The next step is to decide which organizations you want to invite. For your first Not-for-Profit Web Fair, you will want to target organizations with which you have a previous relationship. Since a Not-for-Profit Web Fair is a new concept, it is easiest to "sell" to people that already know and trust you.

Select a specific network or coalition of organizations that you have worked with before and invite every member of that group. Some suggestions of groups of organizations are:

• United Way agencies
• Health care providers
• Day care centers

Be specific about which organizations are invited so that you do not step on any toes. Whether you set criteria geographically or by group membership, you should be able to explain who you invite (who you do not) and why.

Once you have narrowed your invitation list, contact the well-known leader of the group by telephone. Explain the web fair concept as concisely a possible and ask for a recent membership list and a letter of support for your event.

You will need the recent membership list in an electronic form, preferably Excel. The leader may e-mail the list to you are request that a disk be sent. The database should include:

• Organization's name
• Contact person
• Street address
• City
• State

Follow-up the telephone call with a letter. Include with the letter a generic letter of support for the leader to sign and return. Be clear about your expectations. You need for the leader to:

• E-mail a membership listing to your organization in database form
• Sign the generic letter of support or write one of his/ her own.
• Mail you the letter of support and enough letterhead for all that you plan to invite (specify the number that you need)

Be sure to highlight the date by which you need for the leader to complete this by. Call the leader one week before the deadline. Offer to drive out to the leader's office and pick-up the membership listing on disk, letter of support and letterhead.

As the databases come in, merge them into one and eliminate duplicates. Keep track in a database field to which target group each organization belonged, including those listed in more than one target group.

For our Not-for-Profit Web Fair, we targeted the constituency of five groups with which we had contractual agreements to provide Internet access. From the groups, we selected all not-for-profit social service organizations and excluded all governmental and quasi-governmental organizations. We also excluded schools and day care centers. We narrowed our list in order to have a more manageable size. We tailored the event toward not-for-profit social service organizations so that we could focus on their specific needs. We were able to justify our selectivity by offering to provide future Web Fairs that will focus on the needs of other types of organizations.

We contacted the head of each target group to explain the event and request a database of members in electronic form and a letter of support. We followed up with a mailing that included a generic letter of support. All but one of our target group leaders signed the generic letter of support. One drafted his own.

Collecting the letters of support and databases was a lengthy process. Five weeks passed between the initial request and the receipt of the last database. One letter of support was not received after six weeks of letters and telephone calls. We deferred to another important leader of that group. We brought the letter of support to her organization and she signed it on the spot and gave us her letterhead.