A $207K increase in email revenue with one shift

Your winter campaign probably runs from late November through December 31. 

Six weeks, give or take. That’s the window most programs work with, and it’s a sprint every year.

UNHCR Canada asked a simple question: what if we started earlier and stayed longer?

Five phases instead of one sprint
At ENCC Toronto last month, Jordan Martinez of UNHCR walked through how they did it. 

In past years, UNHCR Canada’s winter messaging didn’t launch until mid-to-late November. This past year, they moved it to late October and kept it running all the way through March.

The results: email revenue up 40% year over year, a $207,000 increase.

The campaign was broken into five phases: an early winter warmup, Giving Tuesday, end of year, an Islamic philanthropy stream (a first for the team), and a late winter extension. 

That last phase wasn’t even in the original plan. The winter content was performing well enough that the team just kept sending it. 

The late winter series alone brought in $28,000 (!!!) more in email revenue than the same period last year.

The numbers that matter
Giving Tuesday drove $355,000 from email alone, up $108,000 from the year before. 

End of year added another $56,000 in growth. The overall campaign hit $3.2 million across all channels, up 49.5%.

But the number I keep coming back to is this one: UNHCR Canada drafts every email in English and French, and during the winter campaign, French subscribers generated $5.50 per subscriber, compared to $4.50 for English subscribers. 

There could be real revenue sitting in audiences you’re not reaching in their preferred language.

What made the email program work
There are a few things worth noting beyond the calendar shift.

The team used dynamic suggested amounts on donation pages so existing donors landed on pages calibrated to their giving history.

They also suppressed recent donors from most sends, excluding anyone who’d given in the last 30 days. 

Late-winter emails naturally reached people who hadn’t converted yet, without building a complicated re-engagement segment.

How to apply this to your program
Map your next seasonal campaign into phases. Even two or three phases with distinct email series give you more room to learn what resonates and when.

Test extending your window in both directions. If your winter messaging works, there’s no rule that says it needs to stop on January 1. 

Consider testing bilingual content. Not every team has the capacity for a full second-language program, but even a single campaign in Spanish could tell you whether there’s an audience worth investing in.

Use dynamic suggested amounts on donation pages. Calibrate to giving history. It quietly lifts the average gift without extra sends.

The bottom line
UNHCR Canada didn’t reinvent their fundraising program. 

They took messaging that already resonated with their audience and gave it more room to run.

Sometimes the biggest gains come from the most obvious question: what if we just... kept going?

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‘Til next time!
Sara