In the United States, qualified nonprofits are eligible to receive significant discounts in postage from the USPS for certain types of mailing. Postalytics has created a process for these nonprofits to configure their USPS Nonprofit Mailing Permits within their accounts and with our print partners. After the permits are reviewed and configured, nonprofits can access per piece pricing that reflects the lower USPS postage costs.

What are the Nonprofit Eligibility Requirements?

According to the USPS, there are 10 types of organizations that may be approved to access USPS Nonprofit Marketing Mail pricing. This page describes the USPS policy in greater detail: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Who-is-Eligible-to-Use-Nonprofit-Mail

If your organization qualifies to send direct mail at USPS Nonprofit prices, you’ll need to apply for and receive authorization by the USPS (not the IRS) before you can configure your information in your Postalytics account. This page provides more information on how to apply (if you haven’t already): https://faq.usps.com/s/article/How-do-I-apply-to-Use-Nonprofit-USPS-Marketing-Mail

Here’s the actual form “Application to Mail at Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail Prices” that you can fill out and bring to your local post office to kick off the process.

In addition to USPS approval, there are limits in Postalytics on how and when you can use Nonprofit postage:

  • Your Postalytics plan must be Pro, Agency or higher (Free and Marketer plans are not eligible)
  • Smart Send campaigns of 250 or more pieces are eligible (no Triggered Drip campaigns)

How to Set Up Your Nonprofit Permit in Postalytics

If your organization has received authorization from the USPS to send mail at the USPS Nonprofit Postage rates, you’ll need to provide some information in the forms using your permit, and agree to the special Postalytics nonprofit terms and conditions.

The process will take a few days for we and our print partners to confirm and configure the permit information so that the appropriate nonprofit indicia will be applied to your mailers.

First, enter some general contact information that we’ll use to keep you abreast of our progress in getting your permit information configured.

Next, choose “United States” in the Permit Country drop down and then “Nonprofit” in the Permit Type drop down.

Then fill out the Name, Company, Address, Registration ID, Permit Number and NPA information exactly as they are laid out in your permit.

It is very important that the information that you enter in the form match the exact information in your permit. If something as simple as the organization name or address is incorrect, we won’t be able to process the mail properly and your mailing will be delayed.

Deduct Postage from Permit Account?

The next question will determine how your nonprofit postage is paid. You have a choice to let Postalytics pay your postage for you, or for a “self funded” postage account that you maintain to pay the postage.

If you’d like your postage paid for by Postalytics, select “No, pay postage”. This selection will enable your account to have postage bundled into a single, per piece charge.

If you have a current, funded postage account that you’d like to use, choose “Yes, Deduct Postage From Permit Account”. This selection will charge your postage account that you pay for separately. Postalytics will charge you for the difference between the Nonprofit per piece fee of your mailing minus the Nonprofit postage fee. Only choose this selection if you have and will maintain enough of a balance in the USPS postage account to cover all Postalytics mailings.

Postage Mailing Agreement

Finally, you’ll need to agree to the “Postage Mailing Agreement”, which outlines your responsibilities to use the Nonprofit postage according to the rules the USPS has set up that govern Nonprofit postage usage.

After you fill out the required fields and agree to the Postage Mailing Agreement, select “Apply” at the bottom of the page.

Permit Application Approval and Next Steps

Next, your application will be in “Pending” status for a couple of days while Postalytics and our print partners confirm with the USPS the information you’ve entered and distribute your nonprofit indicia throughout our systems. You’ll see the banner “Your application is under review” on your Postalytics Home Dashboard as well as on this Postage Permit page.

Start Sending Mail Using Nonprofit Postage Rates

After we’ve confirmed the information in your application and configured the nonprofit indicia in our systems, we’ll notify you of approval or contact you to discuss any issues discovered. Assuming there are no issues, you’ll be notified of the approval, and you can begin sending mail with your Nonprofit permit.

You can then use the Direct Mail Credits tool to purchase credits with Nonprofit pricing, or the Smart Send campaign wizard with lists of 250 contacts or greater, to start sending campaigns. When you send mail that uses your Nonprofit postage permit, it will be sent using the specific indicia generated by your application.