Bulk Mail for Contribution Statements

[Ralph@UMC in Wayne]

Does anyone use their Bulk mail to send out their Contribution Statements? I have been doing this in the past and now my post office bulk mail person said bulk mail can not be used for this purpose. I have checked the postal regs. and can find no reason why we can not use bulk. Has anyone else had a problem?

[Jeff]

What the post office is referring to is standard (bulk) mail cannot be personal in nature. What that means is the standard (bulk) mail is not supposed to be personalized more than a mail merge. (ie Dear Mr Smith rather than Dear Customer...)

The contribution statements are closer in content to your credit card statement or water bill. These statements are sent presorted first-class and not standard (bulk) mail. That said the post office does allow contribution statements to be sent by standard mail if they solicit future contributions.

If a computer-prepared notice contains information showing how much money was donated or pledged by the addressee, shows the dates the money was donated, and lists which fund the money was donated to or used for, (for example, a building fund or a memorial fund), that notice would not constitute a bill or statement of account (whether or not it bears a statement soliciting donations). However, it would be subject to the First-Class rates of postage because it contains personalized information (the actual amounts of the donations or pledges made by the addressees, the dates of the donations or pledges, and how the funds were or will be allocated).

If, as stated in DMM E610.2.3, the information in the aforementioned computer-prepared notice is associated with a solicitation for donations, that notice will qualify for mailing at the Standard Mail rates of postage.

from: http://www.nacba.net/PDF_FILES/nonprofits.pdf

So if you add wording to the contribution statement that includes a solicitation for future contributions, then the post office says they may be mailed at the standard mail rates. Without such a solicitation tjey must be mailed at first-class rates.


Links to additional information can be found here:
http://www.nonprofitmailers.org/junerule.html
http://www.nonprofitmailers.org/tools/ps323.pdf
http://www.nonprofitmailers.org/tools.html