I get about a dozen nonprofit newsletters a week, either via email or in snail-mail. Most are so poor they aren't worth reading, and for that reason, they weren't worth writing. There are notable exceptions, but in general, I feel about newsletters the same way I feel about most mission statements-nonprofits spend a whole lot of time on them, but no one much cares. Newsletters? Not so much. So how do you become the dazzling exception? Here are three suggestions.
1. Don't do a newsletter, do something different.
People are inundated with newsletters, just like they are with wristbands and appeals with address labels. Yawn. So why not put your time and energy into something more unique and personalized? Like a phone call from your staff five minutes after someone gives or journal entries from program beneficiaries?
2. If you do a newsletter, write to the medium.
If you do a newsletter through the mail, fine, if it follows #3 on this list. But if you are doing an electronic newsletter, you CANNOT simply take the format you would use in the mail and throw it into an email! Write to the medium. Online communications need to be shorter and formatted for the web. You should not have to download a PDF and turn pages on your computer. Grab attention with photos, short text, good stories.
3. Make it about the donors and what they did -- or whoever is your target audience.
The newsletter should not be about how great you are, it should make your donor feel important. It should be about how great your donor (or audience member) is. And it should do something for that audience - make them feel good about themselves, or, if you're a membership organization, make their life easier. Giving out information about your charity is not the same thing as making someone feel good!
