If the most interesting data point for leadership is “total subscribers,” it’s time for a reset.
Equimundo, a global org working to engage men and boys as allies in gender justice, came to agency partner Teal Media with what looked like a healthy email list.
But underneath, the file was lukewarm: low engagement, inconsistent cadence, and unsubscribes nearly double industry benchmarks.
The breakthrough wasn’t a clever campaign. It was a decision to stop optimizing for vanity metrics and start optimizing for “metrics that matter.”
Case study: Equimundo swaps vanity metrics for meaningful engagement
When Teal dug into Equimundo’s email program, they found the signs of a familiar trap.
The team was sending only about ten emails per subscriber per year (versus a nonprofit benchmark of 62).
They were trying not to “bother” supporters — but that low volume made each message overloaded with content and too many calls to action.
Engagement had flatlined: only 34.7% of subscribers had interacted with an email in the past year, and unsubscribe rates were nearly double the benchmark.
Teal’s first step wasn’t a new template or campaign. It was a KPI reset.
Instead of tracking total subscribers and total recipients, they asked:
What actions are engaged subscribers taking — opens, clicks, donations?
Are we reaching the right people consistently?
That shift in mindset gave the team a new way to talk about success with leadership.
They stopped treating suppression and segmentation as risks and started seeing them as strategy.
Then came the rebuild:
Dynamic engagement segments that automatically adjust based on behavior.
A modular template that keeps messages focused on a single goal.
A new welcome series that introduces the mission before dropping new subscribers into regular sends.
Every piece was designed as durable infrastructure, not a one-off campaign.
The results were telling: Equimundo sent nearly twice as many emails as before, but to a list 50% smaller.
That meant 7.3% fewer total recipients — and yet 31.3% higher click rates and 21.7% more total clicks.
How to shift from “big” to “better”
Redefine success. Swap vanity metrics like total list size for engagement rates, actions taken, and donor conversion.
Clean and segment with confidence. Suppress inactive contacts regularly — they’re dragging down deliverability and masking real performance.
Automate your segmentation. Let engagement data, like clicks, determine cadence so you’re not blasting everyone equally.
Tell the story internally. Show leadership that a smaller, healthier list can drive more revenue and stronger relationships.
The bottom line
Equimundo’s story proves that vanity metrics don’t capture the full picture of your movement.
When you stop measuring success by how many subscribers you have — and start measuring by how many people take action— you’re priming your email list for success.
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Quick hits
Lauren Meyer at Send It Right outlines how Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft now reward engagement, clarity, and trust signals over sheer volume, and gives practical steps to stay visible in their inboxes.
Alesa Mackool at ACM Strategies shared what creative movement-building tactics nonprofits can steal from Zohran Mamdani's successful mayoral campaign.
M+R dives into how Google’s AI search changes cut organic traffic for 17 nonprofits and how to adapt.
REBUILD.US is hiring a Senior Director of Digital Fundraising and Marketing to lead high-impact fundraising campaigns, set strategy and testing, and oversee all email channel acquisition and performance.
'Til next time!
Sara
P.S. Looking to add donors to your email list before year-end comes knocking? See how Civic Shout can help.