Animal Welfare Professionals

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

Hi Anne,

We are a very small organization with a low budget, so we've been utilizing Google Workspace for Nonprofits and Mailchimp to coordinate this.

Our website is Wordpress, and I've embedded a form from Mailchimp directly for folks to sign up to volunteer/ get our newsletter. It automatically puts it into Mailchimp and we send communication through there.

Our adoption/foster application process is through Google Forms, which is embedded on our website, so folks can apply, then it puts the information in a shared Google Sheet where we maintain the application records (I do have to manually upload those to Mailchimp for communications every so often).

Not sure that helps a ton, but that's what we've been doing.

Professionally, I have used Airtable as a low-cost CRM that also has form embedding functionality!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

Thanks for the replies!  We're all set for things like forms for now, but I appreciate all the info.  I believe MailChimp costs more than we can afford right now for our number of users, so we will continue fumbling along with the free resources we have for sending mass emails.  :-)

We do use Excel, WordPress, RescueGroups, and I am now trying out GiveButter, which I am liking for donor management!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We use MailerLite for email (free up to 1,000 subscribers) and Zeffy for a free donor management platform that also covers our fees.  So far so good on both.  When we get to the limit of 1,000 subscribers on MailerLite, I have the name of another email free email platform we're going to switch to.  Please message me if you're at that point.

Thanks for the replies!  We're all set for things like forms for now, but I appreciate all the info.  I believe MailChimp costs more than we can afford right now for our number of users, so we will continue fumbling along with the free resources we have for sending mass emails.  :-)

We do use Excel, WordPress, RescueGroups, and I am now trying out GiveButter, which I am liking for donor management!

------------------------------
Anne Fessler
Underhound Railroad

Original Message:
Sent: 02-27-2024 01:55 PM
From: Anne Fessler
Subject: Do you have a recommendation for a very low cost tool for emailing fosters, adopters, donors?

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We use MailerLite for email (free up to 1,000 subscribers) and Zeffy for a free donor management platform that also covers our fees.  So far so good on both.  When we get to the limit of 1,000 subscribers on MailerLite, I have the name of another email free email platform we're going to switch to.  Please message me if you're at that point.

Thanks for the replies!  We're all set for things like forms for now, but I appreciate all the info.  I believe MailChimp costs more than we can afford right now for our number of users, so we will continue fumbling along with the free resources we have for sending mass emails.  :-)

We do use Excel, WordPress, RescueGroups, and I am now trying out GiveButter, which I am liking for donor management!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We use MailerLite for email (free up to 1,000 subscribers) and Zeffy for a free donor management platform that also covers our fees.  So far so good on both.  When we get to the limit of 1,000 subscribers on MailerLite, I have the name of another email free email platform we're going to switch to.  Please message me if you're at that point.

Thanks for the replies!  We're all set for things like forms for now, but I appreciate all the info.  I believe MailChimp costs more than we can afford right now for our number of users, so we will continue fumbling along with the free resources we have for sending mass emails.  :-)

We do use Excel, WordPress, RescueGroups, and I am now trying out GiveButter, which I am liking for donor management!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

Hi Anne! 

We use Zeffy as our payment platform. It's free for nonprofits and we absolutely love it! They recently added a newsletter feature and I haven't heard of any size limits for it. You can upload your list of contacts to them and categorize those contacts as volunteers or however you want and use them for sending out your newsletters. I would also recommend checking out all they have to offer besides the newsletter. We've been able to utilize the platform for so many different kinds of fundraising all at no cost. If you have any questions I'd be more than happy to answer anything I could. 

Michelle

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We use Constant Contact. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I might be looking for more robust ways of customization that aren't applicable to you (yet!). I recommend MailChimp, as they've kind of been the go-to and are worth the effort, imo. What you should really focus on is integration - you want to make sure all of your systems can talk to each other. If you're relying on manual data entry, that may come back to bite you!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!

We are a small rescue and have been using RescueGroups.org for our data management and have a website built in WordPress.  RescueGroups has some mass emailing functionality, but only allows 3 lists I believe.  On our WordPress website, we have a plugin called "Newsletter," but the documentation and support is lacking.  I do like that RescueGroups integrates email with our database.

I am totally new to  the idea of "CRM."  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very inexpensive option for the email portion that could still handle up to 1,000 people categorized a few ways?  I don't care too much about fancy templates for the emails.

Or just share what you use.  I'd love to get ideas!

Thank you!