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It is Time to Get the Word Out: Developing an Email Distribution List for Nonprofit Organizations

Writer's picture: James ButzJames Butz

Updated: Aug 19, 2024


You have a new service, product, or mission statement that you want to introduce to the world! The excitement is palpable, and you can't wait to tell everyone. You might even have the perfect messaging or the perfect way to describe your offering. Fantastic! But who are you going to tell?


How to Make an Email List from Scratch

Just like when you have news to share in your personal life, you're probably going to talk to people you already know - family, friends, neighbors, etc. The same applies to your new offering; you want to tell people who are familiar with your organization. This can include individuals who have filled out forms on your website, people you've met at conferences, or numerous other interactions you’ve had over the years. This list of contacts for email will be your most excited and captive audience.

But what if you are a new nonprofit or you don’t have many contacts to reach out to? First, you can contact us here at Anuncier to help with your website or digital efforts to start capturing those names and emails! However, that still doesn’t solve the immediate problem. So, what can you do to get a list of contacts for email?


Building an Email Distribution List Takes Time


It should be noted that building an email distribution list will take some time. You don’t want to buy lists or gather a mass quantity of emails to blast people. Not only are there laws and protections against unsolicited emails, but you can also be fined or put on a blacklist for spamming people too much.


Start with places and resources you know.


This could be a trade association, conference, or any other group. Often, they will have email lists or provide a way to access their members. There could be a cost associated with this, and sometimes associations don’t want their members contacted. When reaching out to them, be clear about what you are trying to do, and they usually can provide a solution.


Look at other free resources to get contacts.


There is a vast amount of information available online. Companies specialize in gathering contact information, such as Candid (Guidestar), which offers tremendous resources of free (and paid) information for nonprofits. LinkedIn can also be a great resource in its free and paid versions. For for-profits, several options like ZoomInfo, Hunter.io, and RocketReach are available. These can be expensive, and if you are very new to this, we would not recommend buying these lists at this time. However, some of them offer a trial size of data or short-term access. Please note if you go that route, you will most likely be put into a sales queue.


Start Small When Building a List of Contacts for Email

This ties into why building a list can take a while. You want to start small, with maybe 100-200 contacts. There are several reasons for this:

  1. Personalized Messaging: You can make the messaging very personal, allowing you to quickly and easily tweak it.

  2. Targeting Your Audience: You can start to identify who might be most interested in your offerings, helping with future expansion.

  3. Avoiding Spam: You don’t need to use email software like Constant Contact or Mailchimp, reducing the likelihood of being seen as spam.


Still Concerned About Building an Email Distribution List?

We are here to help! Feel free to reach out to us at Anuncier or email us at info@anuncier.com, and we will put you on our email list (see how we did that!). We want to make this simple, so even if you have a couple of questions or are interested in us working with you throughout the process, we are happy to help.


Author:

James Butz has been in sales and marketing for over 25 years. He has developed hundreds of email campaigns with several levels of success. He is Founder and CEO of Anuncier.



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