We are very excited about our new service offering: the Initial Technology Assessment. We have already begun offering his service to a handful of camps and have found it to be an effective way to ensure camps are considering technology in conjunction with their Mentor and their overall fundraising and outreach goals. Please read the Case Study about Camp Morasha's experiences with the service so far to learn more about what the service provides, what it requires, and how you can get started with the service.

 

In addition, read below to learn about how Tamarack Camps are utilizing eNewsletters to reconnect with the alumni, and strategies for cross-promoting all of your great content and communities online.

 

Don't forget to check out our Technology Program blog. We have added a few new posts since our last eNewsletter. For example, we blogged about using Fundraising Pages to engage donors, an easy way to offer camp merchandise, and finding good technology deals for nonprofits on TechSoup.

Are you using eNewsletters to reconnect with your alumni and other constituents? Tamarack Camps utilize a service called MailChimp for their eNewsletters. Similar to Constant Contact (which we use for our eNewsletters at the Grinspoon Institute), MailChimp reports on which email addresses are correct, as well as on who is clicking on which features in the eNewsletter. Tamarack used Constant Contact at one time, but found MailChimp to be more user-friendly, especially to set up the templates; Carly Leipsitz, the Development Associate at Tamarack Camps, is able to set up the templates all on her own.

 

Note that the costs are similar the two services: MailChimp's base costs for nonprofits are cheaper, but Constant Contact's deal for nonprofits who prepay annually is the cheapest. For example, it costs $63.75/month for MailChimp if you have 5,001 - 10,000 records in your database. That same account will cost $75/month with Constant Contact, but only $52.50/month if you prepay for the entire year. *Note: there are many other services available that offer similar functionality.

 

Tamarack Camps have found their eNewsletters to be an effective way to reach out to their alumni. They send out alumni eNewsletters every other month. These eNewsletters offer updates on various alumni, interviews with alumni, news about upcoming events, etc. You can see an example of one of their recent eNewsletters that featured married alumni who originally met at Tamarack Camps here. In addition, Tamarack Camps sent out an end of summer eNewsletter out to all constituents: alumni, campers, camper parents, donors, etc. and plan to send these eNewsletters out to all of their constituents every year. Finally, Tamarack Camps hope to begin utilizing MailChimp to send out an eNewsletter to donors every other month (opposite the alumni eNewsletters). These eNewsletters will recognize people for their gifts, talk about what their donations have allowed the camps to do, and even show future plans (i.e., architectural diagrams).

 

These eNewsletters - in tandem with a new focus on alumni events - have helped Tamarack Camps triple the number of alumni in their database in just one year. Tamarack Camps include a link to an online alumni registration form in every eNewsletter and also offer a form right on the sidebar of each eNewsletter for alumni to fill out and return when their contact information changes. The eNewsletters include a "Forward" option, which many alumni use to invite other "lost" alumni to reconnect and contact the camp.

 

Carly uses MailChimp to report on the success of the eNewsletters, too. For example, she found that a large number of constituents who use AOL email were having their eNewsletters bounced back. Carly is in the process of working with MailChimp and her constituents to resolve this issue.

 

The important thing for all camps and organizations is to make sure they are communicating and connecting with their alumni. eNewsletters - no matter which service you utilize - offer a relatively inexpensive, simple way to do this.

 

If you are planning an eNewsletter, check out MailChimp's comparison chart to see how MailChimp stacks up against other services, including Constant Contact.