When it comes to email fundraising, first impressions are everything. You spend hours crafting the perfect appeal—refining your message, segmenting your list, and carefully choosing a compelling subject line. But there’s one powerful tool that too many nonprofits overlook: email preview text.
Preview text—the short line of text that appears next to or beneath your subject line in most inboxes—can be the tipping point between a donor clicking “open” or scrolling right past your message. While the subject line is the headline, the preview text is the subhead. Together, they work as a team to pique interest, create urgency, or stir emotion.
In this article, we’ll break down what email preview text is, why it matters so much for your fundraising emails, and how you can craft irresistible preview copy that complements your subject line and lifts your open rates.
Email preview text (also known as preheader text) is the brief snippet of copy that shows up in your recipient’s inbox next to or just below the subject line. Depending on the email client—whether it’s Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, or another platform—the preview text may appear in a lighter font, in smaller letters, or even italicized. But no matter the format, it gives your reader a sneak peek into your email before they click.
Most email platforms will automatically pull the first line of your message if you don’t set the preview text manually. That’s a missed opportunity. Without intentional preview text, your readers might see something like, “Click here to view this email in your browser,” or “Having trouble reading this message?” which is a far cry from a compelling message for your donor!
Instead, you can and should take control of this space. Think of it as your second chance to grab attention. Done right, it can support the subject line, reinforce the emotion, and give just enough intrigue to earn the all-important open.
In the crowded chaos of a donor’s inbox, your fundraising email is competing with work deadlines, family updates, and marketing noise. The subject line may be what catches the eye, but it’s the preview text that often seals the deal.
Great preview text can reinforce the emotion or urgency of the subject line, doubling down on the message. Or it can add contrast and curiosity, teasing just enough to make someone click. This subtle tool can help you shift from “just another nonprofit email” to something that feels personal, relevant, and worth reading.
Especially for solicitation emails, the preview text sets the tone. Whether you’re invoking empathy with a story, creating urgency around a campaign deadline, or fostering a sense of connection, this small line of copy does heavy lifting. Ignore it, and you waste prime inbox real estate. Master it, and you increase your chances of getting donors to open—and act.
Great preview text is like a whisper to the reader, and should be short, emotional, and meaningful. Technically, most inboxes display around 35 to 90 characters of preview text, so every word counts. That means you need to be concise and compelling at the same time.
A strong preview line continues the story from the subject line. It reinforces urgency, like “There’s still time to feed a family tonight.” Or it sparks curiosity: “You won’t believe who matched your gift.” It might add a personal touch: “This note is just for you, Sarah.” Regardless of the approach, the tone should always be warm and donor-focused.
One of the biggest mistakes nonprofits make is letting the preview text default to filler like “View this email in your browser” or “If this email doesn’t display correctly…” These lines are lifeless. They drain energy from the subject line and miss the opportunity to engage emotionally. Set your preview text with intention, and let it serve as your email’s welcome mat.
Think of your subject line and preview text as a two-part headline. They don’t need to repeat each other. In fact, the best combinations create a natural flow—like a setup and punchline, or a question and answer.
A teaser subject line like “Can we count on you tonight?” can be followed by preview text that reveals just enough: “Your gift could help us reach our $25K goal by midnight.” Or flip it around: a subject line with urgency, such as “24 hours left to give,” can be softened with a personal touch in the preview: “You make this work possible, Mark.”
Other combinations work by building context. A subject like “She walked 3 miles for clean water” followed by “Your support gave Amina her first well” tells a micro-story in the inbox.
The key is alignment. The subject and preview should work together to deepen interest and drive opens. When done well, they make donors feel like the email was written just for them, and that’s precisely the feeling that drives engagement.
The best preview text doesn’t just happen; it’s refined through experimentation. One of the easiest ways to learn what works is by running A/B tests. Try sending the same fundraising email to two segments of your list with identical subject lines but different preview texts. Then compare the results.
Start by watching open rates. If you’re able to go deeper, look at downstream metrics like click-throughs or donations to see how the preview line may have influenced action. Over time, patterns will emerge… maybe urgency drives more opens, or perhaps curiosity works better for your audience.
Also, try testing personalization. Does including the donor’s first name lift response? What happens when you reference a recent gift or campaign? Every list is different, so let your data guide you. Preview text might be small, but it’s a vital lever you can tune for real performance gains.
In the crowded world of email fundraising, every detail matters… and preview text is one of the most overlooked opportunities to make a strong first impression. Done right, it reinforces your subject line, deepens curiosity, and gets more donors to open the email.
Think of it as your subject line’s partner in crime. It deserves just as much attention, care, and creativity. The two together set the stage for everything that follows inside the message.
Here’s your challenge: before your next fundraising email goes out, write a custom preview text—don’t let it default. Test it. Tweak it. Track the results. A few extra words can be the difference between a message ignored and a mission funded.
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