Your donors are trashing your emails; here's what you can do

Email is the mean streets of fundraising. Your messages are born cheap, live hard, and die fast.

Here are some things you can do to improve your emails' chances, from the Constant Contact blog, at 7 Design Mistakes That Make Readers Trash Your Emails:

1. Forgetting to say hello
2. Hard-to-read fonts (too small, not enough contrast, too many different fonts)
3. Color catastrophes (too bright, too many)
4. Muddled information (make it clear what's important)
5. Awful images (clip art: just say no)
6. No base to stand on (make sure you include all your contact information)
7. Too frequent makeovers

The main thing you can do to save your emails from quick death: Be relevant. Make them about donors, not your awesome organization.