Each year, as part of our Emma 25 program, we award 25 nonprofits (sometimes more!) with an Emma account. The honorees receive a custom stationery design at no cost and free email service and surveys for life – or as long as they'd like. It's a great way to recognize their hard work, and to provide them with the opportunity to easily communicate with their members and donors. Last winter marked the seventh year of Emma 25, and this month I'm checking in with three of the honorees to see how they're using Emma to help others.

Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle

The Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville/Albemarle in Virginia work to provide one-on-one, confidential tutoring in basic literacy and English as a second language to adults living or working in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

Since being selected as an Emma 25 honoree in December, Jackie Bright says, "In just five months our distribution list has increased by 8% — nearly 100 new recipients (we have a small list, so this is huge)." Their emails campaigns are super successful, not to mention gorgeous — check out a recent one here — and their average open and click-through rates are around 26% and 9% respectively. Jackie adds that Emma has helped them provide better customer service and generate greater reach. She says, "We've been able to link all of our social marketing to this email, helping us cross-market and expose new people to our Facebook page and website."

+ Visit their website
+ Check out their Facebook page

The Rape Crisis Center of Medina and Summit Counties

The Rape Crisis Center of Medina and Summit Counties in northeastern Ohio serves sexual assault victims and co-survivors. Education and awareness are two driving themes behind their mission to help others, and it's important for them to get the word out quickly. Dana Zedak, who helps to plan and execute their email campaigns, says that Emma streamlines the sending process. Dana adds, "Any moment people hit reply and tell us that we 'do good work' or ask questions about our agency is a fantastic Emma moment. The more people associate our logo and our message with the work we do, the more clients will get to us and the more donors will give to us." And their response numbers indicate that subscribers are receiving the message with open ears — or eyes, if you will. A recent email campaign had more than a 20% open rate.

+ Visit their website
+ Check out their Facebook page

The Heart Gallery

Beginning as a community project, The Heart Gallery of Pinellas & Pasco is continuing to grow into a successful, independent organization. As an affiliate of The Heart Gallery of America, they display portrait galleries of local foster children who are awaiting adoption.

Their monthly newsletters and event updates reach more than 1,700 audience members and generate stellar 28% open and 21% click-through rates. Carol Hughes, Community Outreach Manager of The Heart Gallery, points out the value they place on stylishly adding images to their campaigns:

Our beautiful photos of children are used to promote an awareness of the need for adoption. The email layouts provided by Emma allow us to easily upload pictures for use in our newsletters, bulletins, announcements, etc. We are able to use various sizes of the images to accompany our publications, and we continue to receive comments about the quality of the photos in each campaign.

+ See a recent campaign
+ Visit their website
+ Check out their Facebook page

Want to learn more about Emma 25? Visit our list of the 2010 Emma 25 honorees, and stay tuned for details about this year's program. We can't wait for the submission process to begin this fall.