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Email Appeals

Email Appeals

Email is one of the most effective tools for nonprofit communication. Nonprofitable. includes a full email system with a visual editor, audience targeting, variable personalization, and detailed reporting -- all with CAN-SPAM compliance built in.

Creating an Appeal

  1. Go to Email in the sidebar.
  2. Click + New Appeal.
  3. Choose a template. The picker is grouped into two sections. Everyday covers Newsletter, Fundraising Appeal, Event Invitation, and Thank You. Year-End walks you through a full year-end appeal, with a recommended send window on each card: The Year-End Ask (send early November), Giving Tuesday (send on Giving Tuesday — the Tuesday after Thanksgiving), Final Push (send late December), and New-Year Thank You (send early January). Each template comes with a pre-designed layout you can customize. In the Year-End templates, any line wrapped in square brackets is a note to you, not copy for your donors -- replace it with your own words or delete it before sending. If you already have content in the editor, picking a new template asks you to confirm before it replaces what you have written.
  4. Enter your subject line and preview text.
  5. Build your email content using the block editor.
  6. Select your audience (an audience or all people).
  7. Preview your email, then click Send.

The Block-Based Composer

The email editor uses a block-based system. You build your email by stacking content blocks:

  • Text -- Rich text with formatting (bold, italic, links, lists)
  • Image -- Add images from your media library
  • Button -- Call-to-action buttons with customizable text and links. Templates ship their buttons with the link blank, since only you know your giving page address -- you will be asked to fill it in before the appeal can send
  • Divider -- Visual separator between sections
  • Spacer -- Add vertical spacing

Drag blocks to reorder them, or click to edit content inline. The editor shows a live preview so you can see exactly what recipients will receive.

Drafting with AI

Staring at a blank email? Click ✨ Draft email with AI to generate a complete first draft. Describe what you want to say, and the assistant proposes three full variations -- each with a subject line, preview text, body, and call to action. Pick the one closest to what you want and edit from there. You can also regenerate individual pieces with the ↻ button next to the subject or body.

A few things to know:

  • Nothing sends automatically. AI only fills the editor. You review, edit, and send every email yourself -- this is never bypassed.
  • It uses your context. Drafts are informed by the audience you have selected and your organization's giving history, so the tone and ask fit your supporters.
  • Availability by plan. AI drafting is available on paid plans. On the Free plan, you will see an upgrade prompt where the AI button appears.

Variable Substitution

Personalize your emails with merge variables. Type @ in the editor to pick a variable, or write the placeholder by hand. Each one is replaced with the recipient's actual data when the email sends:

  • {{firstName}} -- Recipient's first name
  • {{lastName}} -- Recipient's last name
  • {{email}} -- Recipient's email address
  • {{orgName}} -- Your organization's name
  • {{year}} -- The year the email is sent, shown as year in the @ menu. Used in the Year-End templates for lines like "as {{year}} draws to a close."
  • {{lastYear}} -- The year before the send year, shown as lastYear in the @ menu. Used for recapping a year that just ended, as in the New-Year Thank You template's "what you made possible in {{lastYear}}."

The two year variables are always one year apart, and picking the wrong one is the easy mistake. Use {{year}} for anything about the year still in progress ("give before {{year}} ends"), and {{lastYear}} once you are looking back on a year that has closed ("thank you for everything in {{lastYear}}"). Both resolve from your organization's timezone, set in Settings -- so a late-evening December 31 send still says the year that is ending, not the one starting.

Variables make mass emails feel personal. A subject line like "Thank you, {{firstName}}!" becomes "Thank you, Sarah!" for each recipient. If a recipient is missing that detail, the variable is simply left blank.

Choosing Your Audience

When you are ready to send, choose who receives the email:

  • All People -- Send to everyone in your CRM who has an email address
  • An Audience -- Send to a specific audience like "Active Donors" or "Event Attendees"

Only people with valid email addresses who have not unsubscribed will receive the appeal.

Appeal Reporting

After sending, the appeal detail page shows you real-time delivery metrics:

  • Sent -- Total emails dispatched
  • Delivered -- Successfully reached the inbox
  • Opens -- How many recipients opened the email
  • Clicks -- Link clicks within the email
  • Bounces -- Emails that could not be delivered
  • Unsubscribes -- Recipients who opted out

A status bar gives you a visual overview of delivery health. Below the metrics, a recipient table shows per-person delivery status so you can see exactly who opened, clicked, or bounced.

Unsubscribe Handling

Nonprofitable. enforces CAN-SPAM compliance automatically. Every email includes:

  • A one-click unsubscribe link that cannot be removed from templates
  • Your organization's physical mailing address (required by law)

When someone unsubscribes, they are immediately suppressed from future appeals. You will see a suppression banner on appeals that had unsubscribes, along with the count. Unsubscribed people remain in your CRM -- they just will not receive email appeals.

Email-to-Giving Attribution

When a recipient clicks a link in your email and later makes a gift, Nonprofitable. tracks that connection. This attribution helps you understand which appeals drive giving, making your fundraising emails more effective over time.

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