ARISE MX
Newsletter

The monthly newsletter of a disaster-response network in Mexico, shared by ARISE MX and Unidos por Ellxs. I took it over in October 2025 and replaced a layout rebuilt every month with a template the team fills. Open rate went from 20.3% to 27.6%.

Role Email Design · Editorial Production

Type Email · Nonprofit · Disaster Response

Tools Mailchimp · Hand-coded HTML email

The content changed first

The newsletter I inherited opened with an illustration and a date, then pasted the first lines of each article between brackets and sent the reader elsewhere to finish it. Nothing said what the edition was about or what to do next.

My first editions fixed the message: impact figures at the top and one donation button. The design did not follow. Each month was built from scratch — teal in November, blue in December, a different grid in January.

A template the team fills, not a layout I redraw

In February 2026 the newsletter got a fixed anatomy: menu, a label on top, one headline, two buttons — donate and volunteer — the partner strip, and dark sections tagged by topic.

Each area of the organization owns a section and sends its content; I edit it and assemble the edition. A new month now changes the stories, not the layout. Every edition since is built on it.

Few parts, fixed values

The template is a short list of components with fixed values: 8px corners on cards, 24px padding, pill buttons, one typeface. Colour lives in a handful of values: when August featured partner CADENA, the edition took their blue without touching the layout.

Palette

#CFE0D7

#EAF2EE

#12352D

#1E6D55

#66E39D

#DFF2E8

Type · Lato

La ayuda continúa. La solidaridad también.

Headline · 36 / 1.05 · 900 · highlight: 2px accent outline

Topos Azteca: cuando la experiencia salva vidas

Card title · 22 / 1.2 · 900

Historias de quienes responden, se preparan y colaboran para fortalecer la atención humanitaria.

Body · 16 / 1.7 · 400

Actions and labels

Dona ahora Únete como voluntario

Buttons · 16 · 800 · 12×16 padding · 24px radius

BOLETÍN RESILIENCIA JULIO 2026

Kicker · 14 · 900 · tracking .14em · pill

Cards

COMUNIDAD Y RESILIENCIA

Zilacayota: la comunidad donde la resiliencia forma parte de su historia

Light card · 8px radius · 24px padding

3Capacitaciones

2Municipios

105Negocios

Metric card · 26 · 900 · 2px accent outline

EMERGENCIA ACTIVA

Unidos por Venezuela: la solidaridad frente a la emergencia

La Red Unidos por Ellos activó sus mecanismos de coordinación para impulsar ayuda humanitaria inmediata.

Lee la nota completa

Dark story card · title 28 · 900 · body on #D4E7E2

More people open it. Clicks didn't follow

Open rate rose 36% and stopped swinging: every edition since November has landed between 25% and 32%.

Clicks went the other way: 2.0% on average, down from 2.3%, with two editions at 5.7% and 4.2%. The newsletter now gets opened; it doesn't yet get people to act. That is the next problem.

Mailchimp data: 5 newsletters from June to August 2025, against 11 from November 2025 to August 2026. Meeting invitations and alerts excluded.

Open rate 27.6%

Average across 11 editions. It was 20.3% before.

Change +36%

7.3 percentage points more opens per edition.

Range 25–32%

Every edition since November. Before, editions ranged from 18% to 27%.

Click rate 2.0%

Down from 2.3%. The next thing to fix.

ARISE MXNewsletter

Before

After