How a Global Humanitarian Organization Doubled Giving Tuesday Donations

The Challenge

This international humanitarian relief organization serves millions of people worldwide through disaster response, community development, and feeding programs. With over 700,000 email subscribers—donors, volunteers, and supporters—email is their primary communication channel for fundraising appeals, impact stories, and emergency relief campaigns.

As Giving Tuesday and the critical year-end fundraising season approached, their development team discovered a major problem: only 74% of their donation appeal emails were reaching inboxes. With email driving over 60% of online donations, this deliverability issue was costing them hundreds of thousands in lost giving.

With Giving Tuesday just 6 weeks away and year-end appeals depending on email, they needed an immediate solution. Every email that didn't reach the inbox represented donors who couldn't give and communities who wouldn't receive help.

The Solution

The DeliveredDaily team executed an aggressive 6-week deliverability recovery plan timed to maximize impact for the organization's most critical fundraising period:

Week 1-2: Authentication & Infrastructure Audit

• Completed comprehensive DMARC implementation with enforcement policy
• Fixed SPF record misconfigurations affecting 18% of sends
• Optimized DKIM signing across all sending domains and subdomains
• Implemented BIMI for enhanced brand visibility in Gmail and Yahoo

Week 2-3: List Hygiene & Segmentation Strategy

• Identified and removed 87,000 inactive subscribers who hadn't engaged in 18+ months
• Created engagement-based segments (highly engaged, moderately engaged, at-risk)
• Implemented re-engagement campaign for 120,000 dormant but salvageable subscribers
• Established separate sending infrastructure for transactional vs. fundraising emails

Week 3-4: Content Optimization for Donation Appeals

• Optimized subject lines to avoid spam triggers while maintaining urgency and emotion
• Restructured email templates to reduce image-to-text ratio flagging spam filters
• Implemented sender name consistency to build recognition and trust
• Added clear unsubscribe options to reduce spam complaint rates

Week 4-5: ISP-Specific Deliverability Optimization

• Configured Gmail-specific sending strategies to reach Primary inbox vs. Promotions
• Optimized for Microsoft 365/Outlook with SNDS monitoring
• Established Yahoo feedback loop integration for real-time complaint tracking
• Conducted inbox placement testing across all major ISPs

Week 5-6: Pre-Campaign Testing & Monitoring Setup

• Ran full inbox placement tests on Giving Tuesday appeal creative
• Set up real-time deliverability monitoring during campaign sends
• Established automated alerts for bounce spikes or reputation drops
• Created pre-send checklist for all fundraising appeals

The Results

By Giving Tuesday, the organization's inbox placement had climbed from 74% to 98%—and the fundraising impact was immediate and dramatic:

The improved deliverability meant that when disasters struck and emergency appeals went out, supporters actually received them. Time-sensitive calls for hurricane relief, refugee assistance, and feeding programs reached inboxes within minutes instead of getting filtered to spam where they'd never be seen.

What the Development Director Had to Say

"DeliveredDaily didn't just fix our technical deliverability issues—they transformed our ability to serve people in need. When we can reach our 700,000+ supporters with urgent appeals, more donations come in, and more families receive food, shelter, and hope. The 117% increase in Giving Tuesday donations represents real impact: more communities served, more disasters responded to, more lives changed. This partnership has been mission-critical."

Long-Term Impact

The deliverability improvements established during this initial engagement continue to support the organization's fundraising and communication goals. They now maintain 95%+ inbox placement year-round, with monitoring systems that catch potential issues before they impact mission-critical appeals.

Most importantly, when emergencies happen—hurricanes, earthquakes, refugee crises—the organization can confidently send urgent appeals knowing they'll reach supporters who want to help. Email has become an even more reliable channel for mobilizing resources quickly when disasters strike.

Their 700,000+ subscriber list is now one of their most valuable assets, driving consistent monthly giving, volunteer recruitment, and emergency response funding that directly translates to humanitarian impact around the world.