Blogs
Florida is in the News (again!) – Both Good and Bad
Submitted by Geoff Peters, General Counsel, American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation Good News First – it seems that Florida Department of Agriculture, Division of Consumer Services that manages Florida’s charitable regulation process is interested in following the legal precedent set by American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation in its 11th Circuit Court of Appeals…
Ensuring Your Design/Format is USPS Compliant
Submitted by Darin Marks, Resource Director, Production Solutions Despite a recent Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) consolidation and restructuring, the Postal Service does in fact recognize its many antiquated and incoherent rules that are often difficult to discern. For that reason, the Mailpiece Design Analyst (MDA) position/department was developed several years ago to serve as a…
Federal Initiatives: Friend or Foe
Submitted by Geoff Peters, General Counsel, American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation Often in this space we spend time discussing federal initiatives that might limit the abilities of charities to do their work effectively. But much of regulation is at the state level, and it doesn’t always directly involve fundraising. For example, in many states…
Postal Service Counting on You to Make Mistakes
Recently, I read an article by Dave Lewis of PROLIST about the USPS Move Update instituting an important change. Mailing lists have been required to be kept up-to-date but the USPS tolerated a 30% error rate. Effect October 2014, that tolerance rate is being dropped to .08%! If a mailer doesn’t meet this updated standard,…
Will postage rates go up in 2015?
Submitted by Darin Marks, Resource Director, Production Solutions This year, the mailing industry had to bare an outrageous postage increase of close to 6%; which consisted of a 1.7% CPI increase and a 4.3% exigent surcharge. Fortunately for the industry, the USPS must follow strict regulations when filing for rate increases. Unless congress passes new…
C’mon, Get [App] Happy
by Meg Mader A whopping 70 percent of people today have mobile applications. That’s not surprising, considering the mobile trend and the overwhelming number of apps on the market — and Apple’s catchy slogan, “There’s an app for that,” holds true in pretty much any situation! So, if the majority of our population has apps, why…
Being Recognized by DMAW
By Hal Malchow Direct Marketing is a magical profession, a beautiful blend of the science and art. My firms were always known for winning creative awards but what made me most proud was bringing science to the process and being the first firm to model and mail voter lists on a large scale. The lessons…
DMAW P&L Alert – Important July 1, 2014 Deadline Looming
Most charities in the United States market mainly to U.S. Citizens resident in the 50 states. But our national borders are more porous than one might first suspect. No, this isn’t a reference to immigration but rather to marketing. For example, what regulations and laws apply when you send an e-mail message to a prospective…