Books, Publications

The Nonprofit Membership Toolkit, by Ellis M. Robinson, published by Chardon Press, has great information on member recruiting. Available at www.josseybass.com, or 800-956-7739 for $35 plus shipping.

Direct Mail on a Shoestring. By Bruce Ballenger, The NRAG
Papers, Vol 4, No. 4, Spring 1984. Western Organization of Resource
Councils, 2401 Montana Ave, #301, Billings, MT 59101, (406) 252-9672.
Price: $7.50. An old, but still relevant, classic on how to do direct
mail membership recruiting with very little money.

Getting the Word Out in the Fight to Save the Earth, by Richard Beamish. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 North Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21218. Price: $20.
A well-illustrated guide to publications and membership recruiting written by a veteran publicist and fundraiser.

Fundraising for Social Change, fourth edition, by Kim Klein, October, 2000, 416 pages. Contains several chapters on how to acquire members and donors. Available for $35 at www.josseybass.com.

The Grass Roots Fundraising Book: How to Raise Money in Your Community, 2nd edition, by Joan Flanagan. Has chapters on raising money from members and raising money from believers. Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 1-800-722-4726;
344 pages; $18.95 plus postage and handling. Or purchase online at www.amazon.com.

Grassroots Fundraising Journal, published 6 times a year by Kim Klein, 3781 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94611, 888 458-8588, www.grassrootsfundraising.org.
Price: $32/year. The Journal is crammed full of excellent articles on all aspects of grassroots fundraising, including membership recruiting. To view past articles, click on “Archives” and then go to “Grassroots Journal Article Finder” and follow the directions to browse through and order articles ($3/article).

Training

Check local nonprofit management support centers, such as the Georgia Center for Nonprofits, or the Support Center of Chicago, for trainings on member renewals. To locate the nearest support center, search by state on the National Council of Nonprofit Associations’ web site, www.ncna.org.

The Fund Raising School in Indianapolis, Indiana, has several good general courses which cover member recruitment and retention. Call them at (317) 274-7063 or 800-962-6692, or email them at tfts@iupui.edu.

The Institute for Conservation Leadership (ICL), 6930 Carroll Ave, Suite 420, Takoma Park, MD 20912, (301)270-2900 periodically offers a 5-day training, The Complete Fundraiser, which includes member recruitment. Call or email icl@icl.org for details.

NetAction, www.netaction.org/training, has a free online training course, The Virtual Activist, which includes a session on Membership and Fundraising Online.

Other Useful Web Sites

We have tried to choose some of the best sites out there from among the many available on member recruiting. The sites below are ones that we think will be around for awhile, offer free or very low cost resources, and are well managed and frequently updated.

www.acanet.org. Check out the website of the American Canoe Association which garners many new members each month with its attractive online membership pages.

www.affinityresources.com. This web site has good information on online member recruitment. Click on “Fundraising Online.”

www.americanwhitewater.org. Visit this low-budget, extremely attractive online membership recruiting site to see yet another approach.

www.grassrootsfundraising.com. This site has a wealth of wonderful articles on membership and related topics some of which can be downloaded at no charge. Use the “search” function to locate articles on the specific membership topic you are seeking or browse through the publications at your leisure.

www.groundspring.org. This site provides great information about online membership recruiting, including a free book on online fundraising, online training courses, and many useful tools and interesting case studies.

www.learnthenet.com. This interactive website offer a free tutorial in “How to Build a Website” a topic vital to online membership recruiting.

www.malwarwick.com. This great site by Mal Warwick and Associates, a guru of direct mail, contains a wonderful collection of how-to articles on direct mail and other aspects of membership development. Click on “Ask Mal” and review the questions and answers others have asked including a whole section on “acquiring new members” and other relevant topics, or ask your own question. The free newsletter is very good.

www.networkforgood.org. This interesting site has a great deal of information about recruiting members and donors online. Click on nonprofit resources and then browse through the many “articles” available.

www.nonprofitmailers.org. The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers was established in 1980 as a national coalition of nonprofit organizations sharing a vested interest in
nonprofit postal policy. It is an advocacy group on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, but also offers information on mailings to the general public. Click on “Tools for Nonprofit Mailers” for basic info on how to create a mailing, and on “Industry Links” for lots of other good web sites.

www.nptimes.com. The site of the NonProfit Times allows you to view articles from the current issue and several other issues online. Often these have to do with membership matters.

www.ran.org. The Rainforest Action Network has a very effective online membership recruiting page.

www.tgci.com. This site of the Grantsmanship Center has an archive of great articles under “Magazine.” Several of these deal with membership questions.

www.tnc.org. Visit the Nature Conservancy’s web site for the Cadillac version of online membership recruitment.

www.USPS.com. The US Postal Service’s site has information on bulk mailing rates, and procedures, and also connects you to articles and other resources on the subject.