A New Era of Email Lead Gen: Building and Testing a Digital Co-Op Strategy

Nonprofits face an era of tightening acquisition budgets, rising ad costs, and shrinking donor files. As a result, the most recent M+R Benchmarks report showed that only 10% of digital advertising and paid list growth budgets were spent on email lead gen. That has fallen from 15% in 2021 and 23% in 2019. The solution isn’t to run away from email lead gen. It’s to find and test new channels and then evaluate and scale them with rigor.

Digital co-ops have become one of the most promising ways to scale email lead gen and donor acquisition, giving nonprofits access to modeled audiences built from millions of shared data points. But digital co-ops aren’t a turnkey solution. Getting the most from a digital co-op investment requires a thoughtful strategy, from privacy policy alignment to onboarding to ongoing content strategy and measurement.

This session will bring together one nonprofit, agency, and co-op provider perspectives to explore how nonprofits can build and test digital co-op programs tailored to their goals. Panelists will discuss practical steps for getting started, how to design welcome journeys that maximize early engagement, and how to evaluate performance across multiple co-ops.

The discussion will illustrate how diversification, disciplined measurement, and independent oversight turn co-ops into a sustainable source of growth.

Attendees will leave with a roadmap for identifying the right co-op partners, structuring tests, and building internal systems that ensure long-term success.