A professional group for women focused on marketing’s favorite technology, email, is gaining some major momentum.

Last week, Women of Email, a group founded about two years ago, announced that it had reached a fresh milestone—it now has 1,500 members—and that it had officially received nonprofit status. The group, launched in response to a lack of diversity in email marketing panels at events, has picked up steam by drawing attention to issues of gender equality within the space.

The group announced the new milestone last week as a part of International Women’s Day.

“We are so proud of our tremendous growth and impact on the email community in such a short period of time,” said Jen Capstraw, the group’s president, in a news release.

While the sector has traditionally been fairly balanced in makeup—MediaPost cites a Litmus study that finds 47 percent of email marketers are women, and some of the biggest newsletter success stories, like The Skimm and Lenny, specifically target women—a gender pay gap lingers in the industry. Per MediaPost, women make 89 cents on the dollar in email marketing, with the gap narrowing among younger generations. There’s also that lingering problem of women not getting a spot on stage at industry conferences.

Women of Email has tackled these issues through its online community, which has created mentoring opportunities, along with the launch of a speakers bureau to help promote speakers. That bureau will make an appearance in a big way at the EiQ email conference in Atlanta next month.

April Mullen, the treasurer of Women of Email, noted in a news release that the group has helped members find confidence in asking for raises, building their public speaking profiles, and improving their writing skills.

“We’ve discovered repeatedly that prior to Women of Email, many of our members felt isolated while facing common challenges that affect working women everywhere and, more specifically, in the email marketing niche,” Mullen said. “We’ve given them a community to get the advice, mentorship, and confidence needed to accelerate their careers.”

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