March 6, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
The U.S. Postal Service has proposed new postage rates for nonprofit groups and other mailers to take effect on May 12.
Under the proposal, postage for nonprofit standard mail, mostly letter-sized mail pieces, will increase by an average of 0.7 percent, and nonprofit periodical mail will rise by an average of 2.7 percent.
Postage on some pieces of standard nonprofit mail would increase by more than the average: Nonprofit standard parcels and other pieces known as “flats” that cannot be processed in the Postal Service’s automated mail-handling equipment, for example, would increase by 7.6 percent.
The proposed rates are the first to be set under a new system, by which the Postal Service can raise rates annually but is required to keep any increases at or below the rate of inflation (The Chronicle, November 29, 2007).
The new rate-setting system streamlines the former cumbersome process involving months of complicated deliberations as postal officials sorted through volumes of research and testimony by high-volume commercial and nonprofit mailers.
Based on Inflation
In setting the new rates, postal officials used the latest 12-month average for inflation, which was 2.9 percent. Nonprofits rates will increase by less than that percentage due to a long-standing law that provides charitable organizations with discounted postage.
Most charities are pleased with the proposed rates, said Anthony Conway, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, which represents some 400 organizations. In the last postage increase in 2006, he noted, nonprofit postage rose by a much higher average, 6.7 percent.
The Postal Regulatory Commission must still approve the proposed rates.
