Charity sector's use of direct mail up by 9%
Howard Lake | 20 March 2007 | News
The Royal Mail reports that the charity sector’s use of direct mail has increased by 9.1 per cent in a year. In the last quarter of 2006 UK charities sent 132.27 million mailings compared to 121.22 million in the same period in 2005.
The Royal Mail says that these results support the findings of research it conducted in association with Carat Insight which showed that “post also remains the preferred method of sending donations, despite the rising popularity of online donating sites”.
Royal Mail’s latest research also revealed a rise in the volume of direct mail sent to the 55-64 year old age group. The Royal Mail say that this demographic “is also recognised as being the most generous and regular donors”.
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Emily Travis, Market Development Manager of Royal Mail, said: “The charity sector has long recognised the benefits of direct mail and these figures reinforce its importance to them as a marketing tool. Direct mail successfully enables charities to develop a personal relationship with existing supporters but also deliver comprehensive details of their cause to increasingly discerning new donors.”
Overall direct mail volumes during October to December 2006 experienced a slight fall with 958.69 million items sent compared with one billion mail pieces during the same period in 2005.
However, other sectors that increased their use of direct mail include building societies with a year on year volume increase of 18.8% to 15.92 million items; government, which jumped by 6% for the same period to 17.47 million; and health which increased by 5.7% to 13.65 million.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.