Personalization

There are a number of steps you can take to give your letters a more personal feel. We also work hard to ensure that your letters don't have a corporate, mass-produced feel, and strive to be an invisible part of the mailing process for you.

Addresses

This one is easy to overlook, but take some time to go over your address list and ensure that you're using people's names in the same way that you would address them. This is particularly important if you're getting a list of donors from your ministry – they'll usually have a very formal version of the person's name.

The post office has no problem with a letter addressed to "Uncle John and Aunt Mary", for instance, as long as the address is correct.

We do some address processing for you as well, but always in such a way as to make the post office happy without dehumanizing the address.

Postage

Unless you request otherwise, we use regular first-class stamps on every envelope. We highly recommend that you use first-class postage rather than standard or non-profit bulk mail, even though it's more expensive. Letters with real stamps stand out in today's mail – most commercial mail has either meter imprints or bulk mail markings.

We can also use the first-class stamp of your choice for an extra $0.10/letter (this covers the extra labor involved with stamping your letters by hand rather than using our equipment).

Visit usps.com to see which stamps are currently available.

Signature

You can include a picture of your signature in your letter for an added touch. It's not quite the same as signing them yourself by hand, but people will generally be understanding.

If you don't have easy access to a scanner, you can mail us a sheet of paper with one or more signatures on it, and we will scan them for you. Our contact info page has our mailing address.

If you would like to sign your letters by hand, we can print everything else for you, and send you the letters pre-folded, along with pre-stamped envelopes, so all you need to do is sign the letters, seal the envelopes, and drop them in the mail.

Mail Merge

For an extra $0.10 per letter, you can include a personalized greeting in each letter (e.g. "Dear Mr. Smith"), along with one or more other personalized sections.

This can be used to include how much they've given to your ministry since the last letter, specific per-person requests, or even a special paragraph for each person who receives the letter.

If you choose to do this, be sure to include the person's name in the top third of your letter (above the first fold), so we can do spot checks to make sure everything stays lined up.