Stuck with labels
Return-address stickers are popular ways to elicit donations
Toolbox
By GRACIE BONDS STAPLES Cox News Service - Published: June 18, 2006
She loves them. He loves them not. Those unsolicited sticky "gifts" from charities that seem to multiply in your mailbox remain a successful fund-raiser for nonprofits — even in this day of e-mail and online bill paying. And guilt is a factor.
At any given time, Valerie Johnson has a slew in her organizer: from groups as varied as the March of Dimes, the Atlanta Humane Society, Disabled American Veterans and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
They generally come 36 to 50 a sheet, two or three sheets at a time with cute little drawings or pictures and your very own name and address.
Johnson's one of the grateful ones, because she hates addressing — and return-addressing — envelopes. "I'd have to buy (labels)," she says, if it weren't for the charities.
But John Betz is another case. If he uses a label, he might send a donation to assuage his guilt.
Sometimes he just discards them, but that bothers him, too.
The only alternative, he said, is to mark "return to sender" on the charity come-ons and send them packing.
Truth be told, even Johnson the label lover admits she doesn't always send a donation. She's hardly alone.
Of the more than 460 people who responded to an informal electronic survey by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, more than half — 52 percent — said they use the labels but don't send a donation.
Only about 9 percent said they send money to the charity.
Agencies don't track how many people use the labels. They would typically expect only a 1 percent response rate to such a mailing, said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago.
That's not a problem for agencies like the American Red Cross, Disabled American Veterans or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, all of which report substantial proceeds from their campaigns.
The labels cost so little to produce and distribute that even a small response more than covers the costs.
And the nonprofits say their real goal is to establish loyal, steady supporters, not one-time donors.
For each of its mailings, St. Jude grosses about $6 million, said Lori O'Brien, senior vice president of national direct marketing.
"What we're really going for are donors," she said. "And we acquire a million new donors a year who go on to support us, sometimes even in their estate planning."
So many groups are hopping on the bandwagon that Lynn Lawson estimates she gets a batch every two months.
"Everybody and their mothers send those labels," she said.
Cheryl Ray said she has enough address labels to last the rest of her life.
"I pay most of my bills online, so I don't use them much, but about once a week I get something with mailing labels. They all want money. I kinda feel guilty I can't give money to all of them. I'm on a fixed income."
Many of the respondents to the online survey agreed that they had what amounts to a lifetime supply.
Some thought the charities were preying on their moral sensibilities.
Some felt guilty enough to send in a donation, but more than half said they use the labels without making a contribution.
Kiki Franklin is one.
Franklin, 36, said if it's a cause "dear to me" she'll make a donation.
"But," she said, "I wouldn't say I do it very often, to be honest."
Many of the 466 respondents said they consider the labels a nuisance and a waste of organizations' money.
Heather DeAngelo, 31, said the unsolicited mailings are akin to answering a phone call from a telemarketer.
"I end up feeling blackmailed into making a small donation. They get what they want."
19