Newsletters designed for those your charity serves can be an effective means of educating funders about your activities. These newsletters show firsthand exactly what services you provide, how you provide them, and how you interact with your clients. Consider putting the program officers of key funders on your newsletter mailing list in time for them to receive two or three issues before your proposal arrives. With political contacts, remember to send newsletters to their local as well as legislative offices when possible, and to include the top staff for each elected official.

Newsletters written specifically for your donors can be very effective tools for cultivating institutional funder contacts. Your donor newsletter should give your spin on what you’ve done: reporting on program accomplishments, giving news of past clients who have gone on to great accomplishments, and reporting on your fundraising successes.

I like to put all my funder contacts on the mailing list for the donor newsletter and a smaller group who have a real interest in the field on the list for the client newsletter.

Just as you don’t want your proposal to come out of the blue, your first newsletter shouldn’t arrive out of context either. Always include a cover letter similar to the following one when you add a funder contact to a mailing list.

Note that the emphasis in the first paragraph is on the information Mr. White can use, not on the charity itself. Although this letter introduces a client newsletter, when sending a donor newsletter for the first time, you’ll also want to point out an article that the funder might find useful for something other than learning about your charity.

If you mail out a couple dozen of these letters, you can expect to hear from one or two people who don’t want to receive any future issues. This might be a good indication that your proposal will meet with the same reaction, or it could just be an overworked program officer. If an individual phones you to ask to be removed from your mailing list, try to find out which is the case by asking if anyone else at the foundation might be interested in receiving your newsletter.

If yours is an e-mail newsletter, it’s just as important to send a “cover letter.” I’d send a cover letter by e-mail a day or two before the first newsletter issue with language just like the sample snail-mail letter. Be sure to include something in the subject line that identifies your organization. Don’t repeat words or use all uppercase (both typical of spam) in the subject line or in your message. And send these e-mails out one at a time so the recipient will think she is the only one you are approaching.

Because we all receive so much spam every day, you might also send a printed letter by regular mail to introduce the forthcoming e-mail. Otherwise, the funder might automatically delete your introductory letter if he or she doesn’t recognize your address or your organization’s name. And remember that the best times to e-mail are Monday afternoon through Thursday.

Actually mailing a newsletter is becoming almost quaint in these days of increased electronic communications. A printed copy gives you complete control over how you present your story. But with nicely formatted HTML e-mails, you can distribute electronic newsletters that are just as attractive as printed ones. Plain text newsletters are quickly becoming obsolete. Long ones won’t get read.

A number of vendors provide the means to both manage your e-mail lists and create impressive e-mail newsletters for as little as $50 a month. Most allow you to create fully designed (HTML) newsletters along with a plain text version for people using older e-mail software. It’s well worth the cost to present your charity in the best possible light.

Hopefully, the program officers on your list will share your newsletters with others. This is really easy with e-mail newsletters, thanks to e-mail forwarding. But printed newsletters, especially if they’re attractive and graphically interesting, will likely get circulated, too.

If your charity doesn’t have a donor newsletter, seriously consider creating one using e-mail to keep down costs. As a grant writer, you’re already familiar with your charity’s current programs and those in the planning stages. Knocking out the text for a two-page newsletter should be easy.

Two medium-length articles are all you’ll need to give your newsletter substance. You’ll be surprised at how easy this is to do and what a positive response you’ll get. Just keep everyone in your charity (including key board members) up-to-date on what you’re doing.

Here are examples of content found in donor newsletters:

You’ll find that some of the most successful articles in terms of donor response and appreciation are on resources outside your charity. The article could be on a crisis in your sector (“Funding for Libraries Slashed Statewide!”) or about issues affecting your sector (“Early AIDS Vaccine Trials Offer New Hope”). You could also review a book on wise giving or profile the local community foundation. By including articles that lie outside your charity, you show a broader perspective that funders appreciate while offering information they’ll find useful in several ways.