Successful Newsletters
A regular newsletter is a good way to stay in touch with your supporters and if used right, can be a valuable marketing tool. You can use newsletters to promote upcoming fundraising events, request donations, acknowledge sponsors and keep supporters up-to-date with projects and plans.
A well written newsletter can turn people from sometime-supporters into avid fans, but getting it right is as much an art, as it is a science. You need to consider content, regularity and distribution, as well as how it LOOKS and FEELS.
The following websites provide a useful source of photographs, pictures, fonts and templates to help make your newsletter look professional. Most of these websites offer free downloads, with some charging a one-off small fee. For a free checklist on ‘Writing a Successful Newsletter’ email tracy@exult.co.nz
Free stock photography
The site hosts hundreds of photographs that you can download and use royalty free. They are fairly generic, so you can find a photo to suit most situations.
http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/gallery/
Free clip art
This site has over 10,000 clipart images in over 300 categories. You can download and use any of the images for free. As far as clipart goes, there is a good selection in various styles.
www.1clipart.com
Free fonts
An awesome site which literally has 1001 fonts (lettering styles) you can download and use for free. If you can picture it, you can find it here.
www.1001freefonts.com
Stock photos
iStockphotos has nearly 5 million photographs and illustrations you can download to use in your newsletters or any other marketing material. There is an initial cost (starting form just $1), but after that you can use the picture royalty free. There are photographs and illustrations to cover almost any topic and they are of fabulous quality. It’s a small investment for a really professional look.
www.istock.com
Microsoft Office newsletter templates
Over 100 newsletter templates which can be downloaded for free and used with either Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher. Simply download the template and then cut and paste in your own information. There are lots of different styles to suit all sorts of organisations.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101043281033.aspx
Email templates
30 free templates to create great looking email newsletters. Simply download the template you like and cut and paste your own photographs, logos, illustrations and words.
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/templates/
* If you know of other useful sites, please email kerri@exult.co.nz