Taming Addresses: Making Mailings Easier
If you have returned to the office, post-holidays, and you have piles (or boxes) of returned mail, does your heart sink? Mine does…can you hear that sinking sound Wah-wah.
What do you do?
1. STANDARDIZE ADDRESSES
Both Canada Post and USPS have established standards for urban (civic), rural and PO Boxes. These standards exist for a reason. Do not try to get fancy or reinvent the wheel. Addresses using the correct standards reach the desired destination more often than not. They are sorted quickly and easily. Depending on the type of mail you are sending it may even result in a price reduction.
Your database may also have a built-in address standardization tool such as addresses editing in RE: NXT or Donor Perfect.
Canada Post Standards can be found here
USPS Standards can be found here
2. IMPLEMENT ONGOING DATA HYGIENE
Data come from a variety of places such as online data, imports from other vendors or manual gift entry. All of them have errors from time to time. So it is important to establish a routine to check this data often. The address line and the postal code/zip are the two key elements to a mailable address. If you have those two elements the odds will forever be in your favour. Create a query to look up this data and fill in the blanks whenever possible.
When returned mail is received be sure to mark the address “send no mail” in RE or in Donor Perfect select “mail-Returned”. This will ensure that addresses are correctly coded so no others cannot use the address.
Resist the temptation to delete the address or prefix the address with “do not mail” or coding it in some other way. Code it once, and make sure everyone in your organization understands your coding structure. The codes should be so obvious that even a complete stranger could understand.
3. NATIONAL CHANGE OF ADDRESS (NCOA)
This is a service provided by USPS or Canada Post that allows users to submit their data and receive updated addresses from those who have filed a change of address card. I know what you are thinking…the last time I moved I did not fill out this card because of the price. There are other services available that provide updated addresses such as Clean List.
By following these three key data-cleaning processes you can save money by reducing the number of returned mailings, stop the headache of incorrect contact data, and get your data set up for the future.
At Sentinel Consulting we always champion data cleaning that fits your team and does not add an undue burden on your time! Reach out to us if you have any questions on how you could implement better data hygiene practices.
If you would like us to tackle a topic or problem of interest to you, in future articles, please let us know here.
Sentinel Consulting is a consulting firm that focuses on helping non-profits strengthen their operational efficiency. We speak the same language as our clients because we were all fundraisers at some point in our careers.