I recently conducted a little experiment with my work Inbox. When I left my position at Easter Seals, I had seven-plus years of research covering the field of nonprofits online flowing (more like gushing) in daily via email newsletters, listserve digests, etc.  I felt guilty every time I hit delete without reading them, because I knew there was gold in them thar emails, but the sheer volume was more than any one person could consume.

When I set up my new Inbox here at See3 Communications, I decided rather than sit down for hours conducting a massive re-subscribe, I would wait and see what professional enewsletters I really, really missed. After three months, it’s been a cleansing experience (for my Inbox and my brain). But more importantly, it helped me identify the really great ones. If the topic of nonprofits online is also your bag, I hope you’ll make room in your InBox for these enewsletters that refused to be forgotten.

NPAdvisors e-Fund News: Thought provoking weekly articles on online donor development written by Rick Christ and Heather Fignar. If you’re responsible for online fundraising in any capacity, each email will either reinforce your efforts with well written points to use with upper management, or give you a good kick in the pants for what you need to be doing.

ASPCA: Oh, how many good ideas have I “borrowed” from ASPCA online over the years? I always keep one eye on these folks because they’re just so darn good at what they do. In my defense, I’ve adopted three rescue kittens in the past year. Or did the enewsletter make me do it?

Alertbox: Jakob Nielsen’s column on Web usability: Not for nonprofits only, his lessons on Web (and email) usability are universal. I’m an avid follower for his invaluable research on user-centric Web site creation, but I love him for his forthright use of the word “bad”. “Bad content, bad links, bad navigation, bad category pages… which is worst for business?” Go get ‘em Jakob!

All of these enewsletters share two key ingredients — they consistently bring me information I need and are very well written, so they’re worth my valuable time and a joy to read.

What enewsletters can you not live without, and why? There’s still room in my Inbox for something new….