Fundraisers Dominating the Mailstream

With their mailstream competitors continuing to struggle, fundraisers have moved from a major player to a dominant one in the past year. Analyzing the 10,000 or so pieces of direct mail pieces we get in our Who's Mailing What! Archive each year reveals some clear trends, in particular comparing the calendar year of 2009 to previous years.

While financial, publishing and catalog mail have dramatically shrunk their volume in the mailstream since the economy started tanking nearly two years ago, fundraisers have kept up their mailing frequency. In fact, fundraising mail actually rose in 2008 and 2009 as compared to 2007. And since 2007, fundraisers grew from a respectable 13 percent of the mailstream to 20 percent in 2009. That means a full one-fifth of the mailstream is fundraising mail. Wow. It's reflected in my mailbox. Yours?