Your fundraising newsletter will attract more readers, raise more funds and retain more donors when you publish outstanding photographs.

Photographs are the most important images you can feature in your donor newsletter. Good photos make your newsletter pages more interesting. They help your non-profit organization communicate immediately who you are and what you do and who you help. Photos, more than other element, help you distinguish one issue of your newsletter from another.

Readers tend to look at photos first, then headlines, then photo captions, then the article. Which means your photographs must grab the attention of your readers. Here’s how to recognize a great photo when you see one (or take one).

Email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your audience, and ensure you stay top of mind on a regular basis. Newsletters by email are easy, inexpensive, they promote your organization on a regular basis and they add to your overall marketing mix by providing you extra face time with your audience. So what’s the best strategy for conducting an email newsletter campaign? Here are a few suggestions that keep your emails out of the deleted folder:

One of the most important decisions you'll ever have to make about your email newsletter is which company to choose for delivery. Choose wrong and maybe your newsletter will never see the light of day in your members email inbox. Choose right and your provider will seamlessly supply whitelisting, subscription management, tracking and reporting, and much more.

Here's a comprehensive checklist of basic features you'll find important. Use it to find a good match with the right email newsletter provider.

It isn't often I get the pleasure of writing a book review on a subject so near and dear to my heart: Creating newsletters, magazines, and websites. As the owner and creator of several websites that double as an online magazine, newsletter and yellow pages phone book for the nonprofit world, it was wonderful to be able to "pick the brains", so to speak, of nonprofit publishing experts Cheryl Woodard and Lucia Hwang.

Their recently released book, Every Nonprofit's Guide to Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Magazines & Websites People Will Read, by Nolo.com, contains exactly the kind of essential information I wish had been available to me back in 1996 when I first ventured into the world of publishing.

A conversation with Cheryl Woodard & Lucia Hwang, authors of Every Nonprofit's Guide to Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Magazines & Websites People Will Read.

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INTERVIEWER: Do you recommend that all print publications also have websites?

CHERYL: Absolutely! Today, people expect organizations, companies and associations--even their neighborhood restaurants-to have a website. If readers can't find you online, you miss an opportunity to get your message out to the public, and your organization loses credibility.

LUCIA: That's right. And producing a professional website is easier and less expensive than you may imagine.

9 Ways to Get a Newsrack Look on a Nonprofit Budget

1. Don't skimp on cover art. If you have a limited art budget, spend the majority of it on the cover image. Be sure to give your artist exact specifications about what you'll need-and don't forget to save room for the logo, cover lines, and perhaps also the address label and bar code if those ultimately appear on your cover.