Electronic Newsletters Save Money, Speed Communications

At Valley United Way, we always strive to keep the community informed on a timely basis about what is going on at United Way. The most timely and cost efficient way of doing that is with our website (valleyunitedway.org) which is updated constantly. It contains all the latest information as well as tons of pictures and videos. We're proud that back in the mid 1990's, we were the first United Way in Connecticut - and one of the first in the entire country- to see that the Internet was going to be much more than a fad, but a real tool.

At the same time, we have maintained a traditional printed newsletter that is mailed to the community periodically. We don't do that as often as we did in the past because of the time and expense involved - and also because the news in it may be weeks or months old in some cases. However, we also recognize the impact and value of a printed newsletter and the fact that many in the community have not fully embraced electronic media. For those reasons, we will continue to publish the hard copy, but probably only twice a year.

We have been doing electronic newsletters for several years now, but during the past year we have been able to use a great new service to manage the production and dissemination of the newsletter using the Constant Contact Service. Constant Contact has made this service available to us free of charge, and it has dramatically improved our efforts at no additional costs. This is an "opt-in" service where users choose to subscribe to the newsletter rather than having it "spammed" to them. By managing our mailing lists, Constant Contact sifts out out-of-date addresses and allows users to manage the newsletters that they receive. They also maintain our newsletter archives, so that users can go back and read earlier newsletters at their leisure.

If you are not already subscribed to our electronic newsletter, click here to access the on-line sign up form. You simply enter your e-mail address and hit GO to be sent to the registration page where you can customize your choices. We currently have a general newsletter and one for the Corporate Cup, but may add others in the future. You can subscribe or unsubscribe at any time.

We are also heavily involved in other electronic communication efforts. If you visit our website, you can find links to our Twitter account for instantaneous news from us, our YouTube channel for all the latest videos from Valley United Way, and yes even our Facebook page. We firmly believe that the more that you know about us, the more that you will understand the true value of Valley United Way. We try to make it as easy as possible, and we value your feedback on how we are doing. This blog offers a great opportunity to comment on those efforts, but e-mails are always welcome as well.