NAMI-NYC Builds Stronger Connections Through Smarter Email

“With Constant Contact, our community members get the information they need, when they need it.”

When someone experiences mental illness, their whole world shifts — and so does the world of everyone who loves them. For more than 40 years, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI-NYC) has served as a vital resource for those struggling mentally. They offer connection, compassion, and essential support not only for individuals living with mental illness, but also for their loved ones who help them.

Founded in 1982 by a group of parents, NAMI-NYC was built on a simple but powerful idea: no one should have to face mental illness alone. Today, the organization offers free programs, support groups, and education for the one in five individuals living with mental illness, and for what they call “The Other 4,” referring to the families and caregivers walking alongside them.

In a time when 90% of U.S. adults agree the country is facing a mental health crisis, NAMI-NYC’s work is more critical than ever. And as their reach grows, so does the need for thoughtful, strategic communication. 

A communications strategy that supports a community

Hannah Vona is the Marketing and Communications Manager at NAMI-NYC. For the past two years, she’s overseen the nonprofit’s whole marketing operation, including everything from emails and social media to content planning and outreach strategy.

“Marketing is my whole job,” Hannah explained. “Every day, I’m working on communications that support our mission and help us connect with people in meaningful ways.”

But with a wide range of audiences from teens and parents to peer advocates and volunteers, Hannah and her team faced a familiar nonprofit challenge: how do you keep email communications clear, consistent, and relevant without spending all your time in your inbox? “We provide so many different programs,” she said. “And as busy professionals and caregivers, our community members need information that’s specific to them.”

As NAMI-NYC looked to elevate its email communications, the team saw an opportunity to be more strategic with how they reached different audiences. By using Constant Contact’s automation, segmentation, and planning tools, they were able to streamline their workflow and deliver more personalized, timely content that better reflected the needs of their growing community.

Segmenting by audience, growing by impact

NAMI-NYC has used Constant Contact since 2006, but only recently began using advanced features to strengthen their strategy. Using the automated path builder feature, they’ve built nine different automation paths based on segmented lists: family programs, teen programs, advocacy updates, peer support, volunteers, and more.

“Setting up the automations was quick and easy,” Hannah said. “Once we wrote the emails for each audience, we just plugged them into the paths, and that was that.”

Each path includes a sequence of three emails: sent upon signup, one day later, and again a week later. The first email offers a program overview — the second shares specific tools and resources. The third invites subscribers to follow NAMI-NYC on social media, creating continuity across channels. This automated approach has been especially effective in supporting one of the organization’s top priorities: growing the audience for their teen mental health programs.

NAMI-NYC hosts tabling events in the community to reach people where they are. During these events, they provide a QR code that links to their signup form for teen programs. Once someone signs up, they’re immediately entered into an automation path. The first message gives an overview of what NAMI-NYC offers for teens and families. The second includes a downloadable guide, Mental Health and Young People: A New York City Guide, created specifically for parents, school staff, and teens. The final email in the sequence encourages subscribers to connect on social, expanding engagement beyond the inbox.

This targeted outreach strategy has helped drive significant growth. Over the past year, NAMI-NYC’s contact list has increased by 33.6%, reflecting both the demand for their programs and the effectiveness of their engagement efforts.

Smarter emails, better engagement

With a growing list of segmented audiences, automation has saved the NAMI-NYC team hours of manual email work. At the same time, Constant Contact’s reporting and analytics tools, especially the heat map feature, have given them valuable insight into what content their audience engages with most.

NAMI-NYC sends out a monthly newsletter that includes upcoming programs, events, and resources. As part of their ongoing effort to strengthen communications, the team regularly reviews email performance data to find areas for improvement. In reviewing the heat map reporting for their monthly newsletter, they discovered that most clicks were happening on images rather than links in the body text.

That insight led to a new approach. NAMI-NYC began sending separate monthly emails tailored to each audience, each one featuring just three key items and relying heavily on visuals with minimal copy. These simplified, graphic-driven emails quickly proved to be more engaging and effective.

The team continues to monitor open rates, click-through rates, and visual engagement through Constant Contact’s reporting tools. They use those metrics to fine-tune subject lines, content structure, and design.

With a stronger focus on audience segmentation, visual content, and strategic automations, NAMI-NYC has seen impressive results in their email engagement. Within the last two years they had a 1% increase in click rate. Their average open rate now sits at 53% — an 18% increase over the industry average. 

Keeping organized and aligned with smarter planning

As NAMI-NYC’s programs and email audiences continue to grow, so does the need for a clear, centralized planning process. The team uses Constant Contact’s calendar view and scheduling features to keep their communications organized and aligned with departmental goals.

The content calendar has become a shared resource that’s easy for the whole team to access and understand. It allows them to build a robust email schedule that supports campaign planning, event promotion, and program visibility without losing momentum or duplicating effort.

With more structure around when and how emails go out, the team can focus on higher-level strategy instead of spending time on day-to-day logistics. “We can organize our content calendar more efficiently, foster our audience more easily using the automation feature, and focus on our overall email strategy instead of implementation,” said Hannah.

Staying focused on the mission

At the heart of it all, Hannah emphasized that Constant Contact gives the organization more than email tools — it gives them space to focus on impact. “We want people to feel like NAMI-NYC sees them,” she said. “That we’re here for them and understand what they’re going through. Constant Contact helps us deliver those messages with clarity and care.”

As NAMI-NYC continues to grow its reach, especially among teens and families navigating complex systems, email remains a vital tool for connection. And Constant Contact continues to support NAMI-NYC’s mission every step of the way.