I received a request yesterday for a price quote to do a monthly newsletter for a friend's animal rescue organization. Being a friend and former board member, my quote was low compared to my average price, however it was still not in her budget. This is a problem that most animal rescue organizations face.
I gave my friend the following advice and wished her well.
If you have no budget to start an e-mail newsletter, sign up for a service such as www.mailchimp.com which is free for those with less than 2000 subscribers. The sign up form can be easily embedded into your Facebook page in order to capture new subscribers.
See the example on my own Facebook page here.
Once you have set up your account, search "mailchimp" on Facebook and click on the MailChimp app. You will then be prompted to follow instructions on how to install on your Facebook page. Make sure to make a post on your page with a link to the subscription form and let them know it can be found anytime at the top of your page.
To build your mailing list, you will want to add any e-mail address of any person who has ever had involvement with your organization in any capacity, ever. It may be a pain to gather all of this info initially, but it will be well worth it in the end. You will want to add these people to your mailing list and then give them the option to "opt out" or "unsubscribe" should they not want to receive updates. Every time someone contacts your organization, add them to the mailing list.
I would not recommend sending out a newsletter more than once per month. As for content, consider the mission and goals of your organization. Your audience will consist of your past, current and potential volunteers, donors, clients/adopters, service providers, sponsors, etc. They would like to know how your organization is doing, what progress you are making and, often, how they can get more involved.
Your newsletter is your venue to summarize your monthly achievements, to honor a volunteer of the month or a special donor, to advertise volunteer or donation needs, and more. You can include feature stories, such as a special rescue caught on video or volunteers, adopters and animals interacting at an adoption event. This is your time to showcase what you are doing and how you are doing it. This is also your chance to make a plea for a donation. It could be for a general Veterinary Care Fund or perhaps you have a special case such as a rescue animal who needs an expensive surgery.
As far as affording this service should you not have time, energy or available volunteers to do this monthly task, it literally pays for itself by providing a platform for sharing your work and soliciting donations. Another option is to offer ad space to sponsors. Veterinarians, groomers, pet supply providers, and other businesses that have a similar audience would probably appreciate the opportunity to support your organization and to have the advertising venue. It is a win win situation. The National Council of Nonprofits offers this helpful Corporate Sponsorship Toolkit.
Another perk of using a newsletter service like MailChimp is the social media integration. I mentioned the Facebook sign-up form above, but it is also compatible with other platforms such as Twitter. Your subscribers can easily share with their contacts, thus giving you the potential to gain even more supporters.
MailChimp is very user friendly and they also have these handy guides available for pretty much any question you can come up with.
I hope you find this post helpful. Please feel free to offer your thoughts on newsletters, service providers, what's worked what hasn't, etc. in the comments below.
If you do not have the time, the desire (but have the NEED) or the help to do a newsletter, by all means, contact me and I will be more than happy to provide the service.
I gave my friend the following advice and wished her well.
If you have no budget to start an e-mail newsletter, sign up for a service such as www.mailchimp.com which is free for those with less than 2000 subscribers. The sign up form can be easily embedded into your Facebook page in order to capture new subscribers.
See the example on my own Facebook page here.
Once you have set up your account, search "mailchimp" on Facebook and click on the MailChimp app. You will then be prompted to follow instructions on how to install on your Facebook page. Make sure to make a post on your page with a link to the subscription form and let them know it can be found anytime at the top of your page.
To build your mailing list, you will want to add any e-mail address of any person who has ever had involvement with your organization in any capacity, ever. It may be a pain to gather all of this info initially, but it will be well worth it in the end. You will want to add these people to your mailing list and then give them the option to "opt out" or "unsubscribe" should they not want to receive updates. Every time someone contacts your organization, add them to the mailing list.
I would not recommend sending out a newsletter more than once per month. As for content, consider the mission and goals of your organization. Your audience will consist of your past, current and potential volunteers, donors, clients/adopters, service providers, sponsors, etc. They would like to know how your organization is doing, what progress you are making and, often, how they can get more involved.
Your newsletter is your venue to summarize your monthly achievements, to honor a volunteer of the month or a special donor, to advertise volunteer or donation needs, and more. You can include feature stories, such as a special rescue caught on video or volunteers, adopters and animals interacting at an adoption event. This is your time to showcase what you are doing and how you are doing it. This is also your chance to make a plea for a donation. It could be for a general Veterinary Care Fund or perhaps you have a special case such as a rescue animal who needs an expensive surgery.
As far as affording this service should you not have time, energy or available volunteers to do this monthly task, it literally pays for itself by providing a platform for sharing your work and soliciting donations. Another option is to offer ad space to sponsors. Veterinarians, groomers, pet supply providers, and other businesses that have a similar audience would probably appreciate the opportunity to support your organization and to have the advertising venue. It is a win win situation. The National Council of Nonprofits offers this helpful Corporate Sponsorship Toolkit.
Another perk of using a newsletter service like MailChimp is the social media integration. I mentioned the Facebook sign-up form above, but it is also compatible with other platforms such as Twitter. Your subscribers can easily share with their contacts, thus giving you the potential to gain even more supporters.
MailChimp is very user friendly and they also have these handy guides available for pretty much any question you can come up with.
I hope you find this post helpful. Please feel free to offer your thoughts on newsletters, service providers, what's worked what hasn't, etc. in the comments below.
If you do not have the time, the desire (but have the NEED) or the help to do a newsletter, by all means, contact me and I will be more than happy to provide the service.
