There is no single "good" open rate for fundraising email. Reported ranges vary widely by list, and email privacy features have made the open number less reliable than it used to be. This article gives approximate industry ranges, explains why the opened count Raise More shows is only a rough signal, and points you to the campaign metrics Raise More actually tracks.
These ranges are general industry figures, not numbers Raise More measures or guarantees for your account. Treat them as rough context, not a target.
What Raise More shows after a send
On the email campaigns list and on each campaign's detail page, Raise More shows counts for every campaign:
Sent and Delivered
Opened and Clicked
Bounced (broken out as Hard, Content/reputation blocked, Temporary, and Unknown)
Unsubscribed and Spam complained
These are raw counts, not pre-calculated percentages. To get an open rate, divide Opened by the number delivered (or sent). You can click any of these statuses on a campaign to see the exact list of people who fall into it, and you can use the "Resend to non-openers" action to create a follow-up draft aimed at people who did not open.
Approximate ranges for fundraising email
Political and nonprofit fundraising email reported in the industry tends to fall in these rough ranges. They are wide on purpose and depend heavily on list quality.
Open rate: often roughly 15% to 40%.
Click rate: often roughly 1% to 3% of recipients.
A small, recently engaged list of past donors tends toward the higher end. A large list with cold, purchased, or long-dormant addresses tends toward the lower end. A first send to a new audience behaves differently than a tenth send to repeat donors.
The factors that move these numbers most:
List quality and recency. Recently engaged donors open more than dormant or acquired contacts.
Deliverability. If messages land in spam, the open count drops no matter how good the subject line is.
Timing. A message tied to a deadline or news moment can outperform a routine update.
The most useful comparison is your own past campaigns on a similar list, not a published average.
Why the opened count is only a rough signal
Open tracking works by embedding a tiny invisible image (a tracking pixel) in the email. When the recipient's mail app loads that image, Raise More records an open. That mechanism became unreliable in 2021 when Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection (MPP).
With MPP turned on, Apple Mail loads the tracking pixel on Apple's servers before the recipient sees the message. The tracking records an "open" even if the person never read it. Because a large share of email is read in Apple Mail, this inflates the opened count and makes it inconsistent from one send to the next.
What this means in practice:
The opened count Raise More shows is almost certainly higher than the number of people who actually read the message.
A change in opens between two similar sends can reflect how many Apple Mail users were on each list, not how good the subject line was.
The opened count is still useful as a rough trend and as a deliverability warning sign. A sudden collapse usually points to an inbox-placement problem.
Metrics that hold up better than opens
Because the opened count is unreliable, weigh actions people actually take:
Clicks. A click is an intentional action and the cleanest signal of interest. Raise More tracks Clicked per campaign, so it is a better way to compare subject lines, layouts, and asks than opens.
Bounces. A rising bounce count, especially hard or content/reputation bounces, points to list-hygiene or deliverability problems.
Unsubscribes and spam complaints. Rising numbers here usually mean you are mailing too often or reaching the wrong people, and they hurt deliverability for future sends.
Raise More does not calculate a conversion rate or a "revenue per email" figure inside the email campaign view. If you want to tie a campaign to giving, look at donations that came in around the send window on the Donations and reporting pages, and compare against the campaign's Sent and Clicked counts yourself.
How to improve your open rate
The fundamentals that lift opens also tend to lift clicks:
Write a stronger subject line. Keep it short, specific, and honest. Misleading subject lines earn complaints and train people to ignore you.
Use a recognizable sender name. People open email from a sender they recognize. Keep your "from" name consistent.
Segment your list. Sending the right message to recent donors, lapsed donors, or event attendees beats sending everyone the same thing. You can build these segments as lists in Raise More.
Manage send frequency. Mailing too often drives unsubscribes; mailing too rarely lets your sender reputation go stale.
Protect deliverability. Verify your sending domain (DKIM, SPF, DMARC) on the Email Identities page, and keep your list clean by honoring bounces and unsubscribes. Inbox placement is the single biggest lever on opens.
FAQ
What open rate should I aim for?
There is no universal target. Aim to beat your own recent campaigns on a comparable list. If you need a rough floor, an open rate below about 15% on an engaged donor list is worth checking for a deliverability problem.
My open rate dropped suddenly. What happened?
A sharp drop usually points to deliverability, not content. Check whether messages are landing in spam, whether your domain is still verified on the Email Identities page, and whether you recently mailed a stale or acquired list.
Why is my open count high but my donations low?
Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates the opened count, so a high number can be misleading. Look at Clicked, and compare donations from around the send window, rather than relying on opens.
Is open tracking still worth using?
Yes, as a rough trend and an early warning for deliverability issues. Do not treat the opened count as a precise count of human readers.
If your open or bounce numbers look wrong and you suspect a deliverability problem, contact support and we can help you check your domain setup and inbox placement.