March 26, 1998 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Postal Service has proposed new guidelines to clarify what type of materials charities can include in membership appeals and still have those mailings be eligible for non-profit rates.
The proposal is an effort to clarify how far charities can go in describing “member benefits” such as affinity credit cards, product discounts, and services that are offered as inducements but are unrelated to charities’ missions.
Over the past two years, many charities have complained about being charged commercial postage rates because their member appeals used promotional language, such as “low-cost” or “discount,” to describe benefits.
Local postal officials held that such terms amounted to commercial advertising and slapped charities with back-postage bills, ranging from a few thousand to several million dollars.
According to the new proposal, charities may now use adjectives like “low-cost” to describe benefits — as long as the mailing is primarily a membership appeal. However, any mention of benefits would be limited to no more than 50 per cent of the appeal’s contents. Charities may choose to describe member benefits on a separate enclosure, but the 50-per-cent rule would still apply.
The proposal appeared in the March 6 Federal Register, Pages 11,199-11,200. The service is seeking comments on the proposal; the deadline is April 6. Send comments to: Manager, Business Mail Acceptance, U. S. Postal Service Headquarters, 475 L’Enfant Plaza, Washington 20260. For more information, contact Jerome Lease at (202) 268-5188.
