Leaflets and newsletters can be a highly effective way of keeping people informed about your activities and encourage community participation.

Newsletters can be used to promote or publicise special events or developments in your project. Not only do they reach a local audience, but they’ll also be valuable evidence of activity you can show to prospective funders.

First you’ll need to think about who will receive your leaflet or newsletter and what you want to achieve: you may want to encourage local support, donations or volunteers but it must also be interesting to look at and read for its own sake.

A regular newsletter is a way of maintaining momentum and sustaining interest in what you do. A well-produced, informative newsletter can create a ‘brand’ identity and people will look forward to the next one. A poorly produced or dull newsletter can have the reverse effect and put people off the project. You will need to decide whether it is worth the time and the resources to produce something you are happy with and that will get the message across. Producing a newsletter is a way of involving and engaging the community. Children and young people may also want to contribute or produce something themselves although usually they will need adult support.

You will need to decide how often your newsletter will come out. Don’t commit yourself to producing your newsletter too frequently or you won’t have time for anything else. You will also need to think about what it will contain, how much it will cost and how it will be produced. This will include design and layout, editing and proof reading.

You will also need to think about how it will be distributed - door to door, local shops, community facilities or online. There may be other organisations including your local authority who may agree to add it to their website for local people to download. It is worth contacting the media department or unit in your local authority for advice about creating a newsletter.

You may want to create your own website or use other forms of online marketing to promote your project. These are a great way to provide information about your organisation and there is a lot of information about to how to manage this process online. 

If you build your own website you may want to create links to the local authority’s site and those of other local groups. You may also want to consider an email newsletter, writing a blog, using a social networking site, such as Facebook or MySpace, or creating a Twitter campaign. This could be a creative way of engaging children and young people but you will need to be aware of the safeguarding and child protection issues that may arise from using new media and know how you will deal with them.

 

Back to top

Tools and information