A simple testing approach for overwhelmed teams

Testing? LOL. That’s something you’ll “get to” when things calm down in the news. But things never calm down.

Which, honestly? That’s fine. 

The teams with the strongest testing cultures didn’t wait for a quiet week to start. They just started folding it into the work they were already doing. 

Here’s how you can too:

How to approach testing when the world is on fire
According to the 2025 M+R Benchmarks Study (2026 Benchmarks coming so soon, by the way!), 80% of participating nonprofits conducted A/B testing at some point in 2024. 

That’s super encouraging.

But there’s a big gap between “we run A/B tests sometimes” and “regular testing informs how we make decisions.” 

Thing is, closing the gap doesn’t require you to have a bigger team or a fancier tool. 

Here’s how some groups do it
Two examples I keep coming back to, one tiny and one big, show how this works at any scale.

One of my favorite examples comes from NextAfter’s experiment library. 

A nonprofit added a “Most Popular” label to a pre-selected gift amount on their donation page. Just one line of simple copy.

The result was a 94% increase in revenue and an $11 bump in average gift size.

That’s something you could easily test on your next campaign.

That principle scales up, too.

The Museum of Science in Boston runs Pi Day email appeals every year, leaning hard on the 3.14 gimmick. 

It was a campaign they knew was coming, which made it the perfect place to build in a testing step.

Working with M+R, they tested messaging concepts across their list before the campaign fully launched, then used what they learned to reduce their email volume.

Five emails raised almost 2.5x what ten had the year before, a 390% increase in revenue per appeal.

The common thread: both teams tested before they committed. One did it with a single line of copy on a donation page. The other built a test into an annual campaign they already had on the calendar. 

How to make testing a habit, not a project
Commit to one test per campaign. Subject line, CTA button text, ask amounts, send time. Just one variable. 

The goal isn’t perfection; it’s building the muscle of learning something from every send.

Test what you’re afraid to test. Think you’re sending too many emails? Test sending fewer. 

Worried a shorter email won’t raise as much? Run it against your usual length. 

The assumptions that feel most obvious are usually the ones most worth questioning.

Document what works. Even a shared Google Sheet with the test, the result, and one line about what you learned.

You'll start seeing patterns fast, and you’ll have receipts the next time someone asks why you’re spending time testing. 

Bonus: Once you’re tracking wins, it gets way easier to reuse what worked or to make the case to leadership for sending more emails. 

The bottom line
Look, I know testing feels like one more thing on a list that’s already too long.

But I’ve never heard someone say, “I wish I hadn’t learned that about my donors.” 

Pick one thing, fold it into your next send or campaign, and see what you learn. 

Check our events list for more or reply to this email to submit one for consideration.

‘Til next time!
Sara