How to Write a Communications Plan

Resources for Associations and Nonprofits

Please also feel free to let me know when you find broken links on this page and to send me suggestions for new links to add. I will try to make these changes as time permits.

If you're an association executive looking for information, you may want to visit the website of the American Society of Association Executives. It offers a wealth of resources for associations.

In addition, I've listed below some of my favorite resources for webmasters and web marketers and for executives of nonprofits. I hope you find these helpful! There are also some targeted ads from Google to the left that I hope will direct you to additional online resources.

Thanks for your support,
Robin Mayhall

Resources

Marketing and Promotion

• A fellow writer, who'd like to remain anonymous, put together an article called How to Write a Corporate Communications Plan that could prove useful to nonprofits as well as corporations. This site also provides several sample communications plans submitted by members of the Public Relations Society of America.

• The SPIN Project website contains loads of useful technical and practical information for nonprofits and community organizations, including a helpful tutorial on Internet PR.

• Here are a couple more sites of interest to nonprofits. Take some time to explore them; each offers quite a few different benefits, but all should be helpful for a nonprofit organization, especially a charitable one. Lots of fundraising information to be found.
  • The Idealist Resource Page for Nonprofit Organizations
  • The Nonprofit FAQ: Communication & PR

• An excellent resource for association publishers is the Authors and Experts website. Writers and editors may locate authors and experts to interview for their articles or features.

• Microsoft has an area on its huge site called Industry Solutions, which features resources for various specialized industries. These may be helpful if your association is in a highly specialized industry such as healthcare or insurance.

• The Technology Section of the Public Relations Society of America has a lot of good general resources and links for budding and experienced webmasters. A lot of the links are specific to PR and marketing, but a lot are of general interest as well.

• The American Society of Association Executives also has an excellent and active Technology Section with lots of resources.

• The useful little site called Bobby, which would test your website both for compatibility with various browsers and for accessibility toward people with disabilities, unfortunately no longer exists. But the Web Accessibility Initiative maintains a list of possible alternatives.

• Another site that may help you make your page more compatible to a wide variety of users is the Web Page Backwards Compatibility Viewer. This page is, in my opinion, not quite as easy to use as Bobby, but if browser compatibility is very important to you, it may be worth the effort.

• Knowbility is a group that focuses on making the internet accessible for people with disabilities. They hold an annual contest for web developers to build accessible websites in a one-day marathon.

• The Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas at Austin offers scores of informal classes for potential webmasters. If you're not located in Austin, check the website of your local university or community college for similar courses.

• Bray Communications offers a full range of communications services, from newsletters and magazines to web site content updates and article writing.

• CommerNet, Inc. provides e-commerce marketplace components for trade associations.

• FindLaw has a Cyberspace Law Center with some good basic information on legal issues concerning cyberspace.

• Ivan Hoffman is an attorney whose website is devoted to issues that affect businesses on the net, including contracts, copyright, and other legal issues.

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
  A bureau of the US Commerce Department charged with promoting the progress of science and the useful arts by securing, for limited times to inventors, the exclusive right to their respective discoveries.

• The Web Design and Web Developer Contract Swipe File
  Sample web design agreements and contracts for web designers, developers and programmers.

• World Intellectual Property Organization
  WIPO is responsible for promoting the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among States, and for the administration of various multilateral treaties dealing with the legal and administrative aspects of intellectual property.

• U.S. Copyright Office

• 10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained
  Software architect Brad Templeton says of his page that it's "An attempt to answer common myths about copyright seen on the net and cover issues related to copyright and USENET/Internet publication."

• Copyright Website
  Comprehensive, practical and relevant copyright information for web developers and others.

• An article on how to correctly use your domain name as your trademark can be found here

• Here's another article on trademark issues.

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Questions or comments? Email Robin Mayhall