Re: When do charitys give up?

Howard Wilson II <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>Of course it works.  The mail isn't sent back to them, but the 
>person/company that sent the mail is notified that it could not be 
>delivered, and why.

I would be interested to hear what evidence you have to support this
claim.  I know of no mechanism, short of returned mail, used by the
postal service to notify mail senders of undelivered mail.  And I
believe that the previous poster is correct that bulk-rate mail is
*not* returned to its sender when it is rejected for whatever reason by
the recipient.

Note, however, that just because something was sent by a non-profit
doesn't mean it was sent bulk-rate.  A lot of charitable solicitations
are sent first-class (perhaps with a better rate because of the
non-profit status and/or because the mailing was pre-sorted, but still
first-class despite the better rate), in which case it will be returned
to the sender if you mark it "deceased, return to sender" and put it
back in the mail.

>However, the picture as you painted it is...a company that has, in the 
>past, received a donation from a person is asking for another one.  You've 
>said yourself you've done nothing to let them know this person will never 
>be making another donation.  So to answer your original question...it will 
>NEVER stop.

That's not true.  Many of the charities keep track of when the last
time the people on their lists have donated, and they do eventually
purge people who haven't sent donations.  It does take a long time,
though.

>You can even call the local post office and let them know, they will 
>add the name to a list and once it is verified, this information is shared 
>with mass marketers.

Do you have any evidence to back up this claim?  The only list I know
of that's "shared with mass marketers" is the one operated by the DMA,
not the postal service.  If you're getting junk mail for a deceased
person, it's worthwhile to add his/her name and the address to which
the mail is being sent to the DMA's list, but note that organizations
with a "pre-existing relationship" with the person, e.g., charities to
which the person donated while still alive, will ignore the entire in
the DMA list.  Also, some non-profits ignore the DMA list completely. 
But still, you can add someone to the list for the cost of a printout
and a stamp, and it may cut down to some extent on the junk mail (or
for $5 if you prefer to do it through the Web rather tha mailing it
in).  See <http://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist>.