Sort fundraising and supplier mail at a nonprofit office

Steps to sort nonprofit office mail

1. Separate the mail into three piles: appeals from other organizations, membership or professional-society correspondence, and supplier or vendor advertising. Do not treat a piece as junk until you can identify its sender and type.
2. Give appeals from other nonprofits to the executive director or whoever decides on the organization's giving. Some may come from relationships the organization wants to keep, so removal needs that person's sign-off.
3. Send membership and benefits correspondence to the staff member named on the label. Renewal notices and benefits summaries are not advertising and should not go in a removal request.
4. For supplier advertising no one needs, photograph the label so the sender name and your office address are visible. Submit each piece as a separate request with the authorization of the responsible staff member.

An appeal is an ask that needs a decision

A fundraising appeal looks like advertising but is a request from another organization. If your nonprofit wants to support or avoid that organization entirely, tell them directly. Supplier catalogs and commercial advertising are simpler, because a removal request to the sender fits them. Confirm who decides before you submit anything.

Log how appeals are handled

Keep a short log of which organizations send appeals and how the executive director wants each handled. Next quarter's mail then needs no new decision, and staff will not request removal of appeals leadership wants to receive.

Instructions for the next step

• The main guide to stopping junk mail
• How Junk Mail Magic handles your information