The Nonprofit FAQ

Some Online Tips and Resources for Direct Mail

It may be true that nonprofits are increasingly able to use the Internet for communications with supporters and people who might join those ranks. But the venerable practice of communicating through the mails is not likely to vanish anytime soon. Increasingly, too, there are resources online that can help with the design and implementation of a direct-mail campaign. The United States Postal Service offers many of its publications online (in Adobe Portable Document -- .pdf -- format) at http://pe.usps.gov Particularly relevant for anyone wanting to learn about the intricacies of direct mail will be: Nonprofit Standard Mail Eligibility; Designing Letter and Reply Mail; Designing Flat Mail; and Preparing Standard Mail (A). Cynthia Leslie, Citation Software Inc. (Cynthia.Leslie@CitationSoftware.com) wrote September 21, 2000, to announce: My company maintains a mailpiece-design Website that is available free of charge to anyone who wants to use it. This Website creates ready-to-print Business Reply envelopes/postcards and Courtesy Reply envelopes/postcards in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. The URL for the site is http://www.CitationSoftware.com/Mpd (Incidently, a search on http://www.google.com turned up more than half a million webpages indexed by the phrase "mail piece design." There's a lot to be learned about this subject.) Posted September 22, 2000; repaired 1/12/02; broken links removed 2/28/06 (more resources needed ! ) -- PB