rates around 18%, and the Giving Day email had a very high click rate of 5%. Based on those results, write a draft email in our brand voice that our audience is likely to click on.
- Reference industry best practices: AI tools are generators, not dictionaries. Always remind the model to align its language with strategies already shown to boost engagement.
- Example: Search for 10 reliable online sources that give a detailed list of data-backed email marketing best practices… Now, use those best practices to create a draft of this email.
If you take all these suggestions into account, you may find that the prompt is longer than expected. This is nothing to panic about! As you continue to use an AI model, it will build a memory of what you’ve already asked. Then, you can always reference a previous prompt again to have the AI generate a similar response.
Refining AI-Generated Content
Once you have an AI draft, you’ll need to give it a quick polish so it’s ready for your supporters. Here are a few suggestions for nonprofits that want to get their email perfect.
- Check factual accuracy: AI is known to make assumptions, or even hallucinate false information. Review your content for any false assertions.
- Align voice and tone: Overly-promotional language is a common complaint among AI users. Make sure the language reflects your nonprofit’s mission and personality. If you write in a warm, humble tone, tweak phrasing to match that rather than letting the AI sound overly promotional.
- Inject human details: Add stories, real names, and quotes manually to give your email a heartfelt, human touch.
Some of these steps must be taken manually in your email marketing software, while others can be done using follow-up prompting with AI. In either case, be sure to give the email a final proofread before it goes out.
When AI Goes Wrong
AI is powerful, but it has risks. Knowing the pitfalls helps you avoid costly mistakes. Here are a few examples we’ve run into, plus tips to address them:
- Hallucinations & fabrications: AI sometimes confidently states false facts, names, or data. This is easiest to catch and refine with a human eye.
- Tone or messaging drift: Without strong prompts, AI may produce copy that’s salesy, too casual, or off-brand. Follow-up prompting can ensure you won’t alienate your donors.
- Deliverability issues: Occasionally, AI can generate text that is likely to trigger spam filters. See our Deliverability Troubleshooting Guide for more tips on how to land in the inbox.
Just like a human coworker, AI can make mistakes. As you automate, keep robust proofreading procedures in place to ensure the quality of generated content. When things go wrong, a human touch is the best tool to fix them.
Generating Subject Lines with AI
Subject lines are a perfect use case for AI because they thrive on variety, brevity, and experimentation. Plus, AI can remember previous subjects you’ve generated in order to provide similar options.
Here are a few prompts you can try for your own AI email marketing strategy:
- Generate 8 subject lines (5–7 words) for a donor reactivation email focused on community stories.
- Suggest 10 subject line variations for a volunteer recruitment campaign. Include one with an emoji and one that asks a question
- Our last subject line “Share Your Love” got a 47% open rate. Based on that success, suggest 10 new subjects for the email pasted below.
For the highest chance of success, ask for 10-15 options with varying styles. Specify strategies that you’d like the AI to use, like urgency, curiosity, or numbers. Having variety improves the likelihood that one of your subject lines will resonate strongly with your audience.
For more subject line inspiration, check out our list of 100 high-performing subject lines for nonprofits!
Leverage AI to its Full Potential with Pure Firefly
At Pure Firefly, we believe AI should amplify your creativity, not replace it. If you want help refining AI prompts, reviewing output, or building hybrid content workflows, our team is ready to guide you. Contact us today, and we’ll help you magnify your nonprofit’s impact with AI!
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