Strategy
Email Marketing Benchmarks for Nonprofits
Nonprofits post the highest email open rates of any sector we track, with a median of 26.6%. What good looks like, and why clicks and donations matter more than opens.
BenchMarketing editorial team Updated October 2, 2026 3 min readShare
Supporters choose to hear from the causes they care about, and it shows: nonprofits have the highest email open rates of any sector in our data. That head start is real, but open rates have become a weak measure, and the numbers that matter for fundraising sit further down the funnel.
Open rates by sector
| Industry | Median open rate | Middle half of accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Nonprofit | 26.6% | 18.2% to 36.0% |
| Education | 25.7% | 17.5% to 35.0% |
| Healthcare | 23.7% | 16.1% to 32.3% |
| Financial Services | 21.8% | 14.8% to 29.7% |
| SaaS | 21.3% | 14.4% to 29.0% |
| Ecommerce | 18.4% | 12.4% to 25.1% |
| Home Services | 20.1% | 13.6% to 27.4% |
| Legal | 22.0% | 14.9% to 30.0% |
| Real Estate | 19.2% | 13.0% to 26.1% |
| Automotive | 18.8% | 12.7% to 25.6% |
| Insurance | 22.4% | 15.2% to 30.5% |
| Dental | 24.1% | 16.4% to 32.8% |
The full picture across sectors
| Metric | Median | Middle half of senders |
|---|---|---|
| Open rate | 21.5% | 14.5% to 29.2% |
| Click rate | 2.3% | 1.2% to 3.9% |
| Click-to-open rate | 10.7% | 6.0% to 16.4% |
| Unsubscribe rate | 0.10% | 0.05% to 0.20% |
| Conversion rate | 1.8% | 0.8% to 3.2% |
Why open rates are less reliable than they used to be
Since Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection in 2021, Apple Mail can load email content, including the tracking pixel, whether or not the person reads it. Lists with many Apple Mail users report inflated opens. Use opens to spot sudden drops (often a deliverability problem), and judge campaigns on clicks, donations and unsubscribes.
What good looks like for a nonprofit list
- Click rate above 3.9% on appeals and updates suggests a list that is engaged rather than merely subscribed.
- Unsubscribe rate under 0.10% per send is normal. A spike after one message tells you something about that message, not the list.
- Donation conversion varies most by timing. Year-end and emergency appeals convert at many times the rate of routine newsletters.
Practical ways to raise giving from email
- Segment by giving history. A monthly donor, a lapsed donor and a newsletter subscriber who has never given need different asks.
- One clear ask per email. Appeals with a single action outperform newsletters with many links.
- Show what a gift does. Specific outcomes ("$40 buys a week of meals") beat general need.
- Welcome new subscribers properly. The first few emails after signup get the most attention; use them to tell the story before asking.
- Clean the list. Removing people who have not engaged in a year protects deliverability for everyone else.
See the email marketing benchmark hub and email open rate benchmarks.
About the figures
Benchmark figures in this article come from the BenchMarketing dataset and update when the benchmark pages do. Each benchmark page lists its sources and period; see our methodology.
Sources
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