One benefit of moving a lot is that bulk mail rarely follows you.
However! Occasionally a wily organization will track me down. For instance: a nonprofit I flirted with volunteering for in Santa Rosa, California recently asked me to attend a fundraiser – a thousand miles from where I currently live in Minnesota.
unwanted direct mail
Not only is this annoying, but it wastes paper and postage. To maximize my life efficiency, in both resources and time, I found an e-mail address online and sent the following letter:
Dear [Organization]:
Please remove me from your mailing list. I have moved to Minnesota, and as to support your organization I want to save you the paper and postage it takes to mail me materials that I will not use.
I recently received your [fundraiser name] invitation at:
[address]
Please remove my address. Thanks very much!
I realize how difficult it is for organizations, especially now, to find ways to make money. I see it as my job to tell organizations how I want them to market to me – and how I don’t want them to market to me. I want to send a strong message that direct mail is not an effective strategy for me.
End rant. In other news, Ed Kohler at The Deets has done a great job chronicling issues, trials, and tribulations of citizens opting out of receiving copies of Yellow Pages. And/or pestering YP until they do something about it.
