I take arrows for being so up front in talking about the coming demise of direct mail fund raising. I never say direct mail is going to disappear as one of many channels that fund raisers will use, but I am very clear in saying that in less than five years your organization will not be doing direct mail fund raising the way you are doing it today.
Why? Well, there are many reasons, but for today’s blog we are going to concentrate on just the problems of the U.S. Postal Service itself.
Click on the Postmaster Interview link below and listen for yourself to the Postmaster General talk about what the Post Office is facing. Then decide for yourself.
Listen to the Postmaster say . . .
“Things have changed dramatically within the past year. We lost a substantially larger portion of First Class mail and looking ahead it isn’t coming back.”
“The Internet and technology are the big change.”
Then my two personal favorite comments . . .
NPR: “Are you a business that has no future?”
PG: “There will always be a need for a hard copy.”
My Comment: Really? There will always be a need for a hard copy sent through the mail? Like the PG has never heard of electronic signatures and printers? Also for nonprofits, he never mentions advertising mailings as an important piece of the Postal Service’s future.
PG: “I don’t pay any bills online. It would be terrible for the Postmaster to be paying his bills online.”
My Comment: You know, I would have held out some modest hope for the guy if he would have said, “Sure, I pay some of my bills online. That is where things are moving and we are going to find our niche.” But, he didn’t say that. He stonewalls the technology that most Americans are moving towards and THAT (in a nutshell) is the problem with the current leadership of the Postal Service in general and their future prospects.
-Mike
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