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Newsletter, August 2004

By Karen Lemke, Client Development Manager

Nonprofit Neighborhood

Making Headlines

Several clients of thedatabank have been featured prominently in the nonprofit press in the past few weeks.  National Voice and Wellstone Action were featured in the following articles on voter participation:

A Drive To Mobilize Voters
Chronicle of Philanthropy, 7/22/04

Young Potential Voters Are Sought
Nonprofit Times, 7/1/04

Also in the news was the Minnesota Smoke Free Coalition, which used e-ActionMax to connect citizens with their city council members and mayors.  In July, Minneapolis, Bloomington, and Moorhead, MN passed ordinances to make bars, restaurants, and certain other workplaces smoke free.

No Smoking Here
Star Tribune, 8/13/04

Tip du Jour

Extra!  Extra!

This month, we have not one but TWO tips for you.  CEO Chris Hanson is back with another entertaining yet informative Techno-Babble Briefing, and there's also a bonus tip from Karen.    

Techno-Babble Briefing #2: More About ASPs
There are some basic differences that one should be aware of when shopping for and working with an ASP.  This briefing looks at three of these differences:  Whose software is it, where is the software located, and how is the software accessed.

Bonus Tip: News setting on e-ActionMax
Summer is a relatively quiet time for Action Alert emails, but you can still keep supporters up to date by publishing news on your Action Site.

Karen's Blog

What's Black and White and Read All Over?

Plain text email, that's what.  It's quick, it's effective, and it's built in to every system thedatabank offers.  And now, we've made it even easier to merge personal information into your bulk emails.  (See "Upgrade" in the right hand column.)

But let's say you want something with a little more...vavoom.  Something with color.  Fancy fonts.  Bells and whistles.

And you also want tracking.  You want to know how many people received your message, and how many bounced.  You want to see how many people forwarded your message.  You want to track click-throughs.

You want PowerMail! PowerMail is a bulk email tool that lets you design and publish newsletters like this one.  Unlike many other products, PowerMail is completely integrated with your main database (DonorMax, VoterMax, and/or e-ActionMax) so that you don't have to transfer email addresses or results back and forth between two systems.

I have been using PowerMail to publish this newsletter for 8 months now, and I have to tell you, it's a lot of fun!  Here are a few of the interesting things you can do:

• Add your organization's official colors to the color palette.
• Design and save a newsletter template or email letterhead that resembles your web site, with working navigation.
• Add bookmarks - when someone clicks on an article title in the table of contents, it will jump to the start of that article.
• Send an email that is red all over - literally!

Powermail can be very effective, not just for informing your supporters, but for enticing them to your web site.  It's an important part of your tool kit for building online communities.  Want to know more?  Visit  PowerMail  on OUR web site.

Karen

Announcements

System Upgrades

Email merge function has been improved - automatically turns on/off

Events

Open House
August 26th
4-6pm
at our new office near downtown Minneapolis.

Just For Fun

America's Finest News Source:  The Onion

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