• by Ray Schultz , July 1, 2021

One in six nonprofit emails did not reach the inbox in Q1of this year compared to one in five in Q1 2020. This reflects an improvement in the average “inboxing” rate from 78% in 2020 to  84% this year, according to Data Axle’s new Nonprofit Email Deliverability Report. 

However, nearly one in four nonprofit emails never made it to the inbox. 

This was happening as overall send volume increased during the quarter by 44% YoY, largely due to political activity surrounding the 2020 election. Outside of the political realm, email send volumes fell by 11% in Q1.

Among verticals, animal welfare and human rights groups each enjoyed an 89% inboxing rate, with military/veteran services achieving an 18% increase, making them the most improved vertical.  

Last year, human rights organizations also had the highest rate. The lowest were generated by human services and military/veteran services entitles. 

Dedicated IP addresses had a 93% average inbox placement in 2021, versus 88% in 2020. In contrast, shared IP addresses had a 82% placement, up from 79% YoY. 

In another finding, Data Axle found that read rates for emails featuring subject read rates with the keyword “pandemic” dropped by 44% YoY.

The leading subject line keywords (and their read rates) were as follows:

• Donation — 42.39 
• Members — 21.36 
• Match — 20.99
• Funds — 20.83
• Covid — 17.59
• Help — 17.30
• Give — 15.56
• Support — 13.99 
• Pandemic — 13.48 
• Donate — 11.72
• Difference — 10.46

In contrast, last year’s top keywords were: 

• Pandemic — 23.87 
• Members — 23.67
• Covid — 20.33
• Help — 18.94
• Give — 18.92
• Donation — 18.57
• Match — 18.53 
• Support — 16.96
• Difference — 16.89
• Donate — 11.66
• Funds — 2.57

Data Axle’s deliverability team analyzed 4.5 billion emails sent by 78 major nonprofits from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021.