Groundspring.org's EmailNow service is an email messaging tool that allows nonprofits to send broadcast emails to hundreds or thousands of stakeholders that have opted-in to receive updates. These broadcast emails are usually in the form of eNewsletters, which are email communiques that are sent at regular intervals and contain updates on programs and activities. For the past few years, these eNewsletters have been in plain-text format. Plain-text eNewsletters are written in standard fonts such as Courier, and use no special formatting (fonts, color, underline, etc). Plain-text eNewsletters have two advantages: they're easy to create by using a word processing program or text editor; and they're easy to read by recipients because their format is easily recognized by different email software programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, MSN, AOL and others.

More recently, HTML-formatted eNewsletters have emerged on the Internet as a substitute for plain-text eNewsletters. Originally popular among for-profit, commercial companies, they're now emerging in the nonprofit community. HTML-formatted eNewsletters have one key advantage: they're easier to read and scan, and are able to present visual information such as different font types and sizes, colors, photographs, logos, columns or charts.

The emerging understanding about HTML-formatted eNewsletters is that they create a more positive response among readers, hence their rapid adoption in the nonprofit community, particularly for fundraising-related activities.

EmailNow allows nonprofits to send both plain-text and HTML-formatted eNewsletters as part of its standard offering. There are no differences in pricing to use one or the other.

The process of actually creating an HTML-formatted eNewsletter does not happen inside the EmailNow interface. In other words, it is not possible to drag and drop graphics or photos into the "Text Content" window, or to apply formatting commands such as bold or underline. Creating an HTML-formatted eNewsletter must happen in an external (third party) HTML-authoring software program which Groundspring.org does not provide. We do not recommend a specific HTML-authoring software program, but can report that our customers use some of the following: Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, BBEdit.

Our experience with EmailNow customers shows that Microsoft Word is not a good HTML-authoring software program, in spite of the fact that it contains built-in HTML-authoring tools. Word's HTML-authoring tool creates HTML code that is not compatible with some non-Microsoft email software programs. The end result is that recipients of your HTML-formatted emails would see an eNewsletter that was incorrectly formatted.

You will use the external (third party) HTML-authoring software program to create your eNewsletter using standard principles of Web design. What you're doing is creating your eNewsletter using HTML codes, which when complete will then be brought over into EmailNow.

For further information about HTML-authoring tools, we recommend the two following resources:

• CNET's Download.com service
  
• Yahoo's Web Directory

During the HTML-authoring process using an external (third party) software program, it is critical that images, graphic or photographs that are used reside at "absolute" Web addresses. Images or graphics are not attached to your HTML-formatted eNewsletter, but reside at an external location that you point to. In other words, if you want to put your logo at the top of your HTML-formatted eNewsletter, that logo image (GIF or JPEG) must reside at a specific Web address (for example, in the images subdirectory of your Web site). Use your HTML-authoring tool to point to that Web address (URL).

Here is a checklist for creating and sending an HTML-formatted eNewsletter:

1. Use an external (third party) HTML-authoring tool to create the eNewsletter. Get it looking exactly the way you want it.

2. Use any word processor or text editor to create a plain-text version of your eNewsletter. This is necessary because you will be sending both an HTML and plain-text simultaneously so that your email can read by all your recipients.

3. Keep both of your authoring tools running in the background, since you will need to cut and paste the content into EmailNow.

4. Log into EmailNow at http://emailnow.groundspring.org with your User Name and Password.

5. At the Main Menu, select "Send Mail" and proceed through the EmailNow interface screens to give your mailing a title, select a list to receive your mailing, and do your list targetting (if needed).

6. At the "Message Content" screen, be sure to select the correct drop-down choice so that EmailNow knows that you plan to send an HTML-formatted message. We recommend that you use the default setting to "send both text and HTML messages," also known as multi-part MIME. What multi-part MIME means is that it will send your HTML-formatted email and also send a plain text version at the same time. This redundancy will assure that your email can be read by both text-only and HTML-capable email software.

7. Continue through the EmailNow interface screens to make your tracking decisions, and exclude any recipients (if needed).

8. In the "Message Content" screen, this is where you actually insert the content of your eNewsletter. The EmailNow interface is expecting you to cut and paste your content from your external (third party) authoring software. After you've filled out your message headers, you begin by cutting and pasting the content for the plain-text version of your eNewsletter, and further down you cut and paste the content for the HTML-formatted version of your eNewsletter.

9. Use the "Preview HTML" button to see if EmailNow has properly read your HTML-authored eNewsletter.

10. We strongly recommend that you use both of the "Test" tools for both the plain-text and HTML-formatted versions of your eNewsletter. This testing will assure you that your images are showing up correctly (see above discussion about "absolute" Web addresses for images).

11. Once you're satisfied with how it all looks, you can either send the mailing now or save it for later.