Share Your Newsletter Success or Horror Stories

by Kivi Leroux Miller on January 12, 2010

in E-Newsletters,Print Newsletters

I’ve been asked to contribute a chapter to an upcoming book called “Nonprofit Management 101: A Field Guide for Social Sector Professionals” that Jossey-Bass will be publishing in early 2011. My chapter will be on crafting an effective newsletter strategy.

I want to include lots of real-world anecdotes and lessons learned in the chapter. Do you have a story you can share about your newsletter experience, either print or email (or both)?

Here’s what I’ll be trying to communicate through the stories:

  • Dos and don’ts, especially those that took awhile for you to grasp. What do you know now with some experience behind you that you wish you knew back when you started?
  • What’s most challenging about producing a nonprofit newsletter, and how are you addressing those challenges?
  • What mistakes have you made that you’d like to spare your nonprofit colleagues from repeating?
  • What experiments have you tried with your newsletter and how did they turn out?
  • What other words of wisdom would you share about producing a newsletter with someone new to the nonprofit world?

Any stories that help answer one or more of these questions would be wonderful! Please share in the comments or email me directly. If you email, please put Newsletter Story in the subject line.

Thanks!

P.S.  Here’s what’s coming up on the our training schedule . . .

January 21: How to Write a 4-Page Nonprofit Annual Report – A Crash Course Webinar

January 27: Integrating Your Website, Email Newsletter, and Social Media Sites

February 10: How to Write a Quick and Dirty Nonprofit Marketing Strategy

February 16: 10 Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans

  • The main thing I learned, long long ago, is that there is a strange syndrome that overtakes the brains of many people when they write articles for a nonprofit newsletter. Somehow, perhaps fantasizing that they work for a magazine, they decide that important topics merit high word counts. The result is that the staff person spends an inordinate amount of time writing the piece, which is guaranteed to be read by almost no one.

    I remember, decades ago, asking a colleague to write three paragraphs on a recycling project. She spent a week squirreled away in a conference room and then turned in four or five pages. I doubt anyone read it from beginning to end but the two of us.

    Everyone in the organization needs to be on the same page (no pun intended) about the purpose of the newsletter. Whatever it is for a particular organization, it's probably not a platform for program directors or project leaders to explain everything they know about the subject on which they work.
  • Love the anecdote, Matt! Will probably use it . . . I'll let you know.
  • Hi Kivi,

    A couple of pointers from a fundraising perspective.

    I'd recommend Tom Ahern's book on writing newsletter's as a must for anyone who wants to produce an interesting newsletter.

    From personal experience, if you are mailing your newsletter then there are two key things:

    A personal, friendly, cover letter, highlighting the key call to action or point from the newsletter.

    A donation/comments form for people to give feedback and donate.

    Hope that helps and good luck with the chapeter in the book,

    Craig
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