First, what is a blog? Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

The term "blog" is a portmanteau, or, in other words, a blend of the words web and log (Web log). "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

This article provides a good overview of "corporate blogging" which offers insights that are applicable in large part to non-profits.

What does it cost?
There are many free blog sites. Two of the most popular are BlogSpot and Wordpress - the latter being the host of Anticipate!. Each provides with many templates to choose from and a whole bunch of features (some times called "widgets") at no cost to you. There are paid services of course at places like Typepad, Go Daddy, and the like, but no need to start there. Try the free stuff first.

Think about using a blog to communicate regularily with your membership or constituency about the work of your organization. Many CEOs now have blogs (even if they don't write them themselves). It can be an onerous task to write regularily. The key to a successful blog is that it is updated frequently. But a blog is much easier to update than a web site. You just log in, click on "post" and write your stuff and publish it. Simple. Ok. Not always totally simple but you can put up a blog in a short time without having to know any HTML.
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Question: If I have a web site, do I need to have a blog?
Answer: Well, that depends. If your web site is a large one chocked full of information, it may be difficult for your visitors to always see what they want to see AND difficult for you to make sure they see what you want them to see. If you have frequent updates or news pieces you want your constituents to be aware of, a blog can be very helpful and a good companion for your web site. That is because a blog posts your pieces in chronological order, with the latest news appearing first on the blog’s home page. By making use of blog publishers these written pieces can be archived automatically by month and can also be sorted by themes or categories like I have done on this blog.  What is so powerful about that is this: you can tag a written piece with more than one theme or category. You can’t do that on a web site without spending quite a bit of money on development costs.  Click on a category to the left and see what happens.

Question: Can’t I just email people our latest news and articles or tell them about an article on our web site?
Answer: Sure you can, but emails get buried in an inbox and you would have to write an email for each update. A blog will be there with ALL your news and articles — a permanent fixture on the Web for them to see and anyone else to see for whom you may not have an email address. Search engines will notice your blog and display it on searches for the topics you cover on your blog. You can promote your blog from your web site but also include its web address as part of your signature line on all of your emails, thus ensuring a constant promotion of it to everyone you communicate with.

Question: Don’t you need special or technical skills to operate a blog?
Answer: Well, you need a good mind to blog, but no special skills. Services like WordPress (the host of this blog) and Blogger (a google site) have all the functionality laid out for you and they give you free templates to use for your blog’s design and navigational structure.  Just about anyone can start a blog and just about everyone has. Of course, the more technical skill you have the more you can take advantage of the blog software.

Question: Other than search engines, how can a blog be promoted?
Answer: “Blogs Can Be Syndicated Through RSS. RSS most popularly stands for Real Simple Syndication. Visitors can “subscribe” to your blog and get regular updates delivered to their desktop, their newsreader, or to their personal homepage at Yahoo or MSN. Alternatively, other Web sites might syndicate your content to help populate their own Web site. You blog, RSS helps deliver your message…for free.” (Source: http://www.flyte.biz)

Question: So, should I blog more and email less?
Answer: No. If you are thinking of email and blogs in a marketing context then use them together as part of an overall marketing strategy. Use email to not only drive people to your blog, but use the blog to enlist people in an email magazine or newsletter. Then use the newsletter to also promote and link to the blog. Also, there are services (like feedburner.com) that will allow you to create an email subscription link for your blog. When people enroll, they get an email automatically each time you update the blog AND you get one more email for your database.