Cold outreach to Nonprofits companies
The buyer is the fundraising manager at a nonprofit organization, primarily measured by the total funds raised each quarter. They respond positively to outreach that acknowledges specific fundraising challenges, like donor retention or engagement strategies, and offers actionable insights or solutions tailored to their unique mission.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 572 nonprofits company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- low donor retention
- limited fundraising resources
- ineffective engagement strategies
- high competition for donations
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent fundraising events
Look for nonprofits that recently hosted fundraising events, such as galas or online campaigns. Use platforms like Eventbrite or social media to find these events, and note their fundraising goals. This shows you understand their current focus and can speak to their recent efforts.
- 02
Segment by donor engagement issues
Filter your list to organizations that have reported challenges with donor engagement in the last year. Check for news articles or press releases that mention declining donor retention rates. This allows you to tailor your outreach to their immediate concerns.
- 03
Craft messaging around specific fundraising goals
Develop your outreach message to directly address the fundraising goals of the organization. Reference their specific event or campaign in your subject line and opening lines, and suggest how your insights could help them meet their targets, enhancing their fundraising efforts.
- 04
Follow up after key fundraising milestones
Schedule your follow-ups strategically after major fundraising milestones, such as after an event or campaign conclusion. This timing allows you to reach out when they are likely reflecting on their performance and looking for ways to improve for the next cycle.
- 05
Anticipate objections about budget constraints
Prepare to address common objections related to tight budgets in nonprofits. Acknowledge their financial limitations in your outreach and position your insights as cost-effective strategies that can improve their fundraising without significant upfront investment.
Can nonprofits companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 572 nonprofits companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 11.5% of 1–10-person companies against 75% of the largest — 64 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Boost your donor engagement
- Strategies for your next fundraising event
- Improve donor retention rates
Questions
- Why do fundraising managers ignore outreach about donor management tools?
- Fundraising managers may ignore outreach if it doesn't directly address their specific challenges, such as low donor retention or engagement. If the outreach feels generic or lacks a clear understanding of their mission, it’s easily dismissed as irrelevant.
- What common mistakes do nonprofits make in fundraising outreach?
- Common mistakes include failing to personalize communication, not following up after events, and neglecting to segment their donor base. These errors can lead to missed opportunities and lower overall engagement with potential supporters.
- How can outreach be more effective for nonprofits?
- Outreach can be more effective by focusing on the unique challenges faced by nonprofits, such as budget constraints and competition for donations. Providing specific, actionable insights that align with their goals will resonate more with fundraising managers.
- What timing is best for reaching out to nonprofit fundraising managers?
- The best timing for outreach is typically right after major fundraising events or during planning phases for upcoming campaigns. This is when fundraising managers are most receptive to new ideas and strategies to improve their efforts.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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