Email is an invaluable tool for any organization.  It allows communication at a distance, at any time, with any number of people, at a fraction of the cost of phone calls or faxes.  And free email accounts (like Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Earthlink, and the like) are wonderful things.  They work very well for individuals and for personal correspondence.

But these accounts have some distinct disadvantages as professional tools.  Most organizations give out organizational email addresses (such as “george@washington.org”, or  “abraham@lincolnguild.org”) to their employees, as opposed to using free accounts.  There are a number of good reasons for this:

• Separate Employee Accounts.  Organizational accounts easily allow separate accounts for different employees – i.e. “george@washington.org” and “martha@washington.org”
• Storage Limits.  Free internet accounts (like hotmail or yahoo) typically allow only you to save 2-3 Mb worth of email, which can be quite limiting if you receive a lot of documents.  Organizational email accounts are usually more flexible.
• Professionalism.  Because the free accounts are instantly recognizable as such (with the @aol or @yahoo in the address), they can brand your organization as less professional or less tech-savvy.
• Spam.  Spammers target the free email providers, because they allow easy access to a lot of people.  You’ll still get some spam at an organizational email address, but likely a lot less.
• Organizational Branding. An organizational email address makes it clear that an email is on behalf of an organization, as opposed to just the sender.
• Convenience.  Most organizational email accounts can be retrieved from a desktop email tool, like Outlook Express, or the internet.  Most free accounts can only be accessed over the internet.
• Cost.  If you’re relying on AOL or Earthlink for email, you may well be paying more than you would for an organizational email account.  See the “Note About AOL, Earthlink, and Other ISP Email Addresses” in the last section below.

Organizational email accounts are surprisingly affordable – you can set up everything you need for 5-10 individual email addresses for under $75/ year.  And they’re easy to set up, whether you have technical experience or not.  With all the downsides to free email, there’s little reason to not setup your own organizational email account.

There are just three steps:  Choosing A Domain Name, Choosing an Email Provider, and Setting Up Accounts.

The first step to your organizational email account is to choose what’s called a domain name –the part of the email address that identifies your organization.  In the example above, “washington.org” is the domain name for both George’s and Martha’s email address.   Domain names are used for both email and for websites – so the Washington Organization website would likely be at www.washington.org.

While the domain name should ideally be your organization’s name, it must be unique –  you can’t use a name that any other organization is using.   Ideally, domain names should be:

• Memorable.  The name should be something that your constituents and funders can remember, or even guess – so the closer to your organization’s name, and the easier to spell, the better.
• Descriptive.  The domain name goes out into the world in every email, so why not have it actually contain some substance?  I find a name like “wildlifecausus.org” much better than “wlc.org”.   However, this should be balanced with…
• Short.  People will need to type the name, so shorter is good (I try to keep them under 18 or so letters). 
• Letters only.  While domain names can include special characters (like -%&_), it’s infrequently done, and not recommended. 

In the United States, nonprofit organizations generally use the suffix “.org”, government organizations use “.gov”, and everyone else uses “.com”.  “.Net” is also gaining popularity as a substitute for “.com.” 

When you have some possibilities in mind, you’ll need to check to see whether the domain names have already been registered by someone else.  I like to use www.register.com to do this – simply type your name in the search box on the home page, and it will let you know if the name is available.  When you have a name that you like and that is available, move on to Step 2!

Note to those who have a website:  If you already have a website, you already have a domain name, and you don’t need to choose another one.  Unless you’re hosting the website yourself (i.e. someone is running the website off a physical computer in a closet somewhere), chances are that you also already have organizational email accounts ready and waiting, whether you’re using them or not.  Check with your hosting company or the person who set up your website to see if there are POP email accounts available.  Verify that they meet your needs for the considerations in Step 2, and then skip to Step 3.

Now that you have chosen a domain name, you need to find a hosting company who will provide you with email accounts.  This needs to be done with a bit of care.  The hosting market is, to be quite honest, overwhelming.  There are hundreds of different hosting companies who provide similar email and website hosting services, targeted at everyone from individuals to multi-million dollar companies.  A disturbingly large percentage of these companies provide shoddy or even fraudulent services.  You simply cannot choose an email provider on cost alone.  Go with hosting companies recommended by trusted sources (like those below, or from a site like www.aboutwebhost.com)

That said, there are many excellent and very reputable hosting companies.  When considering which one is right for you, look at: 

• Reputation.  As stated above, the reputation of the hosting company should be a primary factor in your decision.  Look for recommendations or at least user reviews on a site like www.aboutwebhost.com.  These recommendations will ensure that your host provides reliable services and support.
• Number of Email Accounts.  You’ll need one POP or IMAP email account for each employee email address (POP and IMAP are both standard email protocols).
• Storage Space.  Almost every plan has a limit on the amount of disk space you can take up with your stored emails.  You’ll likely want at least several megabytes per email address.
• Spam Filtering Capabilities.  The company should have some provision to allow you to filter spam from your emails.
• Phone Support.  Many inexpensive hosts offer only email support – ensure that phone support is available if that is important to you.
• Access to Webmail.   Most companies provide a way for you to retrieve your email online.  This method of access requires the least setup, and allows you to check your email from any internet browser.
• Web Site Hosting.  Most plans allow you to host a website for the same price as hosting email accounts (as these things are pretty much the same to the hosting company).  If you’re considering putting up a website, look for a package that gives a good price on both.
• Monthly or Yearly Fee.  All hosting companies will charge some regular fee for their services.  Many give a discount if you pay for a whole year rather than month by month.
• Setup Fee.  Occasionally, companies will charge a one-time setup fee for creating your account.
• Domain Registration Fee.  In addition to their hosting services, most companies will register your domain name with the central agency in charge of such things.  Domain name registration generally costs about $8-15 a year.

The following companies, which have either been used by Alder Consulting or highly reviewed on www.aboutwebhost.com, provide from 1-50 basic email accounts at a reasonable price:

• GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com).  Godaddy offers email only accounts (as opposed to most providers, which automatically include website hosting in all packages) at very affordable prices.  1 email address is $9.95/ year, 5 addresses are $19.95/ year, and 50 addresses are $29.95/ year.  You get 10 Mb per email address, with webmail, and a spam filter.   GoDaddy’s primary business is domain registration, which they do both cheaply ($7.95/ year) and easily.
• Hostingplex (www.hostingplex.com).  Hostingplex offers 5 email addresses and website hosting (100 Mb for all the addresses and website combined) for about $30/year.  They offer webmail and a spam filter. 
• Nevidia (www.nevidia.com).  For about $40/year, Nevidia offers an unlimited number of email addresses, and website hosting, but only 50Mb of space (in a practical sense, enough for only 10 or so heavily used email addresses).  They offer webmail and a spam filter.
• Be Hosted (www.be-hosted.com).  Be Hosted provides 100 email addresses, website hosting, and 100 Mb of space (probably not enough for all 100 addresses) for about $50/year.  They offer webmail and a spam filter.
• Hostmatix (www.hostmatix.com). Hostmatix provides 20 email addresses, website hosting, and 100 Mb of space for about $50/year.  They offer webmail and a spam filter.
• Burton Hosting (www.burtonhosting.com).  Burton provides 50 email addresses, website hosting, and 250 Mb of space for about $60/year.  They offer webmail and a spam filter.  Their yearly domain registration fee is on the expensive side, at about $15.00/ year.
• Web Net Hosting (www.webnethosting.net).  For $75/ year, Web Net offers an unlimited number of email accounts, website hosting, and 250 Mb of space.  They offer webmail, but not a spam filter on this (their least expensive) plan.  Their yearly domain registration fee is on the expensive side, at about $15.00/ year.

Once you have chosen an email provider, you can likely purchase your domain and email plan with a credit card directly on their website.  Just make sure that you know what plan you want.  If you prefer, most companies will also allow you to sign up over the phone.

It will likely take several days for your domain name to filter through the process enough to setup and use your email accounts.  To be safe, give it about a week.  Then setup individual email names by following your hosting company’s directions.  Companies generally have an internet interface which will allow you to simply create the address (i.e. george@washington.org), and a username and password for the address.

Once the addresses are setup, you’re ready to go.  The company likely has a webmail interface that will allow each employee to easily see their mail, or you can setup a desktop email interface, like Outlook Express, to link to the account.  A future Shoestring article will walk through the process of using Outlook Express to access POP mail accounts.

It’s difficult to provide detailed guidance in setting up accounts and viewing email, as the process will vary by hosting company.  But if you run into difficulties, ask your hosting company to help you – that’s what you’re paying them for.

If you currently dial-in to see the internet with the same company that provides your email – like AOL or Earthlink - it’s important to recognize that a hosting company won’t fully replace them.

Companies like AOL and Earthlink actually provide at least two distinct services:  access to the internet, and email services.  While one of the email providers above can replace your AOL or Earthlink email address, you’ll still need a company (called an Internet Service Provider, or ISP) that will allow you to access the internet, in order to see your email. 

You can certainly continue to use AOL or Earthlink just for internet access, but it’s an expensive method.  There are a number of ISPs which provide reliable access for under $10 month.  Techsoup (in an excellent article about free and inexpensive ISPs) recommends Bluelight Unlimited, at $8.95 a month for unlimited access.