Newsletters and Websites

Newsletters

Newsletters are published more frequently than the annual report and are therefore a good way of communicating on a more regular basis about current issues. They also tend to be more informal than annual reports. Even if the main intended audience of your newsletter is your membership or the people that use your service, you should try to distribute it more widely if possible.

Newsletters provide a good insight into the kinds of issues that are relevant to your organisation and as such are also of interest to policy makers, funders, other organisations in the community and voluntary sector, and so on. Newsletters may also be sent electronically either as attachments to emails, or preferably, as simple e-bulletins.

Websites

It is now the norm for organisations to have some sort of presence on the internet, and this trend will both continue and strengthen. Websites can range from a few simple pages to complex interactive sites.

Even if you do not have your own website, details of your organisation should be listed on other relevant sites. As websites can be updated relatively easily, they provide an ideal opportunity for publicising your organisation and all that you do. The type of information you can put on a website is almost limitless; the following is just a selection:

• Your contact details
• Information about your structure, plans, services, membership, etc
• News
• Photos and biographies of your staff and direct links to email addresses
• Publications, including free downloads and/or option to purchase on-line
• Your policies, internal and external
• Submissions you have made to government, etc
• Polls and surveys
• If applicable, information about how to become a member and do so on-line
• Details of past and upcoming events.

Note that deciding to put information on a website means that you will also have to plan for the resources to monitor and update the information on a regular basis.