The Best Newsletters for Inclusive Entrepreneurship News

There’s a lot happening in the world of Inclusive Entrepreneurship, and as the movement gains traction and accelerates more and more every day, it can be hard to keep up with the news in the field. From new rounds of investment in companies driven by women and founders of color, to discussions on how unconscious bias plays a role in venture capital, to inclusive champions who are working to level the playing field—these are the stories that hit our inboxes everyday. And at the Case Foundation, we are sharing stories of founders from different races, places and genders who are challenging the old notions of entrepreneurship.

To help you keep up, we’ve compiled a list of the top newsletters that fill our inboxes with news of the changing face of entrepreneurship. Here’s what should be on your reading list:

  1. RaceAhead by Ellen MgGirt of Fortune talks about culture and diversity in corporate America. Sign up here.
  2. The Broadsheet by Kristen Bellstrom and Valentina Zarya of Fortune reports news on the world’s most powerful women in business and beyond. Sign up here.
  3. ThePLUG by Sherell Dorsey, Tyler Young and Korey Mac has the top news on African Americans in tech and entrepreneurship. Sign up here.
  4. Forward Cities shares the top news in inclusive innovation in up and coming cities across the country. Sign up here.
  5. Circle Up from Circular Board* is a roundup of news on the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women. Sign up here.
  6. Black Enterprise Magazine provides weekly digests with news on business, investing, and wealth-building resources for entrepreneurs of color. Sign up here.
  7. Breaking Good by the Case Foundation is our weekly curation of the top stories in Inclusive Entrepreneurship, Impact Investing and social good. Sign up here.

 Make your inbox do the work for you. With these informative email newsletter options, you’ll be an inclusive entrepreneurship expert in no time. And if you’re interested in impact investing, check out my blog on all the best newsletters for Impact Investing news!

 

*Jean Case is an investor in Circular Board

The Best Newsletters for Impact Investing News

There’s a lot happening in the world Impact Investing, and with the movement gaining traction and accelerating more and more every day, it can be hard to keep up with everything being talked about in these fields.

As the field hurdles towards its next phase, many are grappling with issues of measurement and data and ways we can solve the problems holding the industry back. We debuted our Impact Investing Network Map and kicked of a campaign to invite investors to share their data. The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance launched at the end of July to further catalyze the Impact Investing Movement. Momentum is building and the field is changing rapidly.

With all that’s going on in the movement, we get asked how we stay up-to-date on news from the sector. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of newsletters that fill our inboxes and will fill you in on all things Impact Investing.

  1. The Brief from Impact Alpha talks about trends, deals and long term plans in the world of Impact Investing. Sign up here.
  2. On Impact by Cathy Clark is a weekly roundup of global Impact Investing and social innovation news. Sign up here.
  3. Mission Throttle pulls news from around the web on social impact and Impact Investing initiatives. Sign up here.
  4. Green Money Journal has a monthly online journal that news in sustainable business helps people interested in Impact Investing get started. Sign up here.
  5. B The Change shares the top news in B Corps, Benefit Corporations and business for good. Sign up here.
  6. Impact Investing Monthly from SOCAP is a monthly digest of global Impact Investing news from investors, thought leaders and more. Sign up here.
  7. Breaking Good by the Case Foundation is our weekly curation of the top stories in Inclusive Entrepreneurship, Impact Investing and social good. Sign up here.

Make your inbox do the work for you. With these great email newsletter options, you’ll be an Impact Investing expert in no time.

Latest Email Marketing Benchmarks and Tips for Nonprofits

 

Email remains one of the most effective communication tools for organizations when they want to engage with constituents, peers, community members and others. But like many of us across sectors, we are not using our email channels as effectively as we could be—and for those of us in the nonprofit sector that is ultimately costing us volunteers, donors, advocates, website visitors and more.

Earlier this week, Laurie Hood, VP of Product Marketing for Silverpop, an IBM Company, presented a webinar titled, Email Marketing Benchmarks: How Do You Measure Up? Hood’s presentation aimed to answer one of the key questions communication leaders consider every time they hit “send” on an email to subscribers—how are your email marketing campaigns performing compared to the average? If asked this about your own email program, would you know the answer? Does it matter?

Hosted by the American Marketing Association, the session was based on Silverpop’s 2015 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study analyzing emails sent by nearly 3,000 brands and 750 companies from more than 40 countries between January 1 and December 31, 2014. The takeaway for those of us in the nonprofit sector and really anyone providing communications through email is that yes, it does matter how your email is performing because the content you share is useless if no one opens what you have painstakingly prepared.

Here are some of the most often used benchmarks when it comes to email marketing that you can use to determine how you measure up:

OPEN RATES

Unique Open Rates: how many people “view” or “open” the email based on whether or not the recipient enables the images in the email or the recipient interacts with the email by clicking on a link.

Overall

  • Mean* = 21.0%
  • Median** = 17.4%
  • Top Quartile*** = 41.3%
  • Bottom Quartile**** = 7.0%

US

  • Mean = 20.7%
  • Median = 16.7%
  • Top Quartile = 40.9%
  • Bottom Quartile = 7.5%

Nonprofits, Association, Government

  • Mean = 27.5%
  • Median = 24.7%
  • Top Quartile = 48.1%
  • Bottom Quartile = 8.0%

Transactional Opens: transactional emails are most often sent by a company, store, vendor or service provider for example, as a follow up to an action taken by the email recipient. Opens for these specific emails are referred to as “transactional opens.”

  • Mean = 44.9%
  • Median = 45.9%
  • Top Quartile = 72.2%
  • Bottom Quartile = 16.6%

By nature of it being a follow-up with an already engaged recipient who trusts the sender the open rates are extremely high compared to when no transaction has occurred. In the social sector, transactional emails often occur after a donation has been made, a volunteer service has been performed or online engagement such as signing a petition has taken place. The follow-up email is often a good place to further engage with your recipient due to the predictable level of engagement shown by the transactional open rate.

 

CLICKS

Click-Through Rates (CTRs): the number of users who click on a specific link out of the total users who viewed the email.

Overall

  • Mean = 2.3%
  • Median = 1.4%
  • Top Quartile = 9.4%

US

  • Mean = 3.0%
  • Median = 1.3%
  • Top Quartile = 9.0%

Nonprofits, Association, Government

  • Mean = 4.0%
  • Median = 2.0%
  • Top Quartile = 11.4%
  • Bottom Quartile = 0.3%

Click-to-Open Rate: of the subscribers who opened the email, how many clicked on a link or image, etc.

Overall

  • Mean = 12.6%
  • Median = 9.4%
  • Top Quartile = 28.7%

US

  • Mean = 11.8%
  • Median = 8.5%
  • Top Quartile = 27.2%

 

LIST CHURN

Hard Bounces: a permanent reason an email cannot be delivered such as a non-existent domain or when a user has blocked your emails.

Overall

  • Mean = .547%
  • Median = .021%
  • Top Quartile = 0%

US

  • Mean = 0.568%
  • Median = 0.260%
  • Top Quartile = 0%

Unsubscribes: when someone chooses to no longer be on a mailing list.

Overall

  • Mean = .130%
  • Median = .021%
  • Top Quartile = 0%

US

  • Mean = .131%
  • Median = .021%
  • Top Quartile = 0%

 

TIPS

Hood also shared several tips to help anyone improve their email communications. I found these three to be particularly helpful when it comes to increasing the success of your email program.

 Tip #1: Make your email as easy to read as possible. The simplest way to do this is to increase the size of the font for the copy. Hood suggests using the following guidelines for font size:

  • Body Copy 14 px+
  • Headlines 22 px+
  • Buttons 44 px by 44 px

Tip #2: Remember to design your email for the devices your readers are using. Hood reminded listeners that in some cases, more than 50 percent of emails these days are being opened on mobile devices. This percentage is only going to increase over time, so be sure to take design for desktop, mobile, etc. into consideration.

Tip #3: Tell your readers what you want them to do – make it obvious! This means making sure your copy is action-oriented and provides readers with a direct and specific call-to-action.

 

One final note—remember, data and benchmarks should be used as a diagnostic tool and taken into consideration alongside elements of design, strength of your list and how active your subscribers are relative to your content, rather than alone or without context.

As part of the Case Foundation’s efforts to improve our own online presence and strengthen our communication channels, we too are taking a look at our own email program and assessing what we can do to improve the experience of our subscribers and future readers. I hope you can also put these benchmarks and tips to use in improving your email distribution!

If you have your own email marketing tips, questions or ideas specific to the nonprofit sector, please share and join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #CFBlog.

 

Definitions

  • *Mean – the “average,” derived when you add up all the numbers in your data set and then divide by the number of numbers.
  • **Median – the “middle” value in the list of numbers or data set.
  • ***Top Quartile – the top 25 percent of data, which Silverpop then took the average to determine what the “Top Quartile” was.
  • ****Bottom Quartile – the bottom 25 percent of data, which Silverpop then took the average to determine what the Bottom Quartile was.