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Charities mailing each others’ supporters in the millions 8

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 15 Jul 2011

Royal Mail figures released to civilsociety.co.uk show for the first time the extent to which some charity donors are being bombarded with mail by organisations keen to win or retain their support over the busy Christmas and New Year period.

Information about charity direct mailings from September 2010 to February 2011 has been shared with civilsociety.co.uk and show that there is a huge amount of cross-over between the mailing files of charities with large direct mail programmes.

A Royal Mail spokesman said the statistics do not suggest that charities are actively targeting donors of other charities, "rather that they are mailing people they feel are most likely to respond.”

"Royal Mail sponsors a panel of consumers who provide information on their shopping habits as well as other behaviours, including which charities they donate to. We then monitor what mail they receive. This information is very useful to our customers. The statistics for the charity sector show that mail campaigns are seen as a popular and effective way of attracting new donors."

Cancer Research UK, probably the biggest direct mail player in the charity market, has the highest number of other charities mailing the supporters on its own mail list. In total, over these six months, more than 33 million pieces of charity mail from other charities were sent to individuals who also receive mail from Cancer Research UK.

Seven different charities each mailed more than one million Cancer Research UK supporters over that period, with the top mailers being Smile Train (mailed 1.54m CRUK supporters), and the Royal British Legion (1.34m). A further 32 charities mailed between 200,000 and one million CRUK donors over this peak period.  

This level of cross-over between CRUK and other mailing lists in the September to February period is significant given that the charity pulled out of Reciprocate, a donor data-sharing service, in June 2010 and charities that were owed donor data from CRUK had to mail those donors by October.

British Heart Foundation also had a high level of cross-over between its supporters and supporters mailed by other charities. More than 16 million pieces of mail went to BHF mail recipients from other charities between September and February. Twenty-four charities each sent more than 200,000 pieces of mail to supporters on the BHF mailing list and over the six-month period just over 16.1 million pieces of charity mail were received by people also receiving BHF mail.

While there is a high cross-over of donors with charities within the same causal area – for example, 732,651 pieces of British Red Cross mail were sent to individuals who also got mail from Christian Aid – supporters are also receiving mailings from charities with vastly different aims and beneficiaries.

Royal British Legion’s supporter base is also heavily tapped by other charities, with 14 different organisations each sending more than 200,000 mailings to RBL supporters over the September-February period.

This level of cross-mailing would support the complaints results published by the Fundraising Standards Board a few months ago, which recorded more than 146,000 complaints about direct mail, with the chief concerns of complainants being poor data and the frequency of appeals. 

Smile Train tops many cross-over lists

The top mailer of supporters on the Barnardo’s list, as with CRUK, Cats Protection, RNLI, National Trust, Marie Curie Cancer Care and BHF, was Smile Train. According to the Royal Mail figures, Smile Train mailed 865,138 BHF mail recipients, 731,850 National Trust supporters, 502,269 Marie Curie Cancer Care supporters, 455,564 RNLI supporters, 399,316 Barnardo’s supporters, 308,304 Salvation Army supporters, and 278,351 RSPCA supporters among thousands of others during that six-month period.

Top charities by cross-over mailing:

The following is a list, according to Royal Mail figures from September 2010 to February 2011, of the number of mailings sent to supporters of these charities from other charities.

1. Cancer Research UK – 33.03 million
2. British Heart Foundation – 16.15 million
3. Christian Aid – 11.96 million
4. Royal British Legion – 11 million
5. Macmillan Cancer Support - 9.91 million
6. National Trust – 8.82 million
7. RNLI – 8.54 million
8. Marie Curie Cancer Care – 7.69 million
9. NSPCC – 7.68 million
10. IFAW - 7.36 million

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Directory: Barnardo's | British Heart Foundation | British Red Cross | Cancer Research UK (CRUK) | Christian Aid | Fundraising Standards Board | Macmillan | Marie Curie Cancer Care | National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) | National Trust | Royal British Legion | Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)