Fresh new data on email from Bloomerang

You already know email carries your program. That’s not what keeps you up at night.

What keeps you up is when someone points at a competitor’s TikTok and asks, “Why is so much of our budget still going to email and email acquisition?”

Meanwhile, email quietly generates reliable revenue.

Bloomerang’s 2026 Giving Signals Report, which surveyed more than 1,000 donors and 400 fundraisers, has good news for emailers.

Donors want the ask in their inbox
Bloomerang asked people how they prefer to be reached for fundraising appeals. Email took the top spot with 69% of respondents.

Email leads for 67% of Baby Boomers+, 75% of Gen X, and 70% of Millennials.

Even Gen Z puts it first at 58% (though the report flags the small sample size for this cohort).

You read that correctly: A majority of “social-media-obsessed” Millennials and Gen Z donors chose email over social, which lands far from the assumption that email is dead among younger generations.

Being in the right place is part of the pitch
Bloomerang also asked what makes donors more likely to give, and reaching them in a channel they prefer scored 88% with Millennials, 77% with Baby Boomers+, and 74% with Gen X.

Donors are telling us the channel itself does some of the persuading, right alongside the cause and the ask. 

What to do with these findings
Yes, I am an emailer, but social earns real credit here. 

It’s often how a supporter finds you, and for younger donors, it’s a top discovery channel, at 43% of Millennials and 38% of Gen Z. 

The move is to pair it with email on purpose.

Invest in paid email acquisition. Full stop. Every generation names email as the channel they want for fundraising asks. 

Growing your email list via ethical opt-in is the most effective way to build real power for advocacy wins and, more importantly, future revenue gains.

Track new subscribers by where they came from. Tag each subscriber’s acquisition source and watch how those cohorts open and give over the following months. 

Then spend on sources that drive donors to take action. My interview with Porter Mason last year has some great nuggets on turning acquisition guesswork into measured growth.

Occasionally, use organic social to reinforce your asks. Organic social doesn’t drive conversions like it used to, but don’t count it out entirely — especially during rapid response moments or year-end.

Take an email that landed well with your list, rework it for the feed, and pair it with the compelling call to action from your email. 

The supporters who opened your email but didn’t respond might be prompted to complete their gift or petition signature the next day with the nudge on social.

The bottom line
Donors of every generation want your ask in the inbox, and being in their preferred channel helps earn the gift. That’s huge.

But email and social don’t have to be enemies.

Fund email like the revenue driver your own numbers already show it is, and let social do what it does best: reaching new people and keeping your cause visible between the emails.

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

‘Til next time!
Sara