What Is A Email Signature (Sig File)?
I'm sure you've seen them before. When a friend or business contact sends you an email, there's a line of text at the bottom that offers an address, slogan, phone number, or website address. Some even include your friend's business title or department. These tidbits of text are called 'signatures? and they're controlled by signature files in your email program. You can easily set up a signature file which will give your official correspondences a professional feel (all while advertising your company or service!).
Think of 'sig? files as free nonprofit advertising and your charity business cards rolled into one. Do you keep tabs on your nonprofits dealings through email? Do you stay in touch with donors and vendors, or notify people of charitable events and fundraising drives? If you do any regular emailing (even if it's just to your nonprofit contacts and family members), adding a sig line will give you instant advertising and identity branding. Every time someone receives an email from you, they'll know exactly who you are, where you're from, and what your 501c3's name is.
How Do I Setup A Email Signature?
Setting up a signature file in your email is fairly easy. Most email programs (Outlook 2007, Thunderbird, even web-based services) offer a way to set up sig files in the? options? or 'tools? area. Some even have an area tagged 'signatures? for easy configuration.
What Should It Include?
There are a few things to consider when planning your signature. It's pretty standard to include a salutatory statement, or friendly closing with your name, charitable organization name, address, contact information, etc?
If your nonprofit website accepts Donations, Membership and Event Registrations you can add the links to those 3 areas of your website. That way, everyone that you send an email to can easily contribute to your nonprofit with little effort. If your website does not have this capability, it can be easily added for a small monthly fee. To see how easy it is, sign up for a free trial (no credit card required)
What you want to be doing is basically creating a mini advertisement that will show your potential contributors you care.
BONUS TIP
Signature files can be created in plain text or HTML. Plain text is always a safer bet, since all emails can display text (not all programs are set up to display HTML-based emails). Use non-HTML formatting whenever possible, to ensure everyone sees your sig the same way.
