How far is too far when it comes to getting donors to open email messages?

It’s an age-old dilemma that all nonprofits struggle with: attention-grabbing email subject lines that are also appropriate. How far is too far, and when is it worth toeing the line? 

There’s a wealth of information available on the internet, but we at The Biedermann Group love using personal experience to help make informed decisions. We decided to test out some of our favorite subject lines to see how well they’d be received.

Cancelling the Season

Evoking emotion is a great way to see an uptick in your open rates. When we used negative connotation combined with minimal wording, we saw an increase in open-rates to 50% (the usual being 20-25%). Supporters want to support your nonprofit; letting your supporters know you need their help is an excellent way to grab attention. 

Santa Claus is coming to [local hotspot]

This subject line saw a 60% open rate. Even better than that, this one helped us confirm and receive additional email addresses. We used this subject for an event, and found our supporters were forwarding this along to their friends and family. A family friendly event, the holiday season, and a location that everyone loves make this a winning subject line.

I left my cell phone in your car

This bad boy got opened almost every time! Goal accomplished, right? Not so fast… even though this email was getting read, it was rubbing many of our prospective supporters the wrong way. We quickly took this subject line out of our arsenal and decided to keep it for emergencies only. This is a solid subject line to use in the event you need to communicate a message that needs to be read, otherwise it’s not worth the risk of upsetting your supporters.

If you’re looking for more inspiration, Mail Chimp created a fantastic guide for drafting email subject lines that will get more attention.

The Team at The Biedermann Group

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