The Power Of Email Campaigns To Fuel Church Growth and Engagement

Email might not be flashy, but for churches, it can be a workhorse. Unlike social platforms, where algorithms decide who sees your message, email is a channel you own.

It puts your pastor’s voice, your church’s mission, and a clear next step directly in the inboxes of people who already care. Done well, email doesn’t just inform; it disciples.

It helps people move from curiosity to connection, from one-time attendance to consistent engagement, and from spontaneous gifts to faithful, recurring generosity.

It’s also one of the most measurable ways to grow ministry. And because different generations respond to different messages and formats, email gives you the flexibility to tailor how you ask and how you say thank you.

In this article, we’ll show how churches can use email to fuel growth and engagement.

Why Email Still Matters for Churches in 2025

You might think that email is an old and outdated method of communication. But it's still a powerhouse that can bring serious power to your ministry.

The data shows that 48% of donors (including church givers) still largely prefer email over social media or direct mail when it comes to fundraising.

It's not hard to understand why. Social media feeds are absolutely bloated these days, blitzing users with a combination of ads and content. Important information, like giving requests from churches, simply get buried amidst the heaps of junk content that clutter the feeds.

In contrast, email inboxes are a more personal, organized space where donors can easily find and respond to giving requests from churches. Additionally, emails allow for more direct and personalized communication between your church and its members.

Email is also a very effective way to reach a large number of people at once. With online giving platforms like Tithely, your church can easily include links in its emails for members to make donations directly through their computers or mobile devices.

Email also allows you to target your messaging based on donor interests and giving history. You can segment your email lists to send specific appeals or updates to certain groups of members, increasing the amount of donations.

The point is that email is far from outdated. It should be an important tool in your church's digital giving toolbox.

How Email Supports the Church Discipleship Pathway

Most members of your church go through a specific path on their way to joining the church and becoming strong advocates of it.

It typically goes something like this:

Awareness → Engagement → First Visit → First Gift → Recurring Giving → Serving/Groups → Advocacy

Mapping Email Campaigns to Each Stage of Engagement

The beauty of email campaigns is that they let you create specific emails for each step of the discipleship pathway. For example, you could do the following:

• Awareness: Welcome and newcomer nurture emails
• Engagement: Pastor’s note and testimony spotlight emails
• First Visit: Ministry invites and event reminder emails
• First Gift: First-gift conversion appeals emails
• Recurring Giving: Recurring giving series emails
• Serving/Groups: Serving pipelines and group connection emails
• Advocacy: Serving pipelines and group connection emails

With each email, you're able to communicate on a personal basis with the recipient and help them become more integral to the church.

Generational Giving Trends and Email Strategy

The data on giving by generation provides helpful insights into how your church members give.

According to a report by the Philanthropy Chronicles, Boomers continue to be the most generous, giving approximately $3,256 annually to charity in 2024. Millennials are next, giving an average of $1,616 annually. Gen X is third, donating approximately $1,371, and Gen Z rounds up the group with $867 annually.

How does this relate to email campaigns? Every one of the above groups gives to charity (including the church) consistently. And, every group also uses email on a regular basis, especially Boomers and Millennials.

The reality is that there is an enormous wealth transfer happening from Boomers to Millennials and Gen Z. Email campaigns can help you engage with people in your church who now have a much larger capacity to give. 

But your content has to resonate with each generation. 

It can seriously help your church's email campaigns if you segment your list by generation and then customize it for each group.

How to Tailor Church Emails for Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z

So, for Millennials and Gen Z, you should think mobile first when laying out your emails. You also want things like short copy, clear impact, social share options, as well as the option to use digital giving options.

Gen X givers care about things like mission outcomes, effectiveness, and what their dollars are going toward. They also tend to prefer emails that are personal and authentic, so consider using real stories and testimonials in your email content.

Boomers are interested in trust signals, like a pastor's signature and financial transparency. They're also going to care about larger campaigns (missions, capital), as well as simple ways to give both online and offline.

The more you can tailor your emails to your audience, the more effective your email campaigns will be. Your content will resonate more, and people will be much more like to take action based on your emails.

How To Build and Maintain a Healthy Church Email List

To do any email campaigns, you obviously need to have an email list. You should at least have the email addresses of all your members, and that's the starting point. If you don't even have that, that's where you start.

If you have a starter email list, you can begin building on that. You want to start adding email addresses of people who are interested in your church or have been coming consistently but aren't members.

Here are some strategies for creating and maintaining a strong church email list:

Capture Points for Church Email Signups

You should use email forms in numerous places to make it easy for people to sign up. Put a link to the page in all your Connection cards. Ask for people's email addresses with event signup pages, sermon note downloads, Bible reading plans, volunteer signups, and even baptism/baby dedication interest pages.

Obviously, you don't want to go overboard with email requests. That's not what this is about. It's more about using the opportunities you already have to connect with people and inviting them to be a part of your email list.

Consent, Deliverability, and Trust

On your email signup forms, make sure to include a short description of what people will receive and how often they'll receive communications from your church. It's also important to make it easy to unsubscribe from your email list. Doing this will improve your deliverability rate (whether they pass through the filters or are automatically classified as spam.)

Why Integrating Email, ChMS, and Giving Matters

If possible, it's important to integrate your email platform with both your Church Management System (ChMS) and digital giving platforms. This allows you to automatically send emails to people when they trigger an event, like giving for the first time. It also makes it much easier to keep your records straight in terms of what communications you've sent to each individual.

The good news is that if you use Tithely's online giving platform and Church Management Software, everything is already connected! You can seamlessly move data from the giving platform to the ChMS and use all your data to create really strong email campaigns.

Segment Your List

To get the most bang for your buck with your email campaigns, you must segment your list. Segmenting your list ensures that you get the right information to the right people at the right time.

In addition to segmenting your list by generation (as mentioned above), there are a number of other ways you can segment your list:

• Relationship Stage: Your regular attenders shouldn't get the same information as first-time visitors. Segment your list for first-time visitors, regular attenders, first-time donors, recurring donors, and even your lapsed donors.
  
  
• Ministry Affinity: If you have multiple ministries within your organization, you can segment your list by people's interests and involvement in each ministry. So you will have a list for those serving in children's ministry, on the worship team, greeters, etc.
  
  
• Life Stage: Your married members have different needs and interests from those who are single. Parents are often in a different world than those without kids. You get the point. Segment your email list by life stage, and they'll be much more effective.

By segmenting your list, you can tailor your communication and messaging to be more relevant and personalized for each group.

Church Email Campaigns That Increase Giving

You want giving in your church to increase. Email campaigns can be one of the levers you pull to boost giving. Here are some winning campaigns that can really move the needle:

Year-End Giving Email Campaigns

Here's the deal. 33% of annual giving happens in the last quarter of the year. You need to tap into that generosity if possible. Consider creating a 6-8 email sequence that moves your church members to take action. You can use the following sequence to get things rolling in the final months of the year:

vision > story > specific need > match > urgency > final hours

Each email should be crafted to win the hearts of readers and move them to give to your church.

Recurring Giving Email Appeals

Encourage your readers to make their giving a habit by setting up recurring donations. Highlight the convenience and impact of recurring giving, and remind readers that even small amounts can add up to make a big difference in the long run.

If possible, include stories from members who have switched to recurring giving and have seen how their regular giving helps your church carry out its mission.

Reactivation and Win-Back Emails

For your members who have lapsed in their giving or attendance, a reactivation email campaign can be the thing that motivates them to get back in the habit of giving. Consider creating a 2-3 email sequence that conveys you miss them and want to give them the opportunity to start giving again.

Include something new or exciting that's happening in your church, like a fresh project or upcoming event.

First-Time Giver Email Sequences

This is a tricky line to walk, but it can be really impactful to have a series of emails designed to convert attendees into first-time givers. Think of these as "Welcome to the Family" emails, where you express gratitude for their attendance and interest in your church, and invite them to take the next step in becoming a regular supporter.

You can tell them about the different ways to give, and highlight how their contributions will directly impact your mission and community. Make sure to have a clear call-to-action that leads people to your giving signup page.

Including personal stories and testimonials from your current givers can also be a great way to encourage new givers to take the leap. People are more likely to give when they see how their donations are making a difference in real people's lives.

Micro-Campaigns for Special Needs

From time to time, one-time opportunities to give will arise, like creating a benevolence fund, funding a mission trip, or doing local outreach. Send 2-3 emails that include an appeal to give and are tied directly to a specific need or circumstance.

Keep these email campaigns short and sweet, and don't bombard your email list with too much content.

Email Creative That Converts Church Members into Givers

There are some general rules you can follow when sending your emails that will increase the percentage of people who take action. Use these strategies when creating your emails:

• Subject Lines: They should be short, specific, and interesting. You want to convince people to open your email, and the subject line is the main way that happens.
  
• Body: In the body of your email, include one story, one ask, and one button. Don't make your readers have to choose between competing calls-to-action or links.
  
• Design: Your emails should be made to be read on mobile devices first. Use high contrast buttons, short paragraphs, and scannable headers if your text is on the longer side.
  
• Personalization: Wherever possible, personalize your emails. You could tailor them to specific campuses, ministries, or past engagement.

Conclusion: Email as a Ministry Growth Engine

Email isn’t just another communication tool. It's a growth and engagement engine. It meets people where they already are and guides them along the discipleship pathway.

When your email, ChMS, and giving tools work together, stories become steps, and steps become lasting participation. A simple, focused approach builds trust and keeps the mission front and center. In a noisy world, email gives you a steady way to nurture relationships, celebrate impact, and invite people into God’s work through your community.

If you want to harness the power of email campaigns in your church, take a tour of Tithely's Church Management System. It contains all the tools you need to create strong email campaigns and carry out your mission more effectively.

‍