Postal Rates for Many Charity Mailings Expected to Rise on May 14

By Peter Panepento

Charities will soon pay an average of 6.7 percent more on postage for fund-raising letters and other types of so-called nonprofit standard mail.

Most of those new rates are expected to take effect on May 14.

Nonprofit periodical rates will also increase, by 11.7 percent on average, but those rates do not take effect until July 15.

The governors of the U.S. Postal Service said organizations need more time to adjust to the new rates because it approved 55 postal prices based on how charities sort their periodical mailings and other factors.

Small Groups

While the Postal Service governors approved the increases, which had been proposed by the Postal Regulatory Commission, they expressed serious concern about the impact the rise in postage costs would have on small charities.

Many nonprofit groups can’t take advantage of the discounts the Postal Service offers to organizations that send a lot of mail or take steps to make it easier to deliver their mail.

To that end, the governors asked the commission to reconsider some rate increases that would be especially difficult for small nonprofit groups that send catalogs or fund-raising letters containing small gifts, such as notepads and pins, which cannot be handled by the Postal Service’s automated mail-processing equipment.

The increases, which lobbyists for nonprofit mailers said would double the cost of mailings for many charities, could cause “rate shock,” the Postal Service governors said.

Reconsidering Plan

The Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation said it was pleased the governors had recognized the concerns expressed by charities and hoped that the Postal Regulatory Commission would reconsider the increases before they are scheduled to take effect later this spring.

The federation has asked the Postal Service to delay the new rates by one year.

“We are not asking for the moon, we are just asking for a delay,” said Senny Boone, the federation’s executive director. “We are going to try to get this delayed, but we don’t have much time.”

Commission officials said it was too early to say precisely how they would respond to the concerns the board of governors expressed about charities.

A complete list of U.S. Postal Service rates and fees, including the proposed increases, is available on the Postal Service’s Web site.