Successful direct mail fundraising campaigns continue to be crucial to the ability of most non-profits to fulfill their missions. According to the 2016 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, one-third of non-profits plan to send at least four direct mail fundraising solicitations this year, another third plan to send at least two appeals, and only 13% of non-profits plan to avoid direct mail solicitations altogether.
Yet non-profit budgets continue to be squeezed, and small marketing staffs are being asked to handle an ever-increasing number of projects. How can you make sure your direct mail campaigns deliver the maximum profit possible to your organization?
One way to dramatically increase the return on investment of your mailings is to find an effective way to cut your non-profit postage rate. Many companies find that this can be easily achieved by using postal logistics strategies to cost-effectively deliver your mail as close to its ultimate destination as possible.
Mail dropped off at your local post office may go through as many as six different postal processing facilities before it arrives in your potential donor’s mailbox. At each facility, it is resorted and combined with other mail that needs to go to the same location next. Since the USPS reduces what it charges to deliver a piece of mail commensurate with the work you save them, the closer you can get each mail piece to its ultimate destination before it enters the USPS system, the lower the postage rate you will be charged.
Savvy mailers typically use drop shipping, commingling, or a combination of the two methods to achieve this goal. If your mailing is large enough, you may be able to achieve postage savings of 12% to 20% by drop shipping each piece directly to the postal facility closest to its destination. However, you must ensure that all mail being drop shipped is sorted, sleeved, tagged and strapped according to strict USPS regulations, and submitted with the correct paperwork. And, of course, you must pay the freight charges involved in delivering the trays of mail to each processing facility.
An easier alternative to drop shipping is to hire a company who specializes in commingling. Commingling companies pick up your unsorted mailing, combine it with mail from other companies, and use the combined mail volumes to qualify for the lowest-possible postage rates. Our MailSmart Logistics commingling customers save an average of 12% versus standard non-profit bulk mail postage rates.
In addition to the substantial cost savings, there are two other significant advantages to commingling. First, research shows that our commingled mail is delivered an average of 2.4 days faster than mail dropped off at a bulk mail sorting facility. Additionally, we provide free mail tracking for all commingled mail, which can be an invaluable research tool for mailings whose returns are not coming in as quickly as expected.
If you’d like to learn more about how commingling can cut your non-profit postage rate, download our free eBook Is Commingling Right for You? now:
MailSmart Logistics provides worry-free shipping at remarkably-low postal rates –
You’re going to love working with MailSmart Logistics!
