How Long do you keep your envelopes?

[Dish-Man]

Neil wrote in another thread about shredding envelopes. How long do folks keep their envelopes? And how often do you send out contribution statements. I would think that you shouldn't throw them out until the contributor has seen their giving record in print and theoretically had a chance to challenge it.

[jeffkoke]

Jay,

We keep our envelopes for two years. For contribution statements, our goal is once per quarter. It keeps down any surprises at the end of the year.

We also have a standing rule that if a contribution is not designated, it goes into the general operating fund. We remind everyone at our business meetings of that fact.

[NeilZ]

We destroy ours because:

1) we don't have the kind of storage space needed to keep anything that is not really necessary, and

2) normally there isn't any information on on the envelopes that is worth keeping. Most of our contributors pay by check, and they list their breakdown (if any) on the check.

As far as statements we send them out every 4 months now to save on postage.