Your church email open rate is lying to you

How “opens” get counted, and why it broke

An email open isn't really tracked. Your email tool tucks a tiny invisible image into the message, and when someone's app loads that image, it counts as an open. Clever, until Apple changed the rules. In September 2021, Apple's Mail Privacy Protection started pre-loading that image for users automatically, whether or not a human ever looked at the email. Other inbox providers do similar things now.

So a big chunk of your “opens” are machines. The nonprofit benchmarking group M+R found that roughly 64% of all email opens are machine opens, and they stopped reporting an open rate at all because the number quit meaning anything.

So what's a “good” church open rate?

Churches always land near the top of these lists. Constant Contact once put religious organizations at the highest open rate of any industry, around 38%, and Mailchimp pegs nonprofits near 40%. Both come from real data on a lot of emails. But the recent figures ride on those machine opens, so a 40% open rate is not 40% of your people reading. Use it as a rough trend line over time, not a headcount.

Watch these instead

• Clicks. Did anyone actually do the thing? A click is a person choosing to act. It's the most trustworthy signal email still gives you.
• Replies. Someone wrote back. That's engagement you can't fake or pre-load.
• Unsubscribes and spam complaints. Your early warning that you're sending too often, or to people who never really opted in.
• The actual outcome. Did people sign up, show up, give, or RSVP? That's what you were after, and it's the only number your elders will ask about.

Where texting fits

This is why churches reach for texting when something can't wait. You can't measure a text open either, but people read them fast: in a 2024 survey, 84% of folks said they read a new text within 15 minutes. Email is still great for detail and for anything that can sit until people get to it. Just stop trusting the open-rate number to tell you who saw it. The sourced statistics have the fuller picture.

Frequently asked questions

Are email open rates accurate?

Not since 2021. Open tracking relies on a hidden image loading when someone views an email, and Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (plus similar features) now pre-loads that image automatically, whether or not a person ever reads the message. A large share of reported opens are machines, not people.

What is a good email open rate for a church?

Reported figures put religious organizations and nonprofits among the highest of any industry, in the high 30s to low 40s percent. Those numbers are real, but the recent ones are inflated by machine opens, so read them as a loose trend rather than a headcount of who actually saw your email.

What should churches measure instead?

Watch clicks, replies, unsubscribes, and the actual outcome. A click is a human choosing to act, a reply is engagement you can't fake, unsubscribes are your early warning, and signups, attendance, or giving are what you were after in the first place.

Does email still work for churches?

Yes, for detail and for anything that can wait, like a newsletter, an event rundown, or a giving receipt. Just pair it with texting for time-sensitive messages, since email no longer tells you reliably who saw what.

Sources

• M+R Benchmarks (64% of email opens are machine opens) (2025)
• Constant Contact, email open rates by industry (religious orgs highest) (2015)
• Mailchimp, Email Marketing Benchmarks (nonprofit ~40%) (2023)
• EZ Texting, 2024 Consumer Texting Behavior Report (84% read a text within 15 min) (2024)