Guest blog by Blase Ciabaton

Sometimes it’s better to use first class postage, but more often it’s a waste of money for nonprofit organizations.

In Part 1, we looked at some common reasons nonprofits offer for using first class postage, and an explanation of why it might be unnecessary. Today we’ll examine more reasons.

Our donors pay more attention to first class mail

If you feel that an envelope with a stamp on it gets more attention, then consider using precancelled stamps. This does not increase postage in any way, and looks exactly like first class postage. It does not involve a printed permit or meter.

Our board members want us to use first class postage

If this is the case, then hug your board members who are asking for this, tell them how much you appreciate their dedication and support, but explain that this is an area where you will not compromise. Do not permit the irrational wasting of your organization’s money on postage.

If board members refuse to acquiesce on this point, then at least consider doing an A/B campaign where half of the pieces use first-class postage and the other half are mailed at the nonprofit rate. Track response to the campaign and see if there is a statistical difference. Make sure that you put your office and home address on the nonprofit postage test list so that you will have personal experience with how long it takes for the mail piece to get delivered.

How much money are we talking about anyway?

Did you know that it costs at least 20 cents a piece more to use the first class postage rate instead of the nonprofit rate? The automated nonprofit postage rate is about 15 cents a piece while the first-class presort rate is about 35 cents a piece. In an even more extreme case, regular unsorted first class postage is 44 cents a piece, making the difference as much a 30 cents a piece. Simply multiply these numbers by the size of your database to get a real sense on how much money you could be saving per campaign.

The bottom line is that any money saved on postage can be used:

1)      to market to a larger audience

2)      to send additional appeal campaigns each year

3)      to reduce your administrative expenses and gain more benefits for those you serve

4)      fill in the blank

About the Author: In 2009, Blase Ciabaton used his six years of expertise as a direct mail professional to launch the blog www.TheDirectMailMan.com. The blog caters to the nonprofit community and tackles issues related to postage permits, mailing lists, returned mail and donor conversion.

Fundraising Assets helps busy fundraising professionals raise more money, save valuable time and reduce costs. We offer consulting, writing, design and production services for direct mail and e-mail fundraising, social networking and more.

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Guest blog by Blase Ciabaton

Sometimes it’s better to use first class postage, but more often it’s a waste of money for nonprofit organizations.

Here are some common reasons nonprofits offer for using first class postage, and an explanation of why it might be unnecessary.

We are not set up to mail at the nonprofit rate.

If you are a nonprofit in the United States, there’s absolutely no valid excuse for not being set up to mail at the nonprofit rate! It’s free to get approved to mail at the nonprofit rate, and you do not need to have a mailing permit. It takes time to get approved, so you need to act on this today if you’re not already set up. Here’s some information that will walk you through the process and link you to the required paperwork.

We want our pieces to get delivered more quickly.

Are you mailing locally, or nationally? If you are mailing to a predominantly local audience, then nonprofit mail will almost always get delivered within the same time frame as first class mail. That’s right, delivery is no quicker when using first-class postage than it is when using nonprofit postage in most cases. Exceptions to this may apply during times of the year with peak mail volumes, like during the December holiday period.

If you are mailing to a predominantly national audience, and time is a critical factor, then you may want to consider using first class postage because nonprofit rate mail moves significantly more slowly outside of your local area.

If your audience is split between local and national, then you may want to use different postage classes for the different geographic segments of your database.

We want our pieces to get forwarded or returned if we have the wrong address

To qualify for the nonprofit mailing discount, the U.S. Post Office now requires that you use some approved form of address updating within 90 days of your mailing. If you’re a larger organization, your mailing software should automate this process for you. If you work with a third party vendor to process your mailings, they should have this integrated into their software—Be sure to verify this! For a small fee, you can also work with a professional direct mail vendor to simply have your database updated and returned to you along with the update certification paperwork.

The bulk mail paperwork that gets submitted with nonprofit mail requires a box be checked which verifies that you’ve updated your addresses using an approved method within the last 90 days. If they find that this is untrue, the U.S. Post Office has the right to refuse delivery, or retroactively increase your postage to the first class rate.

To summarize, if you’re complying with what the U.S. Post Office is requesting, then it’s redundant to pay for forwarding since you’re already capturing any changed addresses during your address update process.

Watch for more on this topic in our next blog.

About the Author: In 2009, Blase Ciabaton used his six years of expertise as a direct mail professional to launch the blog www.TheDirectMailMan.com. The blog caters to the nonprofit community and tackles issues related to postage permits, mailing lists, returned mail and donor conversion.


Fundraising Assets helps busy fundraising professionals raise more money, save valuable time and reduce costs. We offer consulting, writing, design and production services for direct mail and e-mail fundraising, social networking and more.

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Let me start out by saying that I love Twitter. It’s one of my favorite forms of social media. I’ve learned a great deal about fundraising on Twitter, and Twitter has helped us drive traffic to the Fundraising Assets Web site and blog.

But that doesn’t mean it’s right for all my nonprofit clients.

Here are a few things that can help you decide whether Twitter is right for you.

What you can do with Twitter

Twitter lets you communicate with people through extremely short, frequent messages. The messages can contain a link to a blog or Web site where people can get more detailed information.

They’re like headlines, and you click on a link to see the full story. Or, they’re like conversations as you’re passing someone in the hallway—very brief.

With Twitter, the more active you are, the more popular you are and the more you get noticed. You’re active by not just sending out tweets, but by engaging in conversations.

What are your goals?

Are you trying to raise money? Recruit volunteers? Raise awareness of your cause?

Before you engage in any medium, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, television or billboards, you must have goals, an audience, a plan, an idea of your resources and a way to measure success. If you don’t have all that on paper, stop reading and go make a plan!

Now look at your plan and try to determine whether Twitter will help you meet your goals. If your goal is to raise awareness of a rare disease nationally and worldwide, Twitter can be a great medium for you. One of its big advantages is that it offers such a broad and diverse audience.

On the other hand, if you have a private school that draws its students from the surrounding neighborhoods, it would probably be better for you to choose a method that is more focused.

Investment

It doesn’t cost money to use Twitter, but it does take time. If you’re going to get involved, I estimate you’ll need to spend a minimum of half an hour a day. At the beginning, it will take longer. Do you, your staff or volunteers have that much time to devote? Think of it this way: A TV ad might be useful to you, but you have to cross it off your short list if you don’t have the money to pay for it. In the same way, Twitter might be useful, but if you don’t have the human resources to spend, consider other social media where your time may pay off better.

Alternate uses

Having said all that, just because this is how most people use Twitter, it doesn’t mean that’s how you have to use Twitter. I’ve seen small nonprofits that don’t use Twitter as a way to engage in conversations, but as a message board. Picture a board in front of a school saying, “Art show on March 17.” An example is Toledo Central Catholic High School, which you can see if you sign up for a free Twitter account. Using Twitter this way greatly reduces your time investment. If using Twitter this way meets your goals, go for it!

Help is on the way!

We know that social media is a very new area for busy fundraising professionals. It’s difficult to figure out where to start and how to invest your resources.

To help you sort through the muddle, we’re working on two initiatives.

The first initiative is a webinar to walk you through the basics. We’ll discuss Web sites, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and how each might—or might not—help your organization.

The second inititative is a series of e-books that lay out the basics for social media. We’re also going to offer books to help you get the most out of your appeal letters and fundraising newsletters.

We’ll keep you posted and let you know when they’re available.

Find us on Twitter at @fundraiserhelp.


For more information on using social media, or for other expert help on fundraising, contact Fundraising Assets at 1-888-244-4013.


Fundraising Assets helps busy fundraising professionals raise more money, save valuable time and reduce costs. We offer consulting, writing, design and production services for direct mail and e-mail fundraising, social networking and more.

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