Donation Solicitation/Previous Donation
Receipt
June 2005
PS-322 (233.2)
This Customer Support Ruling
discusses whether “personal information”
in the mailpiece of an organization authorized to mail at the
Nonprofit Standard Mail rates causes the piece to be ineligible for
Standard Mail rates.
An organization that is authorized to
mail at the Nonprofit Standard Mail rates submitted a mailpiece that
contains a field that is completed by computer to show the total
amount of donations for the previous year with instructions to “keep
this notice as a receipt for tax purposes”, as well as a request to
“consider making a donation meeting or exceeding the amount
contributed last year.”
Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)
233.2.3* provides that mailpieces containing personal information
must be entered at First-Class Mail rates unless they are eligible
for Standard Mail or Package Services rates under the respective
provisions. DMM 243.2.2* provides that personal information may not
be included in a Standard Mail mailpiece unless three conditions are
met: the mailpiece contains explicit advertising for a product or
service for sale or lease or an explicit solicitation for a
donation; all of the personal information is directly related to the
advertising or solicitation; and the exclusive reason for inclusion
of all of the personal information is to support the advertising or
solicitation in the mailpiece.
A review of the mailpiece indicates that
it contains personal information; i.e. the amount of the previous
year’s donation. In addition, the first two conditions in section
243.2.2 are met; i.e. the request to consider making a donation
meeting or exceeding the amount contributed last year is an explicit
solicitation for a donation and the personal information (the
previous year’s donation) is directly related to that solicitation.
However, the mailpiece does not meet the third condition in 243.2.2
since it includes instructions to the addressee to “keep this notice
as a receipt for tax purposes.” Thus, the personal information (the
amount of the previous year’s donation) is not included in the
mailpiece exclusively to support the advertising or solicitation in
the mailpiece, but has a “dual use” as both a tax receipt and
support for a current request for contributions. Therefore, the
mailpiece is subject to the First-Class rates of postage.
*See also DMM 333.2, 433.2, 343.2, and
443.2.
(Signed) Sherry Suggs Manager
Mailing Standards
United States Postal Service Washington DC 20260-3436
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