Email open rate benchmarks for associations and nonprofits (and why clicks matter more)

A good email open rate for an association or nonprofit is somewhere around 35% to 50%, depending on whose numbers you use. Constant Contact puts nonprofit membership organizations at about 36%, Mailchimp puts nonprofits at about 40%, and MailerLite puts them at about 52%. But open rates are inflated by Apple’s privacy features, so the number that actually tells you whether your emails work is the click rate, which for nonprofits sits around 3%.

Below are the benchmarks, where they come from, and what to do with them.

The benchmarks, side by side

Here’s what three of the big email platforms publish. Each measures its own customers, in its own way, over a different period, which is why the numbers don’t match.

Figures as published by each company, checked November 2026. None of them has a separate “associations” category, so nonprofit and membership numbers are the closest match.

Two things jump out. First, nonprofits and membership groups beat the all-industry average on every platform. People open email from organizations they chose to join. Second, the spread between platforms is huge, about 16 points for nonprofits. That alone should tell you not to treat any single benchmark as gospel.

Why open rates aren’t what they used to be

In 2021, Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection. For people who use the Apple Mail app and turn it on, Apple loads every email’s images in the background, including the tiny tracking image email platforms use to count opens. So the email counts as “opened” whether or not anyone looked at it.

All three companies above note this on their benchmark pages. MailerLite says it directly: MPP marks emails sent to Apple Mail as opened, so real open rates are lower than what the dashboards show. Constant Contact calls open rate a directional indicator rather than an exact measure.

What this means for you:

• Your open rate is probably overstated. How much depends on how many of your members read email in Apple Mail.
• Open-based tactics are less reliable. Resending to “non-openers” or testing subject lines by open rate still works somewhat, but the signal is noisier than it used to be.
• Trends still matter. If your open rate drops from 45% to 30% over a year, something changed. The absolute number is fuzzy. The direction is still useful.

Track clicks instead

A click is a real person doing a real thing. Nobody’s privacy setting clicks the “register” button for them.

That’s why I’d put click rate at the top of every email report. For nonprofits, the published click rates cluster around 3%: 3.3% at Mailchimp and 2.9% at MailerLite. If your member emails get clicks well above that, you’re doing great, whatever your open rate says.

A few other numbers worth watching:

• Click-to-open rate. Clicks divided by opens. It tells you whether the content worked once people saw it. MailerLite’s nonprofit median is about 8%.
• Unsubscribe rate. Both Mailchimp and MailerLite show nonprofits under 0.2% per send. If yours is creeping higher, you may be sending too often or to people who never asked.
• The thing the email was for. Registrations, renewals, survey responses. This is the number your board actually cares about.

How to improve your numbers

Benchmarks are only useful if they change what you do. Here’s what moves the needle for member email:

Send from a person. “Jordan at [Organization]” gets opened and answered more readily than “Organization News.” Use a real name and a role-based address that survives officer changes.

Give every email one job. One headline, one button. A newsletter can carry more, but the lead should still ask for one thing. Our member newsletter ideas article lays out a structure that does this.

Send on a steady rhythm. Same day, same time, every issue. Members build a habit, and habits get opened. An email calendar for the whole year makes this much easier.

Keep the look consistent. Same header, same colors, same layout. Recognition in a crowded inbox is half the battle.

Clean your list. Remove addresses that bounce and people who haven’t clicked anything in a year or more (after one last “do you still want these?” email). Smaller, engaged lists get better delivery, which raises everything else.

Authenticate your domain. Gmail and Yahoo now expect bulk senders to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Without them, more of your email lands in spam, and no subject line can fix that. Our article on email marketing for Michigan associations and chambers covers the basics.

How to set your own benchmark

The most useful benchmark is your own history. Pull the last 12 months of sends and write down the median open rate, click rate and unsubscribe rate. Then compare each new email to that, not to an industry average.

Split it by type, too. Renewal reminders, event announcements and newsletters behave differently. A 2% click rate might be weak for an event invitation and perfectly fine for a monthly newsletter.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good email open rate for a nonprofit or association?

Published benchmarks for nonprofits and membership organizations range from about 36% (Constant Contact, Q1 2026) to about 52% (MailerLite, Dec 2024 to Nov 2025). Because Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens, treat any open rate as a rough guide and compare against your own past results.

What is a good click rate for association emails?

Around 3% is typical for nonprofits, based on Mailchimp (3.3%) and MailerLite (2.9%). Event and renewal emails with one clear action often do better.

Why did my email open rate suddenly go up?

Often because more of your members use Apple Mail with Mail Privacy Protection turned on, which counts emails as opened automatically. Check whether your clicks went up too. If they didn’t, the jump probably isn’t real engagement.

Want help making your member emails get clicked, not just “opened”? It’s part of what we do in marketing for associations and chambers. Request an introduction.