CONSERVATIVE FUNDRAISERS ARE IN STORMS
Continued #6…
Happy New Year to you all. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.
Over the past few weeks, I released installments of a memo I had previously written on “storms.” Before I move onto another topic next week, I am leaving you with some information you may find interesting.
The cost to mail 100,000 postal letters with nonprofit postage, printing, #10 window envelope and return envelope, lists, lettershop, etc. in:
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1960—less than 10¢ each
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1980—about 27¢ each
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2000—about 38¢ each
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2025—about 72¢ each
I remember Jerry Huntsinger, co-founder of Huntsinger and Jeffers agency, writing in the 1980s that those of us who built large donor files for nonprofits in the 1960s—1970s weren’t as good as we may have thought we were. It was that the cost of mailing letters at that time was so cheap and there was a lot of truth to that.
REASONS FOR SKY-HIGH POSTAL MAILING COSTS AND LONG DELAYS FOR DELIVERY
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A good number of printing companies have closed.
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Major postage increases (and more are coming).
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Some large envelope companies have stopped making envelopes for postal mail and are making big shipping envelopes and boxes for big internet companies, e.g., Amazon, etc.
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Inflation in the national economy, including employee salaries, insurance, fuel, transportation, government regulations, etc. has led directly to major cost increases by postal mail vendors.
Some weekends in the 1970s, I would get upset about something the liberals had done and when I arrived at the office on Monday, I said I wanted to mail 100,000 letters quickly to fight X problem. By that Saturday or the following Monday, a letter would have been written, approved by the client, printed, and in the mail. Those days are gone forever.
Today, if I push hard, 100,000 letters will mail in 2 months.
