How to Proactively Build Your House Email List

A philosophical question:
“If an e-newsletter is powerful enough to move someone to action, but no one’s around to read it, does it make an impact?”

If not particularly mind-bending, this inquiry does bring up a valuable (seemingly obvious) point: You can craft a fabulous e-newsletter, send it out just the right number of times per year and impart some really powerful information, but you need to create an email contact list (an audience) at your organization to be effective. Here are four tips to get you started on the road to contact-information glory:

1. Make it easy and compelling for your website visitors to give you their email addresses. The majority of people visiting your organization’s website are there on purpose, they may have been searching for your organization in particular, or perhaps, simply shopping around for a nonprofit with your mission. Make the sign-up button easy-to-spot, put it “above the fold,” and make your form brief yet informative (you risk form abandonment if you require or ask for too many pieces of information).
   
2. Include “join our email list” everywhere you can. Once you have your online form, send people there from all directions; your homepage, the signature at the bottom of your email (your everyday contacts may opt-in), and other places you have content posted on the Internet, such as blogs and social-networking pages.
   
3. Use the “people love free stuff” principle. Give an incentive… You’re asking people to give you something (information), and they’re going to wonder what’s in it for them:
   
   • Set up a drawing.
   • Offer prizes to the first X people who sign up for your new e-newsletter or who sign up by Y date.
   • Show people that they’re making a difference and/or joining a community.
     
4. Make it easy for your current subscribers to hook their friends. Promote your newsletter and gain new subscribers by asking current subscribers to forward your message along; consider including a “forward to a friend” link in your message. Keep in mind that you should always include a subscribe link in your newsletter so people who do receive a forwarded copy have an easy way to get their own copy in the future.

Article Credit:
Rebecca Ruby Higman, Marketing Specialist and manager of
http: www.fundraising123.org, Network for Good.

Should Philanthropy & Business Mix?

The debate about so-called philanthrocapitalism has jumped the Atlantic.

In an opinion article in The Guardian newspaper, in London, Tristram Hunt, a history professor, writes that Google.org, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other groups that mix philanthropy and business practices will not solve health inequities and global poverty.

Such donors have “little engagement with the kind of structural injustices — racial, economic, social — or broader environmental, demographic or strategic challenges that require political advocacy. Having made their riches from the existing free-market model, venture philanthropists see little need to confront its problematic aspects,” he writes.

But in a letter to the editor, Kurt Hoffman, director of the Shell Foundation, disagrees.

“Many of these new actors have been motivated precisely because governments and charities have failed for decades to deliver, particularly in the developing world, where the delivery of aid has an atrocious record. Do we want to continue with the status quo or apply some fresh, inherently efficient and potentially very effective thinking to find new solutions to old problems?” he asks.

What do you think?

Article Credit:
Ian Wilhelm, Chronicle of Philanthropy

Google Tools for Nonprofits

Google for Nonprofits, a site designed to educate charities about the search giant’s suite of Web-based tools, debuted last week.

The lineup of applications on Google for Nonprofits

(Credit: Google)

Essentially, it’s a lineup of links to Google’s various applications and tutorials for using them, but with a charitable spin. A link to YouTube is accompanied with “broadcast your cause to the world’s largest online video community.” Google Groups come with a suggestion of “communicate easily to staff or volunteers and encourage discussions among supporters.”

Google for Non-Profits is promoted as “a one-stop shop for tools to help advance your organization’s mission in a smart, cost-efficient way.”

The site includes ideas and tips on how Google’s free suite of tools — including Google Docs, Google-hosted email and Google Calendars — can assist non-profits.

Institutions can use Google Checkout to accept online transaction and without fees until 2009. They can also sign up for free advertising via Google Grants.

10 Mistakes to Avoid with Email Newsletters

Newsletters have become the primary tool for nonprofits to keep donors informed about how their contributions are being spent and why the checks should keep coming.

In MarketingSherpa’s report on Top 10 Email Newsletter Mistakes, publisher Anne Holland makes the case that newsletters must remain kept fresh to be effective. “Your official newsletter has to be taken up, shaken upside down, tested, and then revamped every year or so,” she wrote.

She also advises being careful. “I believe newsletter revamps are a lot like (Web) site revamps, where enormous changes … can be dangerous,” she wrote, especially in the short term. To minimize the disruptions, she ticks off several common mistakes to avoid, including:

• Don’t assume you have permission to put someone on the mailing list.
• Don’t write a “one size fits all” newsletter; readers may delete it quickly. Canvas readers to learn their interests, then tailor a newsletter accordingly.
• Don’t send a plain acknowledgment email for a subscription. Dress it up in the text or with graphics or both.
• Don’t set a publishing schedule arbitrarily. Research when readers will most likely read it.
• Don’t write an institutional newsletter. Personalize it where possible without getting too cute.
• Don’t make it one way. Include ways for readers to reply.
• Don’t write too long. Include graphics or links to audio and video.
• Don’t assume your email will get through filters.
• Don’t use a typeface too small to read.
• Don’t rely solely on email. Paper, for example, direct mail still has a place.

Wilkinson Speaks at SCANPO Annual Conference

The South Carolina Association of Nonprofit Organizations (SCANPO) recently held its annual nonprofit conference in North Charleston, SC. SCANPO consists of over 800 member organizations and serves as the statewide network, information center and advocate for the charitable nonprofit sector in South Carolina.

This year, nearly 400 members were in attendance for the association’s 11th annual conference at the Sheraton North Charleston. The two-day event was filled with several educational sessions where attendees learned more about management, development, collaboration and ways to engage the community. 
                                                                                                                                                
During the conference, attendees had the opportunity to listen to Jay Wilkinson, Digital Community Foundation Founder and Chairman, as he shared with them real-world success stories on how nonprofits are harnessing the power of the internet. In his presentation, Jay explained the five crucial elements necessary for an effective website, online fundraising tips and tricks, social networking strategies and more.

Jay has appeared on CNN and other news programs discussing how emerging technologies affect businesses and nonprofits and is considered a top authority on the web. Firespring is a leading provider of web solutions worldwide with nearly 3,000 customers in 14 countries.

Find out more information on SCANPO and their annual conferences by visiting www.scanpo.org.