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Unaddressed mail
What is it? What it costs and what it raises
This section covers the mailings or leaflets that are delivered through your letterbox that don't carry your name and address – they are often addressed ‘to the occupier’, or left blank.
Charities use unaddressed mail to get their information out to potential new supporters. This is cheaper than Mailings addressed to you as they don’t have to pay for names and addresses and delivery is cheaper than normal post.
This route can be used for very large-scale communication campaigns where the charity needs to reach a big audience, or can be targeted (by postal area) to areas the fundraisers think are likely to be home to people who will support their work.
Unaddressed mail is delivered either by the postman with your usual mail, though specialist distribution companies, or alongside free newspapers.
Unaddressed mail is:
- Cheaper than addressed mail but fewer people respond to it.
- The method is used only to bring in new supporters (and to raise awareness).
- Like the other methods of ‘recruiting’ new supporters it costs a charity to bring in a new giver by this route, but as supporters are likely to give more over time this investment is repaid.
- One advantage of unaddressed mail is that it tends to reach people who may not appear on mailing lists, so it can give a charity access to a different audience.
