Category: Alliance Report
-
Rep. Trey Gowdy taking over chair of House Oversight
June 14, 2017 As Rep. Jason Chaffetz leaves Congress on June 30, Rep. Trey Gowdy, Republican of the 4th District of South Carolina, will take over leadership of the House Oversight Committee. This is the Congressional committee that is taking the lead in any possible postal legislation. Gowdy is not one of the group of…
-
USPS retirement obligations comparatively well-funded
June 14, 2017 Anyone worried about the prefunding of USPS retirement obligations should read our expert declaration by Michael Nadol filed in the PRC ten-year review. The Postal Service is very well funded compared to all other categories for both pensions and health care. And this is using very conservative, some would say pessimistic, assumptions…
-
Mail survey presents opportunities for USPS financial stability
June 14, 2017 Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers members recently participated in the 2017 Mail Industry Survey that reveals important opportunities to improve the private sector’s use of the mail service provided exclusively by the USPS federal agency. You can download a free copy of the survey’s results here. Idealliance, the association for the Visual Communications…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…