How Munro Agency helped Social Shifters raise funds through targeted email marketing and automation.
Social Shifters needed a better way to connect with their community and inspire donations. With limited in-house marketing resources and an ambitious fundraising goal, they turned to Munro Agency to help build a smart, scalable email strategy that delivered results.

About Social Shifters

Social Shifters is an international charity dedicated to empowering young people to drive positive social and environmental change. Through free learning resources, global competitions, and an active online community, they equip the next generation of leaders with the tools and support to make an impact.
Their mission is bold, but their team faced common nonprofit challenges: limited capacity, minimal tools, and the pressure to do more with less, especially when it came to digital fundraising.

The Challenge

Social Shifters had a growing global email list, but no automation or structure to manage it effectively. Their main obstacles included:

• Reliance on one-off, manual email sends
• Inconsistent donor messaging and unclear donation journeys
• Lack of segmentation or targeting for different audiences
• Limited reporting to track what was working (and what wasn’t)

They needed a solution that could increase fundraising impact without adding pressure to their already stretched team.

Our Solution

We collaborated with Social Shifters to create a tailored email marketing and automation system focused on efficiency, personalisation, and measurable growth.

Automated Email Journeys

We designed and implemented a series of automated campaigns including:

• Welcome sequences to onboard new subscribers with a warm, mission-driven introduction
• Donor thank-you flows to nurture relationships after each contribution
• Abandoned donation follow-ups to recover missed opportunities
• Event and campaign triggers to activate the community at key moments

Each automation was written and designed to reflect the charity’s tone — optimistic, heartfelt, and action-oriented.

Audience Segmentation

To improve relevance and engagement, we set up segmented lists based on:

• Past donor behaviour
• Region and time zone
• Interests (e.g. climate action, gender equality, youth entrepreneurship)
• First-time vs repeat donors

This allowed Social Shifters to send more targeted asks and updates that resonated with their diverse audience.

Email Design & Messaging

We created branded email templates that were:

• Mobile-friendly and accessible
• Easy for the internal team to update going forward
• Styled with compelling CTAs and impact visuals to inspire donations

Reporting & Insights

We integrated tracking tools to monitor:

• Open and click-through rates
• Donation conversions from each campaign
• Top-performing content and segments

These insights helped the Social Shifters team quickly learn what worked and where to improve.

Results

The results from the campaign rollout speak for themselves:

• 87 campaigns launched across various donor and community segments
• 53,000+ contacts sourced and managed with clean segmentation
• 139,000 emails sent with consistent branding and messaging
• 45,887 total opens — a strong 33% open rate
• 687 leads generated, supporting both fundraising and future outreach
• Time saved for the internal team through automation and templated workflows
• Improved donor journey and message consistency across touchpoints

Key Takeaways

• Automation isn’t just for big charities. Smart systems save time and drive donations.
• Segmentation is important. Personalised content delivers stronger engagement.
• Email is still powerful. When used strategically, it can turn passive readers into active supporters.