The Email Diagnostic

Outgrowing Mailchimp or Constant Contact? Know what you need before you switch.

Your emails already bring in gifts and renewals. What gets hard is seeing which ones are working, sending different messages to different donors or members, and following up without doing it all by hand. In two weeks we look at your list, your data, your follow-up, your deliverability and your reporting. Then we tell you what you actually need, whether HubSpot is the right next step, and how to set it up so you don't have to rebuild it in two years.

$2,500, credited in full toward implementation if you start within 60 days.

If it isn't worth more to you than what you paid, tell us and we'll refund it.

Book a 20-minute call

Who it's for

Nonprofits and associations that send email from Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Luminate or the tool built into their donor database or AMS, and are starting to feel its limits. Usually the programs or the list have grown. The team wants to reach donors, members, volunteers, advocates and program participants with different messages, see what each email actually does, and stop stitching lists together by hand.

It fits a small association on Mailchimp as well as a large national nonprofit moving off Luminate.

You keep your donor database or membership system. This is about the system that sits next to it and talks to your audience.

What we usually find

Most of the organizations we work with already send good emails. What they're missing is the information and the setup to do more with them:

Lists get exported from the donor database or membership system and imported by hand, so segments are out of date the day they're used.
Everyone gets the same email, because the email tool doesn't know who gave last year, whose membership expires next month, or which program someone applied to.
A first gift or a new membership gets a receipt and then nothing until the next newsletter.
Reports show opens and clicks, but nobody can say what the year-end series raised or how many renewals came from email.
Subscription preferences aren't written down anywhere, so people either get emails they didn't ask for or opt out of everything.
Nobody has removed inactive addresses in years, and more mail lands in spam than anyone realizes.

What organizations usually want from their next system

When we ask teams what they're hoping for, the answer is usually some version of this list:

Email, text, forms, surveys and event registration working from the same list, so someone who already registered for an event doesn't get the invitation again.
Segments that update on their own from giving history, membership status and what people actually did, instead of lists rebuilt before every send.
Fewer tools to pay for, and fewer exports and imports for staff to manage.
Room to add something new, like an advocacy program or another event series, without a custom build.
Reporting that leadership can use to decide where to put time and money.

The Diagnostic tells you which of these you need now, which can wait, and what it would take to get there.

How the two weeks work

Kickoff call. You tell us what you've tried, what's frustrating your team, and what leadership or your board wants to see. We ask for access to your email tool and a few reports from your donor database or membership system.
Review. We go through where your subscribers come from, how your lists and segments are set up, your automated emails, your sending setup and your campaign reporting. We also look at the website pages that should be bringing in new subscribers.
Findings call. We walk through the report with you and anyone else who should hear it. That's usually whoever owns the database and whoever approves the budget.

Your team's time commitment is the two calls and pulling a few reports.

What you get back

A short report you can hand to your executive director or board. It answers three questions:

What's working and what isn't? Which emails, segments and follow-ups are bringing in gifts or renewals, and where people are dropping off.
What do you need from your next system? The segmentation, follow-up, subscription types, reporting and ownership your team needs, in plain terms.
What should you do first? The order to do things in, what can be done with the tools you have, and whether HubSpot is worth it.

List growth

Where new subscribers come from, whether your most-visited pages give people a reason to sign up, and how many new people you added last month.

Donor and member data

Whether your email tool knows giving history, membership status and program interest, and whether you can send different people different messages.

Follow-up

What happens automatically after a first gift, a new membership, a signup, a download or an event registration, and where people are left waiting.

Subscriptions and deliverability

How people choose what they hear about, your SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup, how you handle inactive addresses, and whether your emails are reaching inboxes.

Measurement

Whether gifts and renewals can be traced back to the email that prompted them, and what you report to leadership.

Systems and ownership

Which tools hold which data, how they connect, and who on your team keeps each piece running.

Whether HubSpot fits

We're a HubSpot Platinum Solutions Partner, so you should know where we stand. If HubSpot is the right next step, the report says which edition, what stays in your donor database or membership system, and what a fixed-scope implementation would cost. If it isn't, the report says that too, and the recommendations are written so you can act on them with the tools you have.

You don't have to give up Raiser's Edge, your AMS or whatever system handles gifts and dues. When HubSpot fits, it becomes the place your team reaches people from, connected to the database that stays your record of gifts and dues. We plan which records live where and how the two systems share data, so the team that owns the database keeps the system they trust.

What this looks like in practice

A research foundation we worked with had used Constant Contact for years. As its programs grew, it needed one place to track applicants, researchers and other stakeholders, a way to segment by research area and affiliation, clear subscription types, and a view of how applicants moved through its programs. It wanted to set things up right the first time so it wouldn't have to rebuild later. That's the kind of decision the Diagnostic is built to answer.

Who does the work

Camille Winer, Yodelpop's founder, leads every Diagnostic and presents the findings herself. Yodelpop has built marketing and CRM systems in HubSpot since 2011, mostly for nonprofits and associations, so you won't have to explain how donor data, dues or year-end giving works.

Investment

$2,500 fixed fee

What's included:

A kickoff call and a findings call with your team
A review of your list growth, donor or member data, follow-up, subscriptions, deliverability, measurement and systems
A short written report with prioritized recommendations
A HubSpot recommendation, including edition and implementation scope, only if HubSpot fits

Credited in full. If you start an implementation with us within 60 days, the $2,500 comes off the price.

Refund if it isn't worth it. If the Diagnostic isn't worth more to you than what you paid, tell us and we'll refund the full $2,500.

There's no obligation to keep working with us afterward.