Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello! Our shelter has a new director and we are growing by leaps and bounds! I was transitioned from a Tech 1/Volunteer Coordinator/some social Media to Volunteer Coordinator/Foster Coordinator(new program for us)/Marketer/Event manager/Lots of Social Media/Working Cat Program/Community Outreach...and starting TONS of new programs with kids, court ordered community service, Pet Away the Stress events, sleepover fosters... basically a catch all job :) I'm doing tons of outreach via social media and events, but nothing personalized. That is where I want to go next. What software do you use to do things like share a newsletter? Contact donors about new programs/events? Send birthday cards? And what is the cost of the program you use? We have WAY outgrown our budget and we are a municipal shelter.  Any suggestions are much appreciated! I need something fairly streamlined, easy to use, and quick to use, because I have a lot going on right now, haha! It is a very exciting time around here!

Congrats on the new transition! For digital newsletters, I really like MailChimp as a great tool to store contact information from donors and have them on a nice email list to send to when you need. It also offers plugins to allow you to collect emails on your website if you want to spread your reach.

In terms of pricing, they have a free option available for up to 2000 subscribers and up to 12,000 emails sent per month. If you surpass that # of subscribers, you can opt into other plans at about $10/month. They also have a bunch of beautiful templates that are drag & drop so it makes it really easy for you to create emails. You can check out their pricing here.

Hope that helps some. Best of luck! 

I work with the Friends of a municipal shelter, we use Mail Chimp for emails/newsletters, and also Sales Force for donor tracking. We hope to use Sales Force for more in the future. We got a nonprofit license that was either free or cheap, and you can usually find volunteer help to get up and running (we are in an area with lots of techie types).

Thank you everyone! I just set up Mailchimp and so far it is working great! I will have to look into Sales Force!