A New Era of Email Lead Gen: Digital Co-Ops

By Ben Deutsch

Rising ad costs, shrinking grassroots donor pools and increased competition in inboxes have forced nonprofits to rethink how they grow. Email list building once relied on Meta and Google, but those platforms now offer more restricted targeting at higher costs. Only about 15% of digital ad budgets go toward lead generation, according to the latest M+R Benchmarks report.

What Are Digital Co-Ops?

Digital co-ops are databases that combine donor and behavioral insights from dozens to hundreds of participating nonprofits. Inputs from co-op members enable co-ops to model the audiences most likely to engage with a specific cause. It’s an idea rooted in direct mail co-ops, reimagined for digital channels. Members contribute data and, in return, gain access to prospects who are known to be actively engaging on other email lists and donating to similar causes.

When used correctly, co-ops can deliver names at a fraction of the cost of paid social or display acquisition — sometimes as low as $0.40 per lead versus $3 to $15 through Meta and Google Performance Max.

Getting Started

Many fundraisers hesitate to engage because co-ops aren’t built on traditional opt-in tactics. While this is not the forum for legal advice, many leading nonprofits have been advised that fixed-cost email acquisition complies with applicable laws. That said, each organization should evaluate its donor communications standards, privacy policy and CRM platform terms and gauge whether they go beyond legal requirements. Your privacy policy may need to be revised before participation.

If you’ve decided digital co-ops are a good fit for your organization, you’ll enter a landscape filled with multiple vendors, each with nuances in pricing, reporting, membership and model.

I’d suggest vetting two areas when choosing which vendor you start with:

1. The co-op’s membership in your issue area. While a co-op should not disclose individual members, it should be able to indicate whether others in your vertical are contributing data.
2. How and what data the co-op ingests. Some co-ops accept only flat-file member contributions, some only API contributions, and some both. I highly recommend API contributions. They strengthen data security (fewer files exchanged), improve the model (more real-time data) and save your team time.

Tips for Success

Co-ops are not plug-and-play. Success requires pairing them with performance-driven content, strong email deliverability and solid evaluation.

For Defenders of Wildlife, a content and targeting audit drove a new messaging approach and refined audience queries that were implemented in parallel with early investments in digital co-ops. After the audit, the organization renewed its focus on political threats and breaking news, and narrowed its email audience to recent openers and clickers.

Regular cohorts of co-op prospects also created opportunities to test the welcome series. Defenders of Wildlife initially varied treatment, sending prospects either the full series or one message. The nonprofit later tested the standard four-email series against one email across several buys. Statistically significant results favored the one email approach.

The most important key to success in Defenders of Wildlife’s use of digital co-ops has been its evaluation infrastructure. Three partners oversee performance: Co-op providers deliver real-time reporting, the fundraising agency compares return on investment and the analytics agency assesses retention. Comprehensive reporting matters because effectiveness can diminish as an organization goes deeper into the model.

A Case Study for Scale

Defenders of Wildlife demonstrates both the immediate impact and sustainable growth digital co-ops can offer. Defenders of Wildlife’s initial digital co-op investments were with MissionWired’s The Digital Co-op. After three years and significant investment, the results speak for themselves:

• 215% overall return on investment over the past three years.
• 103 days as median time for donors to give their first gift.
• 20% of converting donors have made a gift of $100 or more.

These figures demonstrate the durability of co-op investments, but Defenders of Wildlife became a founding member in SimioCloud’s new digital co-op in February. There were concerns that a new co-op would struggle, given how far Defenders of Wildlife was in the model for a competing co-op, or that returns would diminish for existing co-op investments. But investments in MissionWired’s co-op have remained steady, and SimioCloud results have been impressive out of the gate:

• $5.08 raised for every $1 spent in the first two deliveries.
• Eight days for the first delivery of prospect audiences to break even.
• 300% return in three months for the second deliver.

After three years in MissionWired’s co-op and as a founding member of SimioCloud’s co-op, Defenders of Wildlife is one of the early proof points in this growing space that a nonprofit can invest in multiple digital co-ops at scale.

Having the Conversation

Despite their promise, digital co-ops remain under-discussed and taboo in some corners of the industry. Many fundraisers hesitate to engage because co-ops aren’t built on traditional opt-in tactics, even though they are typically viewed as legally compliant and widely used by leading nonprofits. There are important ethical discussions the sector needs to have about fixed-cost email acquisition tactics like digital co-ops, but those should happen holistically alongside the impact these results can have on missions. Ultimately, people will only engage with and invest in missions that align with their interests, and these results demonstrate that digital co-ops have been very effective at identifying mission-aligned supporters.

Bringing this conversation into the open — how the data exchange works, how privacy is protected and how ethical marketing can coexist with good data science — is essential for the sector’s growth.

Ben Deutsch is vice president of digital marketing at ABD Direct, a direct response fundraising agency for nonprofits. He has built or scaled several $5-million-plus annual digital fundraising programs and serves on the DMAW List Standards and Data Privacy Committee.

2026 Bridge Conference: Stronger Than The Moment

The Bridge to Integrated Marketeting & Fundraising Conference, in its 21st year, brought together nonprofit professionals for three busy days of learning, conversation and connection. Under the theme “Stronger Than the Moment,” attendees traded practical ideas, explored the Solutions Showcase and reconnected with peers who understand both the importance and reward of the work. From pre-conference events to the closing keynote, Bridge made room for new perspectives and partnerships — and plenty of familiar faces.

Photo Credit: Kelly Wilkinson Photography

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How Oceana Built a High-Performing SMS Program

By Lloyd Cotler

In early 2025, Oceana made the decision to invest in its SMS marketing program. The organization had the ability to message subscribers, but not a lot else and no real cohesive strategy for how to use the channel effectively.

Today, Oceana’s list has grown by more than 100%, and SMS is one of its most effective channels, with a life all its own.

With Banter, Oceana made a plan to build a program for the longterm, with the goals of deepening supporters’ relationships with the organization’s mission, creating mobile-first strategies and growing the SMS channel.

We worked together on identifying new tools that met Oceana’s needs, building integrations to richly segment and experiment, as well as internal capacity to support the organization’s vision.

We developed an SMS persona, Mira (Sanskrit for “ocean”), and set about making her someone supporters want to hear from. She makes ocean science fun, explains complex issues with ease, surprises and delights. Mira responds to supporters’ questions, asks them questions about themselves and shares interesting content. She doesn’t scream that the sky is falling or relentlessly ask for donations.

Mira guides everything Oceana does via SMS, and everything is designed to be mobile-first. Oceana treats SMS as its own medium, with its own best practices: Messages are short, punchy and personal, with one clear ask and a fun, conversational tone. Mira, not Oceana, texts with supporters.

Mira gives supporters a full view into the scope of Oceana. The idea is that having a consistent contact who asks them for donations or to call their senators’ offices — while also sending fun, engaging content, discount codes for Oceana merchandise, ocean-themed playlists and beautiful images — increases activity and decreases opt-outs.

This approach has borne real fruit for Oceana in the past year: And the results from this approach have borne real fruit for Oceana in the past year:

• An increase in list size from about 20,000 to more than 50,000.
• A 10% click rate on Oceana advocacy actions, generating tens of thousands of additional comments and calls to legislators.
• A 1% click rate on direct fundraising asks and a 2.5% click rate on Oceana store links.
• An overall 0.5% opt-out rate — less than 1% of subscribers have opted out, with most doing so immediately, indicating a distaste for the channel overall rather than any particular message received.

The Banter approach, combined with Oceana’s strong organizational culture of customer service, has led to a highly responsive, deeply engaged program in which supporters feel valued, recognized and respected rather than treated as ATMs.

We’ve experimented with unique and interesting messages and cross-channel promotions (SMS and Instagram, SMS and email, etc.); collected valuable data, such as birthdates through marine mammal horoscopes; and used puns and wordplay — all thanks to being able to speak as Mira, rather than as Oceana.

Mira also responds to most questions and comments, requiring the whole team to pitch in and monitor the inbox, get answers and coordinate across departments when necessary. Every reply is an opportunity to deepen the relationship, telling supporters that you appreciate their response and respect their inbox. SMS isn’t a series of discrete messages. It’s an ongoing chain and requires you to put in quality in order to get results.

Your supporters want to hear from you. They want to hear how they’re helping you make progress on something they care about. They want to be valued and respected. SMS offers the perfect channel and opportunity to do all of those things, while still raising money, driving action and hitting your goals.

What are the biggest lessons Oceana learned with Banter after one year?

• We design for the channel. SMS content is written from scratch, not repurposed from other places.
• Mira’s voice is the program’s biggest asset. Consistency in tone drives trust, responses and action.
• Short, fun and personal content outperforms long, institutional messaging.
• SMS outperforms other channels in rapid-response moments, because it does not rely on algorithms to deliver timely content and can draw on the trust Mira has built when she says something is urgent.
• The advocacy-to-fundraising pivot is natural and credible when you’ve built a tight message arc.
• Your welcome series matters. It sets the tone and expectations for long-term engagement.
• Reply rates are a strong signal of success, and two-way conversations are a built-in feedback loop.

Beyond the Buzzwords: Real Talk in Modern Fundraising

By Tiffany Reed

At this year’s Bridge Conference, Collin Ward, chief information officer and senior vice president at Newport ONE, Mary Getz, principal and founder at MESG Marketing, and I set out to do something rare in fundraising conference sessions: have real talk about modern fundraising.

We encouraged industry colleagues to ask us anything via an anonymous form, but were a little nervous to be so vulnerable. And our moderator, Chris Brooks, vice president of membership and direct response at the League of Conservation Voters, did not hold back when pressing us for answers.

Here are four questions that generated some of the liveliest discussion in our session.

1. Testing AI-Generated Asks

One question cut to the heart of today’s hype cycle: Can we trust AI-generated ask strings and fundraising tools built into donation platforms?

In one example, AI-generated ask strings used in a series of emails lost decisively to a static ask strategy. Open rates were nearly identical, but the AI ask-string version generated 76% less revenue and higher unsubscribe rates. Same audience and same timing, but very different results.

Yet the same AI-driven approach performed dramatically better in paid acquisition advertising, producing lower click costs, higher average gifts and more than double the revenue.

The lesson isn’t whether AI works or not, but that every tool deserves a control group. Trust is not a platform setting. It’s a test result.

2. Fundraising Without a Crisis

Few fundraising beliefs are more persistent than the idea that donors won’t give unless there’s a matching gift, an emergency or some dramatic external event.

In a rare moment, our panelists agreed it is worth fundraising even without a match or crisis. A match is a fundraising tactic, not a reason to ask. Donors give because they care about impact. A compelling need, clear deadline and specific outcome can be just as motivating as a match offer.

In fact, going quiet while waiting for the perfect fundraising moment often creates a much bigger problem. The donors you don’t engage today become the lapsed donors you’ll spend even more money trying to reactivate next year.

Fundraisers sometimes confuse permission with urgency, waiting for an external event to feel comfortable asking. But if your mission matters, you already have permission.

3. Beyond Single-Channel ROI

As for common assumptions nonprofits that don’t work anymore, we must stop evaluating acquisition programs as if donors belong to a single channel.

Donors don’t think of themselves as direct mail or digital donors. That’s language fundraisers use. They simply interact with organizations wherever and whenever it is most convenient for them.

That’s why judging a direct mail acquisition effort exclusively on reply-device performance misses a huge part of the picture. A donor who receives a mailing and makes a gift online is still responding to the mail. That new donor, now classified as “online,” may later become a sustainer through digital channels. But the mail was what got that prospect’s attention in the first place.

Without acquisition matchbacks, organizations risk cutting successful acquisition sources because donors aren’t being acquired through expected channels. The most successful acquisition programs measure net cost per donor holistically.

It’s not direct mail acquisition. It’s donor acquisition that happened to start in the mailbox.

4. Email Frequency

This might be the most popular fundraising question of all time: “Donors don’t like emails, so can we send fewer and raise the same amount?”

Maybe. But the data often tells a more complicated story.

One organization reduced its year-end email volume from 17 to 14 messages and saw revenue immediately fall from roughly $492,000 to $219,000. The following year, it returned to 17 emails and revenue rebounded to nearly $497,000.

Did three emails really make that much difference? In this case, yes. However, in the rebounding year, the organization didn’t send every donor every email.

The takeaway is that rather than reducing volume across the board, send the right messages to the right donors. Frequency is usually not the real issue — relevance is. Email cadence is an audience-first decision.

Tiffany Reed is vice president of Mal Warwick DonorDigital.

Join Tiffany, Colin and Mary for their session at the inaugural Multichannel Innovation Summit on Oct. 22!

MAXI Corner: Gold Award Spotlights

Carpenter’s Shelter Opens Doors to Donor Engagement

When Carpenter’s Shelter expanded its services by taking over the only other emergency shelter in Alexandria, Virginia, the organization faced a growing challenge: serving more neighbors experiencing homelessness without a proportional increase in resources. Its response was “Let’s Open Doors,” a direct mail campaign designed to strengthen donor relationships through personalization and authentic storytelling.

Personalized giving requests reflected donors’ prior giving, while handwritten notes and a former resident’s story made the case for support tangible. The envelope, lift note and messaging reinforced the campaign’s credibility and call to action.

The strategy paid off. Carpenter’s Shelter reported a 26.46% increase in gifts, an 18.95% increase in response rate and a higher average gift, while improving fundraising efficiency. The campaign shows how donor insight and a well-told story can make direct mail more relevant — and more effective.

Easterseals Hawaii Rebuilds Donor Momentum Through Multichannel Giving

After several years without a consistent fundraising campaign, Easterseals Hawaii set out to reconnect with donors through an integrated GivingTuesday effort.

With many supporter records outdated, the organization embraced a multichannel strategy that combined email, text messaging, social media, digital advertising and a refreshed campaign website. Localized messaging emphasized its work with children and adults with disabilities across the islands. Audience segmentation symbolic giving asks helped reengage lapsed supporters and attract new donors.

Easterseals Hawaii surpassed its fundraising goal, reactivated 50 lapsed donors, increased revenue by 109%, generated 343% more gifts, and demonstrated strong returns from both digital advertising and text messaging. The campaign underscores how a coordinated, community-centered approach can help an organization rebuild its fundraising momentum.

JSSA Extends the Impact of GivingTuesday

For many organizations, GivingTuesday lasts one day. JSSA took a longer view. Its “GivingTuesday & 18 Days of Giving Campaign” cultivated donors before GivingTuesday and sustained engagement through year-end. Gratitude-focused communications warmed supporters before fundraising appeals began. Then afterward, JSSA launched its themed series, using consistent messaging, compelling stories and timely updates to maintain momentum.

Strategic email sequencing and dedicated landing pages created a continuous donor journey rather than a single fundraising push. The effort increased year-over-year revenue and average gift size while generating strong response rates. JSSA’s campaign demonstrates how organizations can use GivingTuesday as the start of a broader year-end conversation.