Charities, are they designed to keep the the US Postal Service alive?

So over the last few months I have donated money to the North Texas Food Bank, The Salvation Army and American Red Cross. What has ensued since has been an onslaught of thank you letters, solicitations for more donations and weekly/monthly news letters; all of which are marked $00.44 postage paid.

I figure that at the rate I am receiving this stuff, that within a couple of months each of these organizations will have spent every cent I donated on these mailers. To me, this is frustrating on many levels. Firstly, and most obviously, is that I intended the money to go to those in need. Secondly, it's a waste of paper. It is also annoying getting a plethora of solicitations, as if I don't know where to go if I decide to donate more.

So, I was thinking, who is to gain from all of this...the US Postal Service. Now, I have no evidence that this is the case, aside from the piles of snail mail. Anyone have any insight into this? Perhaps a story of your own to share?

Any input or feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,

Aggie Man

[edit on 26-2-2010 by Aggie Man]

The US mailing system was a great social program that frankly is no longer needed. I think its time they phase out the whole system and boost up private industry and electronic sending.

I wonder how much of our taxes go towards keeping the post office alive...would it be enough to give every household a small fax machine/e-mail system for their personal use...

Originally posted by SaturnFX
The US mailing system was a great social program that frankly is no longer needed. I think its time they phase out the whole system and boost up private industry and electronic sending.

I wonder how much of our taxes go towards keeping the post office alive...would it be enough to give every household a small fax machine/e-mail system for their personal use...

I appreciate your input and agree with what you said; however, the topic isn't about taxes keeping the post office alive. Do you have any experience with charities sending excessive mailers, thus wasting the money you donated?

Everyone, let's please stay on topic. If something in this thread spawns a thought in a different direction then, by all means, you are welcome and encouraged to start a new thread revolving around that thought.

reply to post by SaturnFX


There we go, gov't paid iPad 3G's for everyone. I bet Apple would love such an idea. Or should we go netbook for the easy of hooking up printers and scanners? Maybe just iPhones or iPod Touch's for the portability issue?

Or better yet, just have Congress draft up a 10,000 page bill that basically says buy one of these systems or go to jail. We shall call it InfoCare Reform.

Problem is, some people enjoy just not being bothered with 24 hour contact ability.

***SIGH****

Why do people insist on straying from the topic? Seriously folks, if you can not contribute to the topic, then please post elsewhere.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Most charities now take paypal so no stamp is needed. Charities used to rely on the post office quite a bit but now not so much.

[edit on 26-2-2010 by ..5..]

Charities rely on advertising. And if they don't spend money on that they can't give out the meager actual donations to the poor. I thought it was common knowledge that charities are mere corporate faces for high profile philanthropists. Their money is in promoting greater exposure in the public eye. Handing cheeseburgers out at a flood site is less economically viable that a commercial on tv about handing out cheeseburgers at the flood site. Hence, to support the charity is where the money MUST go. Mass MAILERS baby.

And the connection to this being a tool for the United States Postal Service to generate profits is naive to say the least. I guess the aluminum industry is secretly padding the plastic trash bag industry by supplying so many empty aluminum cans as well.

They got to go somewhere right?

Cha-ching for the plastic bag makers then. It was probably the way that the CEO showed the other CFO at Bohemian Grove last year how its done with that 12 year old prostitute from surinam.

But I digress....

The POST OFFICE is not going anywhere soon. It being the seat of government.
However the 'United States Postal Service' has been less and less profitable since it went private in 1971. They will just change the name if that; never abolish it.
Email just is not a defensible mode of communication in the event of a national emergency.


Also, why did you ask for 'Any input or feedback' then bash posters for being off topic? I don't understand your logic. All good tho'- keep thinkin'.

Here is an off topic nugget for you. The reason the mail is .44 cents is to pay for that advanced tracking system that the postal service uses. You know the ZIPCODE©?
That is copyrighted baby. Only .3 cents per ounce is the cost of domestic mail [zip exempt] anything over that is pure gravy. I know I know...off topic again.

Originally posted by ..5..
Most charities now take paypal so no stamp is needed. Charities used to rely on the post office quite a bit but now not so much.

[edit on 26-2-2010 by ..5..]

Paypal is the method I used to donate; however, the charities are excessively using the USPS to solicit. I would say, based upon my experience, charities utilize the USPS egregiously. They may take donations through paypal, but they certainly aren't soliciting via paypal.

Charities are businesses. They need to advertise. They are allowed to spend a certain percentage of their income for various things. One being actual charity.

I believe I have seen some figures for various charities. I believe the average I saw was about 50/50, 50% costs to 50% charity.

I thought of starting a charity called the Charity for Overtaxed Americans.

I always wanted to do some investigation into how the charity statutes work.

reply to post by human8


I asked for input ON TOPIC. I'm not looking for a general rant about the USPS.

Charities rely on advertising. And if they don't spend money on that they can't give out the meager actual donations to the poor. I thought it was common knowledge that charities are mere corporate faces for high profile philanthropists. Their money is in promoting greater exposure in the public eye. Handing cheeseburgers out at a flood site is less economically viable that a commercial on tv about handing out cheeseburgers at the flood site. Hence, to support the charity is where the money MUST go. Mass MAILERS baby.

My point is, let's say I donated $10. Well, since I donated that $10 to the red cross, I have gotten $8.00 in soliciting mailers. So, if they don't send me another shred of snail mail, only $2 of my $10 donation went to charity. I get the feeling that I will end up getting $20 (postage paid) worth of solicitations. I wanted ALL of my donation to go to the cause, not to prop up the USPS.

PS, all of these charities have my email, so they could easily solicit me via that method at NO COST.

Flyers/Postcards from every #ty pizza place nearby: are they designed to keep the the US Postal Service alive?

I think there's your culprit.

I confess that it hard to stay on topic to a topic that is too narrow in scope and not really based on anything more than a personal observation.

On a professional observation, I can tell you that I have hauled far more magazines, credit card offers, newspaper inserts (newspapers do make a small percentage of the mail for out of state subscriptions such as Chicago Tribune, USA Today, etc.), general "junk mail" advertisements . In the year and a half that I hauled for R.R. Donnelley (the largest printer of bulk mail items) none of the loads were charity solicitations.

On the whole, first class postage is strong indication that the requests are of a very limited printing. I would hazard the guess that more CD's are mailed in a year by Columbia House than the combined mailing of all charity donation requests.

But for fun, can you imagine that enough people in New Mexico subscribe to Lady's Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens to warrant a 53 foot trailer packed floor to ceiling and front to back to make a trip to the Albuquerque Bulk Mail Center? And that may have not been the only one nor covered all of New Mexico.

There is a place in (an unnamed city for security reasons), Indiana that does nothing but print checks and stuff them into envelopes. They have a single 53' trailer that just delivers to Columbus, Ohio daily for bulk mail distribution. The entire population of Ohio was 11,353,140 in 2000. And there are three bulk mail centers in Cincinnati alone. And these are just checks.

The USPS could do fine without all First Class Mail postage rates in my estimation but feel free to think it might be the American Cancer Society that keeps them going.

Originally posted by Scopeless
Flyers/Postcards from every s****y pizza place nearby: are they designed to keep the the US Postal Service alive?

I think there's your culprit.

LOL!!! True that. That's fine if the pizza places want to waste their money mailing out postcards. However, I could just wring the necks of the charities...seems like they are using every cent that I donated to solicit more money from me...all the while, they could have simply sent my money to those in need. I WOULD HAVE donated more to them IF they had simply solicited via email; however, I'm not giving another $10 so I can get another $10 worth of postage paid solicitations.

OK, so I want to broaden the spectrum of this topic. In light of the recent mailers that were needlessly sent out by the the US Census only to notify us that the census is coming soon. Another epic waste of resources with the apparent purpose being nothing more than to continue to prop up the US Postal Service.

How long must we keep feeding this dieing monster? If they are losing money, then there is a reason behind it....it's obsolete. Another example of "too big to fail"?

I got another freaking letter from the Census Bureau today, reminding me to fill out the census and return it promptly, despite the fact that I completed it and returned it last week. More propping up of the USPS