How one nonprofit raised 81% more by emailing almost every day

“We don’t want to burden our list with more emails.”

At the Lichen Sclerosus Support Network, that was the prevailing wisdom for years. 

A monthly newsletter and a couple of campaign asks every so often summed up the email program.

Then the organization decided to test the opposite approach, gradually ramping up to almost daily, and the results made the case.

The case for more email
LSSN is a nonprofit that provides education and community for people with lichen sclerosus, an autoimmune skin condition. 

About 85 to 90% of their funding comes from the patient community it serves.

That dynamic, where the people who need you most are also the people funding the work, kept the organization cautious about email for years.

That’s why, as LSSN began increasing email volume last year, the content leaned heavily on what the community needed: education, partner resources, community stories, weekly affirmations, and more.

The near-daily email habit did something a monthly newsletter never could: it built a relationship where supporters expected to hear from LSSN and looked to them as a support resource.

When it came time to fundraise, the trust was already in place for the hard asks.

Where it paid off
LSSN’s biggest annual fundraiser is the Holistic Healing Summit, a weeklong virtual event with expert speakers. 

With an audience already engaged from months of daily emails, LSSN sent 33 marketing emails for this year’s summit. That sounds like a lot, but unsubscribes stayed under 1%.

Last year, the summit brought in $16,000. This year, with the exact same number of registrants, it brought in $29,000, an 81% increase. 

LSSN’s Giving Tuesday followed a similar trajectory: $18,000 one year, $32,000 the next.

And when LSSN’s website crashed from a traffic overload one day, the team sent one email explaining the problem and asking for $5,000. 

One donor gave $1,000 within seven minutes.

How to apply these learnings to your program
Think of frequency as a form of service. LSSN’s audience stays because every email is built around what the reader needs, leading with medical information or emotional support.

When your community would genuinely benefit from hearing from you more often, the fear of unsubscribes may be the more expensive choice. 

Survey before you build. LSSN asks its community what they’re struggling with before designing events. 

When the organization tried an auction, it flopped. 

The education-focused summit, designed around community feedback, nearly doubled revenue. 

Your clients can also be your donors. LSSN wrestled with this tension for years. 

The reframe that changed things: if the organization can’t fund the work, the community it exists for suffers most.

When in doubt, test. Still hitting a wall trying to make the case for increasing email volume? Run a frequency test. 

Split your list, send the test group more emails, and measure total revenue alongside unsubscribe rates. Audubon’s frequency test did exactly this, and the higher-volume group raised 71% more. 

The bottom line
Thirty-three emails for one campaign and under 1% opted out. 

LSSN earned that by showing up every day with something their community actually wanted to read.

That’s the part too many programs skip: you have to build the relationship before you can lean on it — and this should be top of mind as you plan for year-end.

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

‘Til next time!
Sara