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Mobilization Tool Kit -- Email

Email is the most powerful tool in the Mobilization Tool Kit. Get it, read it, send it, use it. Make your lists and check them twice. Update your address book whenever someone change's their email.

You can get free Web email from a ton of places, like Microsoft's hotmail, the world's most widely used. To go advertisement free, buy your email from an internet service provider. It looks more professional, and travels faster than Web mail. It's pretty cheap too. Like all electronic forms of communication.

Here's a few tips for organizing your email address book, or as I prefer to say, your eddresses:

Take the effort to build up a good eddress book. It will pay you back many times over the long term.
Always use aliases ("al rycroft") in your lists, and for anyone you correspond with regularly. Avoid using actual eddresses (rycroft@SunshineCommunications.ca).
Use CAPITAL letters for lists, and smaller case letters for people.
Go crazy with LISTS. Create one for every group you regularly correspond with. LISTS can be part of other LISTS.

Every organization deserves to have two or more email lists. One for internal business, and one for people interested in the issues of your NGO. Organizations may find it useful to create other lists too, like for volunteers, projects, committees, etc.

Don't email people too often. They won't read what you send if it's buried under a pile of junk.

Organization

contacts management
electronic organizers, pocket computers
email lists
forms and templates
office management
phone trees
staff & volunteers
time management

The Activist Tool Kit is a project inspired by YAEC:

Youth Action Effecting Change
yaec@eya.ca www.yaec.ca
604.689.4463
PO Box 34097 Station D Vancouver BC V6J 4M1 CANADA

The Activist Tool Kit was written and built by Al Rycroft of SunshineCommunications.ca.