March 2005

New Rule Affects Standard Mail With Personal Information
A new DMM standard due to take affect in June will force some mail currently mailed at Standard rates to be mailed at First Class rates.

In February, a customer support ruling from the USPS involved a non-profit fundraising mailing. Customer support ruled the mailing did not qualify for non-profit rates since it contained personal information.

The mailing included a piece that listed the donor's contributions for the previous year along with the instruction "keep this notice as a receipt for tax purposes."

The new rule has 3 conditions, all of which must be met for a mailing to qualify for Standard (or non-profit postage) rates:

• The mail piece must contain explicit advertising for a product or service, or an explicit solicitation for donations.
• All personal information must be directly related to the advertising or solicitation.
• The inclusion of personal information is exclusively to support the advertising or solicitation.

The mailing in question was obviously a solicitation for donations and met both of the first 2 conditions. But customer support deemed the inclusion of the line "keep this notice as a receipt for tax purposes" meant the personal information was not included in the mailing exclusively to support the solicitation and, therefore, did not meet the third condition. The mailing was subject to First Class mail rates.

Oddly, the USPS does not oppose the use of personal information in the mailing, only that it is not used solely to inspire donations.

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Email Caveats: Why We Never Stopped Mailing

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