Is Your Mailing List Helping or Hurting Your Year-End Appeal?

Hey Nonprofit Leader, What’s Keeping You Awake at Night?

Is it the sound of your donor letters being returned to sender? Or the creeping realization that it’s almost the end of the year—and your biggest fundraising push hasn’t even left the station?

Welcome to Fall! Where the leaves change color (unless you live in the California desert—then it’s just the overseeded golf courses going green), kids head back to school, and if you're lucky, you can finally give your air conditioner a break.

But in nonprofit land, fall is more than lattes and leaf piles. It’s the countdown to your year-end appeal—the Super Bowl of fundraising. And here’s the kicker: between 30% to 45% of annual donations happen in November and December, with the final week of the year seeing a donation frenzy that rivals last-minute holiday shopping.

So here’s the million-dollar question (literally): Is your mailing list ready?

Clean Up That Donor List, You Say?

If your donor database looks more like a time capsule than a contact list—chock full of outdated addresses, duplicates, and folks who have long since moved to Boca Raton—it’s time for some Fall cleaning.

Thankfully, there’s a tool for that: NCOA (National Change of Address). It's the nonprofit sector’s unsung hero—like a mailroom fairy godmother.

NCOA in a Nutshell (or Pumpkin Shell)

Here’s how it works:

1. Export your donor addresses from your database.

2. Send them to a certified NCOA processor, who compares them with the USPS change-of-address file and returns a shiny, updated list.

3. Update your database—either manually or via import—just in time to avoid wasting precious postage on outdated addresses or Aunt Edna who moved to Belize.

   
   

You’ll even get match codes showing you why addresses changed—whether they moved, had formatting errors, or entered their zip code upside down.

Why Should You Care?

Besides avoiding the heartbreak of undelivered appeals, NCOA helps you:

• Save money on postage and printing.

• Build trust by actually reaching your donors (what a concept!).

• Stay compliant with USPS bulk mail rules and keep those juicy postal discounts.

• Suppress ghost mail to those who moved with no forwarding address—or worse, passed on.

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Oh, and did I mention it helps you reconnect with lapsed donors who still love you, but just forgot to tell you they moved across town?

Bottom Line?

The clock’s ticking. Don’t let your year-end appeal vanish into the void of bad addresses. Take a day, run your list through NCOA, and give your donor communications the best shot of hitting their target.

Call to Action:Don’t wait. Update your mailing list now—before your year-end appeal hits the mail tray! Your future fundraising self (and your post office) will thank you.

Next week: we tackle the art of writing your year-end appeal letter—complete with emotional punch, strategic asks, and zero clichés. (Okay, maybe one.)