Publishing newsletters - how to do this for a not-for-profit organisation.

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OldGeek

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#310948 2-Dec-2023 12:40

Mods feel free to move this to a different Forum if need be.

I have got involved with U3A Bay of Islands (U3ABOI.org.nz, redirects to a WordPress site) and there are problems publishing and distributing a monthly newsletter. I have volunteered to be the Webmaster, but have minimal website maintenance skills. The major problem is that the committee running the organisation (includes the newsletter editor) potentially changes each year, so the way that newsletters are published and the website maintained needs to be as simple as possible. Being the sort of organisation we are the membership is elderly however experience using Windows Office apps is somewhat plentiful.

Currently the newsletter is published using Mailchimp, however after some years the newsletter editor (familiar with this software) has not only relinquished the position of editor but also left the organisation. The new Editor finds the software very cumbersome and non-intuitive. Each month the editor writes the new newsletter using the last one as a template but still struggles to get it done. Mailchimp then sends it out to 200+ members as an email. About 5 members have no computer so they receive a printed copy of the newsletter saved as a pdf file and printed therefrom. I get the pdf file and upload it to a Google Drive shared folder, and then update the website with a link to the shared file. I too struggle with WordPress to get the link created on the website each month, trying to remember how I did it last time. WordPress reports about 100 hits per month so traffic is minimal and the site probably not used much by existing members. Apart from the newsletter, website content changes very infrequently and I have an offer from a local company to do this gratis.

An alternative worth considering is to remove references to the newsletter from the website completely. The website then remains as a promotional tool only.

It should be noted that each U3A branch is independently run and managed. There is a U3A NZ organisation but they don't supply help in areas such as this.

I am primarily looking for feedback from GZers familiar or involved in similar situations, for suggestions on a way forward based on what other similar organisations have done.

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richms

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#3167168 2-Dec-2023 12:49

Mailchimp is probably one of the easiest tools to do this in. If the person is struggling with that then I would think they are not fit for the position.

Richard rich.ms

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#3167171 2-Dec-2023 13:05

another vote for mailchimp

OldGeek

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#3167172 2-Dec-2023 13:10

richms:

Mailchimp is probably one of the easiest tools to do this in. If the person is struggling with that then I would think they are not fit for the position.

We don't get to choose - this is the only person who would take on the (voluntary) role.

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robjg63

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#3167223 2-Dec-2023 16:42

richms:
Mailchimp is probably one of the easiest tools to do this in. If the person is struggling with that then I would think they are not fit for the position.

Have to agree strongly with this.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

ANglEAUT

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#3167229 2-Dec-2023 17:07

At ±200 members, would it not be easier to simply BCC everybody in a normal email?

Maybe look into creating a private Google group? (I don't know if you can do this without a Google managed domain) Easy enough to initially add everybody in & from there on they can unsubscribe themselves. Also only 1 address to remember instead of 100's.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

Goosey

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#3167315 3-Dec-2023 06:39

Just send the newsletter as a PDF

1) create a spreadsheet with 3 columns to start.... first name, surname, email address (later you can add membership number and address and phone.....this will be the start of a single file to manage the membership and then flow into creating a good database master file.

2) at each newsletter time, get a text or word doc and paste in the email addresses from the file above. Use this to then copy and paste into the mail as BCC

3) attach the newsletter PDF (obviously dont make them more than say 15Mb)

4) send

OR, continue using mailchimp (yeah I agree its a bit of a hassle if you are new to it)

Alternativley, replace step 3 above with a link to the google docs folder you mentioned (and this can be the place where your newsletter file is kept, and accessed instead of emailing out to everyone as a file).