Starting with the donor, cuts across ALL of your marketing.
Your donors don’t want to receive email newsletters from you unless those newsletters are about something they are particularly interested in. As Seth Godin says “Its not email, its Me-mail”.
So don’t send spam to your donors. Send Me-mail.
Me-mail is email the donor has:
A) agreed to receive (always, always get permission before including a donor on your newsletter bulk email list)
And
B) has information that they have a particular interest in hearing about.
How do you know what they want to hear about? They tell you. If not with their dollars (what program do they support in your organization?), then they should be telling you in your dialogue with them. Ask them.
And once you know their interest, make sure you customize their email newsletter specifically to their interest.
If you are saying “She’s nuts, too much work”, then don’t bother wasting your money on email.
Spam does not get read.