Private

Submitted by Geoff Peters, General Counsel, American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation Good News First – it seems that Florida Department of Agriculture, Division of Consumer Services that manages Florida’s charitable regulation process is interested in following the legal precedent set by American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation in its 11th Circuit Court of Appeals…

Submitted by Darin Marks, Resource Director, Production Solutions Despite a recent Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) consolidation and restructuring, the Postal Service does in fact recognize its many antiquated and incoherent rules that are often difficult to discern. For that reason, the Mailpiece Design Analyst (MDA) position/department was developed several years ago to serve as a…

Submitted by Geoff Peters, General Counsel, American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation Often in this space we spend time discussing federal initiatives that might limit the abilities of charities to do their work effectively. But much of regulation is at the state level, and it doesn’t always directly involve fundraising. For example, in many states…

Recently, I read an article by Dave Lewis of PROLIST about the USPS Move Update instituting an important change. Mailing lists have been required to be kept up-to-date but the USPS tolerated a 30% error rate. Effect October 2014, that tolerance rate is being dropped to .08%! If a mailer doesn’t meet this updated standard,…

Submitted by Darin Marks, Resource Director, Production Solutions This year, the mailing industry had to bare an outrageous postage increase of close to 6%; which consisted of a 1.7% CPI increase and a 4.3% exigent surcharge. Fortunately for the industry, the USPS must follow strict regulations when filing for rate increases. Unless congress passes new…

Most charities in the United States market mainly to U.S. Citizens resident in the 50 states.  But our national borders are more porous than one might first suspect.  No, this isn’t a reference to immigration but rather to marketing.  For example, what regulations and laws apply when you send an e-mail message to a prospective…

Submitted by Geoff Peters, CEO, CDR Fundraising Group A group of state regulators, attorneys specializing in regulation of nonprofits and fundraisers, and those who have been active in nonprofit regulatory affairs were asked what they feel are the top three regulatory issues facing the nonprofit community.  Here are their responses, combined and edited for clarity.…

Submitted by Darin Marks, Senior Resource Manager, Production Solutions Just days after the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) approved the significant increase in postage rate for 2014, the United States Postal Service (USPS) filed a Load Leveling request. The proposal recommended adding one day to the delivery service standards for standard mail entering Sectional Center Facilities…

New York State Justice Thomas Feinman has rejected New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive regulation issued by the New York Department of Health on use of funds and executive salary caps in certain nonprofit organizations.  The judge stated that Gov. Cuomo exceeded his authority when he enacted the executive order that launched the regulations.  The…

The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate approved an version of the Postal Reform Act of 2013 (S. 1486) and recommended it to the full Senate. It contains a number of features that are problematic for nonprofit mailers. Foremost amongst concerns are that the proposed legislation: makes the recent 4.3% “temporary”…