Donor Emails From Salesforce: List Email, Mailchimp or Marketing Cloud?

What is the cheapest way to send donor newsletters from Salesforce?

For most small charities, List Email, because it is already in the licences you have. The question comes up every year or two on the Trailblazer Community (the August 2026 version is a newsletter to 600 to 700 NPSP contacts and leads), and the answers start by untangling four similarly named products. In one table:

Option	What you need	Included sends	List price as published, 24 Sep 2026	Best for
List Email	Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited or Developer Edition	Counts against the org limit, "typically 5,000 email recipients per day"	Included	A monthly newsletter and appeal emails from NPSP
Starter or Pro Suite Marketing app	Starter Suite (US$25, AU$35) or Pro Suite (US$100, AU$140) per user per month	2,000 email sends a month, extra 1,000 for US$10 a month	Included in the Suite	Small teams already on a Suite
Salesforce Foundations	Enterprise Edition or above, then the free add-on	2,000 monthly email sends, more via your account executive	US$0 add-on	NPSP orgs on donated Enterprise licences that want a builder
Mailchimp plus connector	Any Mailchimp plan, plus Beaufort 12's app on Sales or Service Cloud	Free 500 a month; Essentials 10x contacts; Standard 12x; Premium 15x	Mailchimp from NZ$19 (Essentials) or NZ$28 (Standard) a month at up to 500 contacts, 15% nonprofit discount; connector from US$25 a month per org	Teams that already know Mailchimp
Marketing Cloud Growth	A separate Marketing Cloud contract	Not stated on the pricing page	US$1,500 (AU$2,100) per org per month, billed annually	Multi-channel programmes with a marketing team

What does List Email do, and where does it stop?

List Email sends an individual email to each contact or lead in a list view, or to each member of a campaign, from inside Salesforce at no extra cost. Salesforce's help page Send List Email in Lightning Experience lists it as "Available in: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions". The Power of Us Program donates Enterprise Edition licences (see how nonprofits get 10 free Salesforce licences), so an NPSP org on them has List Email already.

Its limits are the reason it stays a newsletter tool. Per Salesforce's List Email Limitations: "List emails count against an org’s mass email daily send limit, which is typically 5,000 email recipients per day". The email limit overview confirms that the daily mass email limit covers "any emails sent through the 'Send List Email' option in the user interface", so an appeal and a newsletter on the same day share the pool.

On Enterprise Edition you can design the newsletter in the drag-and-drop Email Template Builder and "use the new template in an email or list email". What it does not do: no preference centre and no automated welcome or lapsed-donor series; Salesforce says list email is "not to replace your email application or handle mass-marketing campaigns". Consent is a field, not a system: Salesforce's email considerations page says "Leads and contacts with the Email Opt-Out option don’t receive emails when added to a list email", and that "It’s your company’s responsibility to provide a consent management path". It is workable for a few hundred donors, and stops being workable at the first segmented appeal.

What email marketing do Starter, Pro Suite and Foundations include?

The same allowance, 2,000 sends a month, with segments, campaigns and email analytics on top. The difference is which product you are on.

Starter and Pro Suite. Salesforce's Starter page says "Starter includes 2,000 emails per month. Plus, you can add on more as needed with the Marketing Email Sends Bundle for an additional 1,000 email sends for $10 USD per month." The Pro Suite page says the same: "Your plan includes 2,000 email sends per month" and "1,000 extra sends for just $10 USD per month." Marketing has to be switched on first; the setup article says the extra tasks are "required to meet email privacy regulations" and that the Suites "come with a default communication subscription". The marketing considerations page notes that your From address "is rewritten with a Salesforce domain when you send a marketing email", which matters for the identification rule below, and that remaining sends are visible in Setup under Company Information.

Salesforce Foundations. If you are on Enterprise Edition or above, the free Foundations add-on includes a "Drag-and-drop email builder", segmentation, "Built-in email analytics" and "2,000 monthly email sends"; its FAQ says "Marketing emails are limited to 2,000 email sends per org per month. Additional emails can be purchased through your account or your account executive." Our Foundations guide covers eligibility and activation. For an NPSP org on donated Enterprise licences, this is the closest thing to free email marketing that lives in Salesforce.

One dated note: as at 5 October 2026 Salesforce names the donated licences three ways. Its US nonprofit pricing page says "10 Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud Core licenses", its Asia Pacific page says "10 Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud or Sales/Service Cloud licences", and the Power of Us help article still says Enterprise Edition; check in Setup what you actually have.

What does Mailchimp cost, and how does it connect to Salesforce now?

Mailchimp is cheap to start and its Salesforce connector is no longer free. Mailchimp's pricing page renders in New Zealand dollars for a New Zealand visitor: at up to 500 contacts it showed Essentials at NZ$19 a month, Standard "starts at NZ$28/month" and Premium at NZ$550, with a free plan for "fewer than 250 contacts". Monthly sends scale with contacts, from "10X contacts" on Essentials to "15X" on Premium, and "Overages apply if contact or email send limit is exceeded." The page states that "Mailchimp offers a 15% discount to nonprofits and charities".

The connector is the part people miss. Mailchimp's own free Salesforce app is gone: Beaufort 12, the vendor now listed in Mailchimp's integrations directory, says "The original plugin was delisted in 2024" and that it "became the officially endorsed Mailchimp partner in May 2024". The directory entry reads "Cost Paid" and "Pricing: Starting at $25 USD/month per Salesforce org"; the AppExchange listing shows a US$25 monthly plan for up to 10,000 audience members with a 30-day trial. Zapier is the other bridge, and Salesforce is a premium app there; our online donations guide covers that cost.

For a 600-contact charity that means a plan in the 501 to 1,500 band, less 15%, about US$25 a month for the sync, and someone to own the field mapping so that Email Opt Out in Salesforce and unsubscribes in Mailchimp agree. That last item is where the troubleshooting threads come from.

When is Marketing Cloud Growth worth it for a nonprofit?

When you have a marketing team, several channels and a budget that starts at five figures a year. Salesforce's marketing pricing page lists "Marketing Cloud Next Growth Edition" at "$ 1,500 USD/Org/Month (Billed annually)", AU$2,100, and Advanced Edition at US$3,250, AU$4,550. The page states no contact count, send volume or nonprofit discount, and the nonprofit pricing page lists Marketing Cloud as an add-on with no price, saying only that "Salesforce offers discounts to eligible nonprofits".

At list, Growth is US$18,000 a year before implementation. It earns its place for journeys across email, SMS and web to a supporter base in the tens of thousands, run by people whose job is marketing. If that is you, get the nonprofit price in writing.

What do New Zealand and Australian consent rules require?

Three things, whichever tool you use: consent, identification and an unsubscribe that works. The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 "prohibits the sending of spam with a New Zealand link (i.e. messages sent to, from, or within New Zealand)", per the Department of Internal Affairs, whose three steps page puts the obligations plainly:

1. Consent. "Commercial messages must be sent only when you have express consent, inferred consent, or deemed consent." And: "Under the Act it is up to the sender to prove that consent exists."
2. Identify. "Commercial messages must always clearly identify the business responsible for sending the message and how they can be contacted".
3. Unsubscribe. "Commercial messages must contain a functioning unsubscribe facility", which "needs to be clearly presented, easy to use, free of charge and use the same medium of communication in which the original message was sent."

Australia's Spam Act 2003 has the same three rules in sections 16, 17 and 18, and its Schedule 1 has a specific item for government bodies, political parties and charities; get advice on whether your messages fall under it.

For the tools: List Email relies on you maintaining Email Opt Out by hand and writing your own unsubscribe line. The Suites come with a default communication subscription, but their Salesforce-domain From address means your organisation's name and contact details belong in the body. Mailchimp and Marketing Cloud manage subscriptions, and the risk moves to the sync: a donor who unsubscribes in one system and is still emailed from the other is a complaint waiting to happen. Whichever route, keep a donor record that shows what was consented to, when and how.

How do the options compare for a 600-contact charity?

Take a charity with 600 supporters, a monthly newsletter and two appeals a year on donated NPSP licences: roughly 600 sends a month plus two spikes, well inside 2,000 a month and 5,000 a day.

At 600 contacts, Foundations wins if your org qualifies, List Email if it does not and you send monthly, and Mailchimp only if the people sending already live in it. Marketing Cloud is not on the list at this size.

What do we recommend by charity size?

Charity	Start with	Move to	When
Under 500 contacts, one newsletter	List Email	Foundations	When you need segments or email analytics
500 to 5,000 contacts, appeals and events	Foundations on Enterprise Edition, or the Suite Marketing app	Mailchimp plus connector, or more Salesforce sends	When 2,000 sends a month is tight, or a volunteer team needs Mailchimp
Over 5,000 contacts, a marketing role	Mailchimp plus connector	Marketing Cloud Growth, on a written nonprofit price	When journeys across email, SMS and web are the job

Two things first, whichever you choose. Clean the donor data, because every option sends to whatever is in the record; our NPSP checklist covers deduplication and duplicate matching rules. And decide where the donation itself lands; our guide to getting online donations into Salesforce covers the platforms, and if you are still choosing between NPSP and Nonprofit Cloud, see Nonprofit Cloud vs NPSP first.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cheapest way to send a donor newsletter from Salesforce? List Email, if your org has it. It comes with the Enterprise Edition licences the Power of Us Program donates and sends to a list view, within the org's daily mass email limit, which Salesforce says is typically 5,000 email recipients a day. It can use drag-and-drop templates but has no subscription centre or automated series, so it suits a monthly newsletter, not a marketing programme.

Does Salesforce include any free email marketing for nonprofits? Two ways. Starter Suite and Pro Suite include 2,000 email sends a month, with extra sends at US$10 per 1,000. Salesforce Foundations, the free add-on for Enterprise Edition and above, includes 2,000 monthly email sends with a drag-and-drop builder and segmentation. Neither is priced for nonprofits specifically, and both stop at the send limit until you buy more.

Is the Mailchimp Salesforce integration still free? No. Mailchimp's own free app was delisted in 2024, and Mailchimp's integrations directory now lists Salesforce Integration by Beaufort 12 as a paid app from US$25 a month per Salesforce org. Mailchimp plans start at NZ$19 a month for Essentials and NZ$28 for Standard at up to 500 contacts, with a 15% discount for verified nonprofits and charities.

How much does Marketing Cloud Growth cost for a nonprofit? Salesforce lists Marketing Cloud Growth Edition at US$1,500 per org per month (AU$2,100), billed annually, and Advanced Edition at US$3,250 (AU$4,550). Neither the marketing pricing page nor the nonprofit pricing page publishes a nonprofit price, so ask your account executive for a quote in writing.

What do New Zealand charities have to do to email donors legally? Follow the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007, which the Department of Internal Affairs summarises as three steps: send only with express, inferred or deemed consent and keep a record of it, clearly identify your organisation and how to contact it, and include a working unsubscribe facility that is free and easy to use. Australia's Spam Act 2003 has the same three rules.

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SAASKOOL is an Auckland-based Salesforce partner working with charities across New Zealand and Australia. Our nonprofit packages set up NPSP or Nonprofit Cloud with receipting and, on the Transform tier, a Mailchimp integration, with a 15% Pledge 1% discount on every package.