What's the Best Postage for Direct Mail Letters?

by Stephen Hitchcock

If you had to choose one and only one method of posting fundraising appeals -- nonprofit stamps, preprinted indicia, or metering -- which would it be?

Well, I'd mail everything first class postage, wouldn't you?

But that's probably not the question, is it?

Here at Mal Warwick & Associates, when we mail at nonprofit rate, we almost always use metered. Here are the reasons we do that:

1. The lettershops we use meter and seal at the same time so there's no extra charge.

2. We can use "meter slugs" that help spread the word about an organization's mission ("Plant a Tree," for example).

3. When we've tested (and we haven't tested this enough, to be honest), the form of affixing postage hasn't made a statistical difference.

You didn't ask, but I will tell you that the real postage issue is the use of a live-stamp reply envelope. I'd rather spend money that way -- because it has such a big impact on response rates -- and not bother with nonprofit stamps on outer envelopes.

Of course, you need to test whether live-stamp reply envelopes work for your organization. And, remember, using live-stamp reply envelopes in acquisition is very risky -- it does increase response rates (but seldom the average gift), but usually not enough to offset the extra cost.

Other articles on acquisition:
•How to get started with direct mail (for small organizations)
•Is it OK to take a loss on acquisition mailings?
•What should you test?
•Do label packages work?
•Choosing the right lists
•How to handle donor complaints about duplicate appeals