March 9, 2018

In response to the Postal Regulatory Commission proposal to allow the USPS to raise postage rates as much as 7 percent a year, or 40 percent in five years, the nonprofit community has spoken out. About 130 individual nonprofits wrote letters to the PRC urging Commissioners Taub, Hammond, Langley, and Acton to reconsider their proposal.

The outpouring of comments from nonprofits is remarkable for several reasons. The Commission normally receives comments from the “usual suspects:” the Postal Service and its unions on one side, and the “mailing industry” on the other. In this case, actual customers who are not normally part of the “mailing industry” have spoken up.

Nonprofit Mail is Unique and Essential

And we are not just any customers. We mail about 15 billion pieces of First Class, Marketing, and Periodicals Mail each year, or one-tenth of all USPS mail volume. And it is not just any mail. It is mail used to provide voluntary funding through millions of donations, large and small, to charities that serve people in need. It is not about self-interest. It is about fulfilling the needs of our society that are otherwise not going to be met by the private sector or the government.

Nonprofit mail is content that the United States Postal Service, as a government monopoly, needs to remain relevant and solvent. It is mail that serves the greater good. It is mail that households like to receive from causes they voluntarily support and identify with as members. And it is mail that “binds the nation together” as much as any type of mail.

Above-inflation increases in postage, as many of the letter-writers verified, will result in almost dollar-for-dollar reductions in the programs, services, and missions of the majority of nonprofits. This is for two very strong reasons.

First, most nonprofits rely on mail to raise the majority of their funding, and do not currently have viable alternatives. Digital is developing but is tiny in comparison to mail in the nonprofit sector.

The second reason is that nonprofits must operate with fixed, limited fundraising budgets, including postage. This is not just good management. It is required by the organizations that rate nonprofits and recommend them to households for donations. If a nonprofit spends in the 25 to 30 percent range for overhead costs, including fundraising, including postage, it risks being delisted as a charity that households should give to.

Virtually all of the 130 letters attested to the fact that the PRC proposal will be a disaster for the charitable sector throughout the United States. We reproduce the PRC links to all of the letters below.

Alliance Makes Strong Arguments for Nonprofits

The Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers also filed extensive comments totaling 137 pages plus library references. With our Board of Directors and membership standing firmly with us, we made unassailable arguments that, in addition to agreeing with the individual nonprofit letters, the PRC proposal is not lawful and it would be a disaster for our nation’s postal system, the mailing industry, and all citizens who use the mail.

We also joined virtually the whole mailing industry in forming the American Mail Alliance and filing joint comments in strong opposition to the PRC proposal. And several Alliance Board member organizations also signed the American Mail Alliance statement.

RM17-3 

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