By Gina Cuclis

My last post criticized a public organization for a poorly executed e-newsletter. Today, I'm sending a shout out to the Sonoma Land Trust for having a monthly e-newsletter I recommend checking out. I've been a member of this environmental nonprofit for roughly 20 years. I think I pay more attention to its newsletter now that I receive it via e-mail, than I did when I received a quarterly paper newsletter.

Links to the Organization's Website

SLT's e-newsletter does what the one I critiqued previously did not — the articles are linked to the website. The e-newsletter contains the opening paragraphs with links to the full articles. Since all content is on the website, one doesn't have to be an SLT member to read its news. This benefits member recruitment and search engine optimization.

                             
Eye Pleasing

The screen shot here doesn't do it justice. I find its colors, headlines, use of white space, and the side bar, make it pleasing to view and easy to scan to find what I'm most interested in reading.

One Criticism:

If there's one thing I would change it would be reducing the amount of copy so little scrolling is needed to see what's in the issue. Readership drops off with scrolling. Following news writing style, with concisely written lead paragraphs, and only including the lead paragraph for each article would help.

If you're aware of a nonprofit or business e-newsletter you think is a good example, please post a comment telling us about it.