# Brand damage cost to charities of mailing deceased is calculated for first time

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/04/26/brand-damage-cost-charities-mailing-deceased-calculated-first-time/
- Published: 2016-04-26T13:13:15+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Data specialists Wilmington Millennium Mortascreen have calculated a figure for
the cost to a charity in terms of brand damage for each time they send a mailing
to someone who has died.**

How much does it cost a charity to send a fundraising or other mailing to someone
who has recently died? There is the cost of the wasted printing and postage of course.
But what about the impact on that charity’s reputation amongst relatives and friends
who receive the unwanted mailing?

According to Wilmington Millennium Mortascreen, that cost to a charity’s brand is**
£1.64 per mailing to a deceased person**.

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## Increased mortality rate

The challenge of avoiding this cost is only going to increase, given that the UK’s
mortality rate has increased by 6%.
Mortascreen’s research found that 66% of consumers
would said that they would boycott a charity that sent direct mail to a loved one
that was deceased.

![Charities lose £1.64 in brand damage every time they mail the deceased - says 
Mortascreen](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2022/01/charities-lose-mailing-
deceased-quotation-mortascreen-1.webp)

Charities lose £1.64 in brand damage every time they mail the deceased – says Mortascreen

## “5% of all direct mail sent to the deceased”

The nationally representative survey found that:

 * 20% of UK adults have received direct mail intended for a family member who has
   died in the last year.
 * On average they received 15 pieces of direct mail addressed to deceased (three
   pieces of mail per month for five months following the intended recipient’s death).
 * 1.6 million people (2.5%) received five or six pieces per month
 * 5% continued receiving the mail for more than a year.

This equates to **193.2 million of mistargeted direct mail**, or 5% of all direct
mail sent (approximately 3.6 billion pieces per year)! (This figure is calculated
in terms of the number of people that have received direct mail addressed to the
deceased multiplied by the average amount of deceased mail received).

Mortascreen’s calculations of brand damage are based only on the period of time 
that the direct mail is sent to the deceased. Of course, they could be significantly
higher if the person continued to boycott the charity in the future.

[Tweet “Charities lose £1.64 in brand costs each time
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## Keep donor data as up-to-date as possible

Karen Pritchard, Product Director of Mortascreen, said:

> “2016 has seen the highest rate of deaths in memory and as a result donor databases
> are decaying more quickly than usual. With an expected 33,000 extra deaths this
> year charities can ill afford to ignore this research.
> “The fact that two thirds
> of donors would blacklist them if they mailed someone who had passed away is significant.
> Consumers are becoming increasingly empowered and will vote with their feet by
> closing their wallets.“As an industry we have always understood that mailing the
> deceased causes brand damage, however this research, for the first time, serves
> to emphasize the scale of the problem. Whilst the headline figure is unrealised
> potential revenue, in absolute terms the cost of producing these mail packs should
> serve as momentum to keep donor data as up-to-date as possible.”

 
_Main image: [family at funeral](http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-311671106/stock-photo-family-walking-down-alley-at-graveyard.html)
by Kzenon at Shutterstock.com_