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7 newsletters we love

Sorry (not sorry). October 2, 2017 Category: FeaturedMediumPurpose
Happy Monday, y’all. Who’s at Inbox Zero?

At Generocity, we get a lot of emails per day, most of them newsletters from local impact organizations. Thus, we consider ourselves experts on what makes a good newsletter, and what makes readers (us) go UGHHHHHHH.

Good:

  • Clean design
  • Timely stories
  • Pictures!

Bad:

  • Too many fonts and colors
  • Boring content
  • Too much frequency*

*That said, Generocity’s own wonderful newsletter comes in two forms: daily and weekly.

Sign up for either

Here are five of our favorite local newsletters that we think do an awesome job of communicating their organization’s message in an engaging, informative, neat way. (Not on the list? Maybe we’re not on your list. Add us — news@generocity.org.)

1. Fairmount Ventures

President and partner Don Kligerman’s monthly e-essays are always actionable and often timely, commenting on some nonprofit challenge and offering suggestions for tackling it. Most recently, he wrote about the need for rethinking the importance of organizational culture — “Every organization has internal narratives that tacitly inform what it believes about itself and how it behaves. The same cultural norm can be both a strength and a weakness.” Sign up here.

2. Young Involved Philadelphia

Even if you’re not “young,” per se — though YIP’s organizers insist there’s no specific age cutoff to participate — the volunteer-run, civic engagement-focused org’s newsletter is a good way to stay informed of events and initiatives for you or your organization to get plugged into and reach the city’s millennials. Plus, it’s just plain fun to read. Recently it’s been pushing the annual State of Young Philly event series, starting next week. Sign up here.

From our Partners

3. Mighty Writers

These notes from Executive Director Tim Whitaker are always short but sweet — much like, we imagine, the kids who participate in the nonprofit’s writing programs. Last week’s let us know what students at the North Philly location were doing to support causes they believe in. There’s no big ask. Just a picture, maybe a hundred inspiring words and a donate button. Sometimes, simplicity is best. Sign up here.

4. CultureWorks Greater Philadelphia

The arts and culture coworking space’s newsletter is stacked with events, job openings and member spotlights (September’s was YallaPunk). It’s so good you don’t even need to be a member to appreciate the content — though you also wouldn’t get discounts to things like UArts’ continuing education courses. Sign up here.

5. City & State

Consider this your daily who’s who for Pennsylvania politics. The local gov news site does its own hefty reporting — see: last week’s investigation into Philadelphia’s controversial civil asset forfeiture program — but its early morning roundup aggregates the most topical stories from news outlets around the state on issues relating to policy, advocacy and their major players. There’s even a nonprofit news section (which, we’re happy to disclose, often features Generocity stories). Sign up here.

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And two non-local favorites:

1. Nonprofit AF

Formerly Nonprofit With Balls, this blog’s weekly newsletter promises to “Make Mondays Suck Less.” Indeed it does, thanks to founder Vu Le’s witty take on the state of American nonprofits. What this newsletter lacks in design, it more than compensates in content, with posts ranging in topic from today’s “9 self-care strategies in the era of Trump” to the two-year-old, yet evergreen “When you don’t disclose salary range on a job posting, a unicorn loses its wings.”

And if you were lucky enough to catch Le at Philanthropy Network’s fall conference last year, you know he also has an affinity for pictures of baby animals and longwinded metaphors. Sign up here.

2. Nonprofit Quarterly

For those looking for a solid half-hour distraction every morning, NPQ’s newsletter features original commentary as well as summarized reporting on national nonprofit trends and social justice issues. Today’s, for instance, looks at both the legacy of the Little Rock Nine and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation’s recent grantmakingSign up here.

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