Postal Strike with a Silver Lining

This was an editorial by Andrew Cates, CEO SOS Children UK

No one likes conflict, no one likes industrial disputes and we should not make light of the misery of others. On top of which our postal service, which we take for granted, was until recently something admired and discussed with amazement throughout the developing world (I used to live in the Ivory Coast, where at best the system is one of PO boxes). As a charity. we are concerned that we have fourteen thousand copies of our bi-annual news letter caught somewhere in postal no-mans-land, we have half a dozen packs for new sponsors in every post and we feel for the friends we have in the postal service who are always very helpful to us.

Nonetheless, with tredipation, I have to admit that the dark clouds of postal strikes do have a silver lining. Much though we all like personal post, automated post is not very good for the environment and the charitable sector as a whole is far far too dependent on Direct Mail and Junk Mail to fundraise (not to mention the unaddressed stuff). This strike will hasten the shift towards the internet for charities and donors, and that will reduce charity costs and decrease the amount of paper printed as charity junk mail (95% of which gets binned without being read).

SOS Children have been saying for five years (when we bit the bullet and stopped cold junk mail completely) this junk mail scandal should stop, and for five years we have seen ever better figures from internet initiated fundraising. This year from the UK we think we will hit £6m income versus £1.2m five years ago when we started, without any significant change in cost base.

Meanwhile we are sitting looking curiously at our own figures for donations and new direct debits online. Oct 2009 was 67% up compared to Oct 2008 whereas the rest of 2009 is only 30% up on a year earlier (30% up in sterling: thanks to the failing exchange rate more is really needed). Perhaps we are benefiting, I wonder, from other people's charity junk mail being blocked by the strike? Every time I talk to other charities and tell them to stop junk mailing and do what we do I am met with deep cynicism that stopping pursuing donors and letting them come to you when they are ready could possibly work. Few charities have really put their hearts and minds online. An increase in online giving in response to less charity junk might be just the proof I need.