High-Precision Email List Growth: A Case Study in Co-Op Acquisition With a Regional Food Bank

The Digital Co-Op is a powerful tool for nonprofits who are aiming to expand their email and SMS audiences because of two key differentiators. The first is its best-in-class predictive modeling capabilities (which, thanks to a recent upgrade, just got even more advanced). The second? The sheer amount of data – over 150 million records from across the United States – in the Co-Op, all leveraged to find you the very best audience for your mission.

Of course, some nonprofits serve more local communities, depending on the support from audiences as precise as a single county. Leaders from these sorts of programs have asked: How does the modeling power of The Digital Co-Op measure up for programs working in a limited geographic area?

In this case study, we answer by taking a look at the story of a regional food bank’s program growth. This local nonprofit looked to The Digital Co-Op to find as many people within their constituency as possible to expand their audience – and raise more revenue.

Alongside other new and highly impactful innovations pursued by the leadership at this organization, The Digital Co-Op helped their program achieve standout growth in a challenging fundraising year:

  • A more than 110% increase in active email file
  • 87% YOY increase in email revenue in the first half of FY 2024
  • A total ROI of 200% with The Digital Co-Op in six months
  • 93% increase in year-end revenue over 2023 EOY

The Challenge

Since local food banks inherently serve a limited constituency, the geographic constraint of soliciting donations from this nonprofit’s specific county made typical lead generation approaches more challenging. Paid media through social platforms like Meta can be difficult to scale with narrow geographic targeting.

This organization came to The Digital Co-Op in June of 2023 with a specific goal: to find as many people in their constituency as possible with the means to give. With 150 million records in the Co-Op, this was an opportunity for their organization to boldly and quickly grow their file with extremely low risk to deliverability – the Co-Op utilizes a recency screen, among other tools, that ensures high-quality list delivery.

The Strategy

By infusing their email list with fresh new leads through The Digital Co-Op and continuing to send their engaging digital fundraising content to their newly expanded audiences, this nonprofit was able to reach a greater proportion of their local donors.

List growth through the Co-Op tripled their email list in four months, and the impact was immediate: Facing post-pandemic attrition in other areas, a new influx of small-dollar donors from Co-Op acquired leads were able to make up that difference and then some.

By investing in email list growth ahead of the year-end season, this organization bolstered their audience, priming them for some of their biggest asks of the year.

The Results

From the time they joined The Digital Co-Op in June of 2023 through the end of the calendar year 2023, this local food bank saw their email file increase from 24,000 to over 83,000, achieving more than 110% growth.

With this incredible new cohort of supporters, they were able to achieve:

  • More than $110K in donations from Co-Op acquired supporters
  • 87% YOY increase in email revenue in the first half of FY 2024
  • 315% ROI from a cohort of leads acquired in early December, with a full return in 13 days

With such a strong response from their new audience of supporters, we’re excited to see how email list growth through The Digital Co-Op continues to drive results for their incredible work and mission.


The Digital Co-Op is built to help your program find the donors, activists, and supporters that will help grow your mission. Got a list-growth goal you’d like to achieve? Check out more case studies and offerings, and get in touch by reaching out to thedigitalcoop@missionwired.com.