Mailing List & Setup
What does your set up fee cover?
The setup fee covers our time spent in getting your mailing list into our mailing program. This is a one-time charge. However, we do ask that you not re-send the entire list at a later date, but send only any changes/additions/deletions you have not already received from us. This can be done at any time, and we encourage you to send them as you get them, or as you make the changes in your own computer. That way your list here will be completely up to date whenever you have a letter ready to send.
If you resend the entire list and we have to start over with importing it into our mailing program, the setup fee will again be charged.
If you have any questions that are not answered here, please ask!
Confidentiality of mailing lists
Your mailing list is yours and yours alone. It will not be used for any other person except by your expressed permission and direction to us to do so, nor will it be released to any other person or agency without your express permission and direction to us to do so.
We will keep a few extra copies of your letters in our files for reference and historical purposes. If someone sends us a request to be added to your mailing list, we will check with you before doing so. We will also check with you before sending that person your latest letter.
Do you send me a copy of my mailing list?
We have been providing a hard copy of each mailing list that can be put in a notebook or file folder, but we can be flexible with this. When we send the new mailing list would it be better sent in regular #10 envelopes, although it may take several, rather than one large envelope? (i.e.: Would it be less likely to be opened and/or tampered with?) [If you know of any special handling needs for mail sent to your field of service and/or other countries please let us know as we do not want to jeopardize any missionary’s life or work.] We can also either upload your mailing list and send it Email or send it to you on a disk. We do realize that uploading and downloading files from some mission fields can be rather expensive, so we will not upload a file to you unless you expressly ask for it that way.
How do you want my mailing list?
If you have your mailing list on the computer, convert it to a text & comma delimited or text & tab delimited format, please, as those will always work. You can then send it to us on disk or by Email. Our mailing program is in a .dbf format, and it will import most .dbf files. If you do not have your mailing list on the computer, send us a hard copy and we will enter it.
Suggestion: As you begin to set up your mailing list in a computer, be consistent with where you put your information … in other words, keep the street address information in the address field, etc.
- Salutation (Mr., Mrs., Pastor, Dr., etc.) — If you want to use only the individuals names, leave this field blank
- First Name — If sending to a church, Mission board, etc., leave blank
- Last Name — Ditto
- Company — if sending to individual leave blank
- Title — Pastor, Missions Committee Director, etc.; quite often not necessary
- Street
- City
- State
- Zip
* Another field that would be helpful would be a supporter field. If you sent out a letter just to your supporters we would have them marked. Also, if a copy of your letter to a supporter is returned marked undeliverable and we know it is undeliverable we will do all we can to find a new address for them.
Mail-out Options
What about colored envelopes?
We have checked into the use of colored envelopes and have found that they cost twice as much as white envelopes. If you want to make an investment into a case 2500 of colored envelopes, we can use colored envelopes – but we do not think they are worth the extra cost.
What about multi-color or full-color printing?
We preprint multicolored letterheads, but do not recommend multicolored printing for envelopes. The expense of printing almost doubles when the second color is added. Therefore it is not economically feasible to print multicolor in quantities of less than 2000.
Can you send a special or separate letter to my supporters besides my regular prayer letter?
Yes, but being a small quantity (generally) we will mail them 1st class and will charge you 1st class postage. Other charges still apply.
I want to send several copies to my supporting churches. Can you take care of that for me?
Yes we will mail multiple copies to one address. When we do this we only charge a processing charge for the one name and then charge the actual cost of postage.
Postal Information
What about mail-merge?
We do not do mail-merge at all.
What about self-mailers?
We do self-mailers but we discourage the use of self-mailers. We have seen the way mail can be damaged in the high speed equipment and think that the envelope offers some protection for the letter.
Also the International Mail Manual requires that all mail going overseas be put in an envelope. Personally we think that a mail piece in an envelope looks more professional than one that is not. We have heard some pastors say that if a missionary does not think enough of their prayer letter to put in an envelope they (the pastor) do not have time to read it.
From the standpoint of cost, because we can insert an envelope by machine but would have to tab self mailers by hand it is actually cheaper to use envelopes than self mailers.
At what point does it become cost effective to mail non-profit bulk rate rather than 1st class?
Postage 1st class 44 cents – 100 = $44.00 Non-profit 17.2 cents – 250 = 43.00
When all production costs are considered for B&W printing, with the current rates it will cost 18 cents less to mail 205 bulk than it will to mail 136 1st class for a single side letter.
For a two side letter it will cost 26 cents more to mail 205 bulk than it will to mail 150 1st class.
