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Thursday, November 06, 2003


FREE Web Analysis Beauty Parade - 19th November

If you are interested in tools on how best to measure and report on your web site to get the most out of it, which solution to go with, what metrics to use, how to get the best returns on your investment and so on, you may be interested in this event. It's a presentation from a number of companies which offer the above services. Remember this is a beauty parade, so be warned these companies will be trying to sell their wares, but you will get a good idea about what's on the market.

Date: Wednesday 19th November
Time: 1.30pm - 5.30pm
Venue: 76 Portland Place, London
Suppliers presenting: WebAbacus, WebSideStory, Nedstat, Red Sheriff, Intellitracker and Site Intelligence.

If you'd like to attend, just e-mail events@netimperative.com with 'WA parade' in the subject line and the team there will e-mail you an application form back.

Read more...

Tuesday, November 04, 2003


Online Information - over 80 free seminars

Very good exhibition and set of seminars taking place at Olympia, London on the 2nd - 4th December.

The free seminars covering topics including CMS (Content Management Systems), search engines, writing for the web, online resources for research, e-publishing, web databases, virtual references and digital libraries, wireless and mobile tools and much more.

For full details and how to register, click here.

Monday, October 27, 2003


Online e-newsletters and non profits

Good article from OnPhilantrophy on how newsletters should be integrated with the marketing plan and strategy of your whole website and not just seen as an afterthought:

"Newsletters should be part of a nonprofit's integrated marketing plan, and as such should be consistent with the main themes of its Website. Visitors originally asked to receive the newsletter because there was content on the site that interested them. They will expect this same level of quality and substance with subsequent articles. Do not disappoint.....

It is important to include a donor piece in each issue. The ultimate goal of an online newsletter should be to increase one's donor base, and therefore, one's donations. Each newsletter should demonstrate the nonprofit's need in a specific way, perhaps highlighting a particular success story from the previous month, or profiling someone who will directly benefit from the generosity of the readership. End the article with a soft ask, or a donate now button."

Read more...


Friday, October 17, 2003


'Is Your Fundraising Illegal?' - Seminar from The Institute of Fundraising IT Special Interest Group

Three speakers will discuss three new issues currently causing concern to fundraisers, particularly from an online and emarketing perspective.

Mike Walton from Think CS will discuss the scope and potential impact of the new email marketing directive which will mean unsolicited email marketing cannot be practised from December 2003.

Solicitor Julia Wylie will present an insight into the legal situation surrounding online shopping and catalogues.

The third talk, on the benefits and legal concerns of Gift Aid.

The event is on the Tuesday 2 December 2003, at 6pm in Central London

For more details - click here...

Wednesday, October 15, 2003


Search Engine Optimisation
Useful article in the American Charity Channel today on optimising your site for search engines. You probably won't learn much more than the feature in this site, but at least you will see the importance of optmising your site so that it appears in a high position in the search engines, and the fact that to do this well you will need to spend some money on this:

"The process of SEO has spawned an industry of its own, in which firms and individuals charge anywhere from $300 to tens of thousands of dollars to optimize your Web pages. In competitive markets, a superior SEO firm can mean millions of dollars in revenue to a company. In the non-profit world, it could mean that a new major donor will find your Web site!"

Read more...

Monday, October 13, 2003


Always check the small print
There are many online organisations around which offer "great" returns for charities, but many of them may be actually using the charity's name to get publicity and sympathy with the public. The Guardian recently reported that Casino For Charities was not totally upfront by spelling out how much a charity would receive in return for people taking part in a newly launced online lottery.

"Casinoforcharities.com, (launched in late September) by internet gambling firm Gaming Corporation, pledges to donate 10% of gross profits to charities.......

"But the site fails to make clear that 97% of the money staked by players will be paid out in winnings, leaving just one-tenth of the remaining 3% to be distributed to charities - 0.3p in the £1.

"The 97% figure is cited in a statement issued to journalists but is not advertised on the website.......

"Only one charity - Christies Against Cancer, which supports the work of the Christie Hospital, Manchester - has so far signed up with Casinoforcharities.com. The charity is featured on the site as its "charity of the month" and its logo is prominently displayed. A Casinoforcharities press release describes Christies as "one of the first charities to take donations from the site".

But a spokesperson for the charity said it had not agreed to take a percentage of proceeds. "Christies Against Cancer is receiving a one-off £500 donation to mark the launch of the website. Charities cannot turn down a donation. Therefore every donation we receive is gratefully accepted and used to the best possible effect."

Read more...

Wednesday, October 01, 2003


Free seminars on website legalities
Law Firm, Masons, are holding free seminars on what your organisation should know about setting up and running a web site to comply with the law: the rules on web site accessibility, intellectual property, linking policies, chat rooms, bulletin boards and more. The events are being held in October in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin.

Read more...

Monday, September 29, 2003


AOL Innovation in the Community Award website award winners announced
Thirty community groups and charities across the UK have been chosen from hundreds of applicants to receive an AOL Innovation in the Community Award of £2,000 plus a year's free subscription to AOL. The awards scheme was set up by AOL and the charity Citizens Online to help communities make the most of the Internet. The winning organisations' proposals demonstrated innovation and a clear understanding of how the online medium can benefit the audiences they serve.

To view the winners & learn more...

Tuesday, September 16, 2003


Making your website accessible

If your site cannot be viewed by people with disabilities because of overuse of Flash, no ALT tags on images and other accessiblity no- no's not only are you cutting off a potential audience, you might also find that you're breaking the law.

If your organisation has a public website, it needs to be accessible - and that's the law. on September 4th The Guardian reported that: "The requirement for companies to have accessible websites has been enshrined in UK law since 1995, as part of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). But the law has received little attention - until now, as a number of individuals prepare to launch legal action against websites that they claim flout the law."

There are some web site building programmes with built in accessibility features. Macromedia's DreamWeaver program can automatically look at your site to see if it complies with accessiblity guidelines.

The Royal National Institute of the Blind recommends a free, online accessibility test - Bobby which offers a check on any web page simply by typing in its URL.
Usablenet runs a similar free testing service.

Read more...

Thursday, September 11, 2003


MS Society Wins Charity Internet Site of the Year
You can learn a lot for your own site design by studying award winning sites and The MS Society's interactive and innovative site has received a top gong at the recent Charity Times Awards.

The judges said the site was: "by far the most interactive and innovative entry. A vast amount of its content is contributed by the charity's own beneficiaries and is a lively and extremely innovative use of an online presence."

Highly commended in the category was the Youthnet national online volunteering database. Also shortlisted were Mencap and Battersea Dogs Home.

Read more...

Wednesday, September 10, 2003


Online Payroll Giving to benefit smaller Groups
Justgiving has launched a new online solution that could help smaller charities take advantage of payroll giving.

Employees whose companies sign up for the service will be able to choose from more than 600 charities online and donate through their payroll through their company's website or internal intranet. According to Justgiving, by decreasing reliance on Professional Fundraising Organisations (PFOs) the service is also likely to benefit smaller charities.

The Sun newspaper of all things reported on this in their Cashflow section yesterday! "The website offers details of how employers cna used the service. It covers one off and regular doanations and chosen charities can be changed easily online. The service normally costs companies £12,500 to set up but is offerd free to firms who join before December."

Doantions through payroll are very tax efficient. The Government adds ten per cent to the amount you agree to have taken from your salary. It also means you do not pay income tax on the money you are donating. A donation of £10 becomes £11 after the Government top up and means a deduction from salary of £7.80 for a standard rate tax payer and £6 for a higher rate tax payer.

Read more....

Monday, September 08, 2003


RFV - What it is & Next Steps
RFV - Recency Frequency Value is a common technique used in direct marketing based on the premise of how often you should communicate with your supporters and how that communication gets the best return on investment. It's traditionally thought that you should spend the most time on the most recent people who've come on board, who communicate/shop/deal with you most frequently and who spend the most money doing this.

But is it outdated? Are there newer and better techniques?

On the September 23rd 2003 at 6pm in London there will be a seminar by the Institute of Fundraising to address this idea.

Read more...

Monday, September 01, 2003


Virtual Conference for non profits
Wired.org is a four-day international virtual conference (September 16-19) geared to nonprofit and non-governmental organizations, socially responsible companies and educational institutions. You can "meet" with practitioners, thought leaders and representatives from leading organizations, in an online learning community to share ideas about using the web.

Sign up before September 3, 2003 to receive an early-bird discount.
Read more...

Tuesday, August 26, 2003


Measuring your website's success
It's all about working out the goals you have for your site in order to measure its success. So many non profit and charity sites look as though they are there "just because we thought we ought to have one". This is fine if that is true, but you can do so much more with your piece of cyber-space than just "having it there". In order to test the effectiveness of your site - look at it against the following measures: Mission Focus, Usability, Interactivity, and Design (from an article in the Charity Channel). The terminology may be a bit American but it's a useful exercise.
Read more...

Wednesday, August 20, 2003


Online Purchasing Growth
A recent survey of consumers' attitude to buying online has found that the acceptance of online ticketing is still growing. A survey by online ticketing supplier ts.com found that 97% would recommend buying tickets online to their friends, 58% buy more frequently if they can buy online, 70% would prefer to receive promotional offers by email rather than by any other means. Interestingly 97% of performing arts bookers found the online process as good or better than the phone.
Read more...

Tuesday, August 19, 2003


Website Coding Tip
Your website designers will know how to code an email address into a Web site so that visitors can click a hyperlink to send an email. It's simple and effective and lets the user define his or her mail message without having to fill in any forms.

However, did you know that you can pre-assign both the subject and the body text by using some simple coding? It's really easy and can help you quickly identify messages as they come in.

introducing the "Subject" variable. For example, if you want people to submit a job application, you can pre-code the subject. This is important if you get lots of mail as it will quickly let you know the subject of these messages.

So, you would code the "mailto" part like this: < a href="mailto:youremailaddress?Subject=Job_Application">ADDRESS < /A>

Note: no spaces are allowed so use underscore (_) instead

Now, what if you wanted to pre-determine the Body Message as well? You may wish to do this if you have an offer that is always the same, such as a request for information. Let's say you're offering an annual report. You can code the subject as "Free_Annual_Report" and the Body Message as "Please send me your annual report."

You would code the mailto this way:
< a href="mailto:youremailaddress?Subject=Free_Annual_Report&Body=Please send me your annual report.">ADDRESS < /A>

There you go, now you can save your visitors some time, and save yourself the anguish of strange email enquiries. Confused? Email us for help

Saturday, August 16, 2003


Specialist Online Directories
Specialist directories can be a great source of traffic. Although they do not list the millions of sites and get the levels of traffic of major search engines, as their specialist means that you can be surer that the people who then visit your site are more likely to be interested in your site.

The Art Directory - D'art is a perfect example, and arts organisations and museums would find it an excellent place to submit their sites. Read more...

Thursday, August 14, 2003


Free Gift Aid Calculators for your website
Gift Aid can add an extra 28% to donations made to your organisation by UK tax payers. You can use this handy online calculator on your site to show what effect this has on your supporters' donations. Charities currently using this calculator include Cancer Research UK, The National Austic Society and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The calculator can be personalised to match the colour scheme and fonts on your site. Read more...

Wednesday, August 13, 2003


Website building for Non Profits
Article from Guidestar
Good starting point if you don't even have a website at the moment or about about to re-vamp the old one. Has useful tips on how to maintain a successful relationship with your web developer and remain friends with them after the job is done! Read more...

Training Event
Charities and the Internet Briefing - 19th September 2003
The Directory of Social Change invite you to meet a range of experts who will brief you on the key legal and practical issues of having a website and email communication. Speakers include - Bates, Wells & Braithwaite Solicitors, on the important subject of website domain name registraton and data protection and Howard Lake on online fundraising.
Cost of the briefing starts at £115. Read more...

Regular Email communication can help reduce increase income and reduce customer attrition rates
Article from Professional Fundraising
A study by Greenpeace International shows how attrition rates were reversed with a “well-managed renewals programme with plenty of reminders” and an automatically-triggered email to donors whose credit card was about to expire requesting their new details. Credit card expiry was one of the biggest forms of attrition for Greenpeace renewals. Read more...


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