[Mailman-Users] Need help for small non-profit

[William Yardley]

On Sat, Jul 29, 2006 at 11:11:32AM -0400, Marty Beilin wrote:

> We are a small non-profit organization.  We send out a few email
> announcements each month using Mailman residing at our website hosting
> service.  We are moving our website to another hosting service that
> does not offer mass emailing.
 
> Is Mailman software we can download and use on our office computer?
> Would our computer have to be connected to the Web at all times?
 
> Is there a better solution available?  Basically we send out 5-10
> email messages a month to our list subscribers.   Sometimes the email
> messages contain pdf or Word attachments.

There are some third party providers who might do a good job for you
(listbox comes to mind), or there are providers with free or discounted
services for non-profits who provide Mailman.

If you want to install / configure it yourself under a shared hosting
account, Mailman is probably not your best bet, and I wouldn't
personally recommend setting up Mailman on an office machine unless you
have some technical expertise in dealing with the types of systems that
Mailman runs on most easily. Plus, depending on the type of connection
you have at your office, you might run into problems with your messages
getting blocked.

You could look into DADA mail (formerly mojo mail) or similar systems
designed specifically for announcement only lists, which will install
more easily in a shared hosting environment, and which won't be quite as
difficult to install or configure properly.

So depending on your budget and technical resources, I'd try to find a
cheap or free mailing list setup somewhere. It doesn't have to be the
same place as you're hosting your site. You could try posting on the
NOSI list too - I'm guessing there are folks there who can help you out.
If you don't find anything, write me offlist and I'll see if I can help
out, either directly or indirectly.

I know I'm coming from a geek perspective, but I'd really suggest
linking to PDF / Word files rather than attaching them directly.

w