Category: Alliance Report
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The Cost of Bad Data
An article contributed by Innovairre Communications, an Alliance sponsor By Sara Rowland Everyone in the fundraising industry knows that fall is the busiest time of the year. Nonprofits are gearing up for campaigns that will drive a large volume of their year-end donations. Decisions are being made on which packages and audiences will generate the…
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2017 Nonprofit Email Deliverability Study
How much does spam hurt online fundraising? A new nonprofit deliverability study shows that fundraising email deliverability is declining. More nonprofit email is going to spam folders and is never read. As reported by Nonprofit Quarterly: “The big takeaway from this year’s study is that being classified as spam is becoming a big problem and…
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The President’s Budget 2018
Good numbers for the federal deficit; questionable USPS business strategies The release of President Trump’s first proposed budget on May 23 garnered a lot of attention. It was titled: “BUDGET OF THE U. S. GOVERNMENT, A New Foundation For American Greatness, Fiscal Year 2018.” The President’s Budget deals extensively with the U.S. Postal Service, an…
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Informed Delivery – Reason for USPS Optimism
The centerpiece of last week’s National Postal Forum (NPF) in Baltimore was Informed Delivery™. Postmaster General Megan Brennan, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer and Marketing Officer James Cochrane, Vice President, Product Innovation Gary Reblin, and Director, Product Technology Innovation, Bob Dixon all expressed great optimism about the new service that marries hard copy and…
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2018 postage picture murky
May 11, 2017 For those nonprofit mailers working on next year’s budgets, the outlook for postage rates is unclear at best. Here are three main factors you need to take into account. One: The regular CPI-capped annual increase We expect next year’s CPI cap to be about 2 percent, double last year’s. But you cannot…
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Mail volume down in quarter: pricing uncertainty
May 11, 2017 The Postal Service reported huge, unexpected declines in the main categories of mail volume for its most recent quarter, January-March 2017. First Class Mail was down 4.2 percent or 674 million pieces. Marketing Mail usage was down 3.5 percent or 682 million items. These percentage volume declines are right in the…
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USPS needs a board—NOW!
May 11, 2017 Postmaster General Megan Brennan made a critically important point in the course of discussing USPS quarterly results. The USPS needs a board to make important decisions. Here is how Federal News Radio reported on her remarks: “The U.S. Postal Service currently has zero independently appointed governors on its board, and hasn’t had…
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Report from Alliance MTAC reps
May 3, 2017 Informed Delivery This was a hot topic at the April Mailers Technical Advisory Committee session. In case you haven’t heard, Informed Delivery is an opt-in feature to receive e-mail images of the mail pieces to be received in your mail box. The automation sorting equipment captures the image and each morning these…
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International Examples of Mail Profitability
International examples of mail profitability are driven by multi-faceted strategies, of which pricing is one part The USPS Office of Inspector General recently released a research report on the profitability of mail in other countries. It concluded that several smaller nations have found ways to make mail sustainable, albeit at much lower volume levels than…
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Price Does Matter
May 3, 2017 Even with the CPI price cap, USPS raised two key fundraising mail streams by CPI+3 Above inflation pricing will affect mail volume Imagine the impact with an altered or no CPI cap It’s not too early to consider “tipping point” or “death spiral” Of course, price matters in most situations. It especially…