Are NRA Mass Mailings A Waste Of Funds?

[Safetyhit]

I get them two to three times per week and have for years. Big, thick envelopes packed with colorful materials and, of course, donation forms. It is an excess, plain and simple.

I have to wonder, what does it cost to send all these materials out? I am almost certain they must spend my annual dues several times over to pay for all these. How about one donation request every two weeks, maybe even once per week? Two to three per week is almost insulting, IMHO. And a waste of money that could be going to a better use.

Curious to see if anyone has a different take on this, as I suppose there could be a method to their madness.

[LOKNLOD]

I agree. Plus, the donation requests are so panicky, that it gets hard to tell when they're bringing something really drastic to your attention vs. just general "gun grab" fears.

[Kurt Reifert]

You can contact the NRA and ask to be taken off of their mailing list.

How about those piece of crap chinese knives they just sent out?

[rob_s]

NRA is marketing and hype, ILA is the action arm. So, in one sense the NRA is not "wasting" money since they really wouldn't be doing anything else. On the other hand, perhaps some of their funding could be cut and used for the ILA to actually do something.

I actually collected all of the mail I got from the NRA over the course of a one year membership and weighed and photographed it. I'll try to find the pictures. I expressly didn't renew so that I could include all the "come on, don't leave us!" mail as well. It was actually less than I expected to tell the truth, but probably cost more than it should.

[KintlaLake]

Curious to see if anyone has a different take on this, as I suppose there could be a method to their madness.

I find it annoying.

That said, and perhaps because I've served on the senior staff of a 501(c)4 non-profit advocacy organization with a similar structure, I put up with the torrent of NRA mailings.

As I understand it, the NRA comprises at least three different organizations: the parent NRA, a 501(c)4 non-profit/non-stock corporation; the NRA Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit/tax-exempt corporation; and NRA-ILA, the association's lobbying arm.

Individually and collectively, these organizations and their activities rise and fall with their revenue streams. I suspect that the NRA's major sources of revenue are member dues, voluntary donations (political or charitable), advertising, and commercial partnerships (sponsorships, etc.).

Tapping two of those sources involves soliciting individuals, thus the mailings -- and, presuming that the NRA is doing what works (that is, brings in money), stopping or curtailing the mailings means shutting off or reducing the cash.

So I tolerate the mailings. YMMV.

[Safetyhit]

Plus, the donation requests are so panicky, that it gets hard to tell when they're bringing something really drastic to your attention vs. just general "gun grab" fears.



This is a great point. The requests have become overly-dramatized and even gimmicky sometimes. Almost like they have targeted simple-minded fools who hopefully have bottomless pockets. I don't need or want all that nonsense to support them, and I find it to be a turn off.

The can educate and motivate most of us without simple, fear mongering tactics.

[OldNavyGuy]

You can contact the NRA and ask to be taken off of their mailing list.

that is what i did about 15 years ago, but once in a while they slip up, but that only happens about once every two or three years, i treat their mailings like the comics...., i laugh a lot !!

[TOrrock]

Have them put you on the do not mail list, which is what I did.

That takes care of everything.

NRA Life Member here.....:cool:

[Saginaw79]

Yes, and I was on the do not mail list but they still did

My favorite was the one where they swore I was singlehandedly empowering the Liberals and destroying the 2A and how at that very moment they was legislation trying to repeal the 2A altogether(a lie no less) etc;

[Safetyhit]

Have them put you on the do not mail list, which is what I did.

That takes care of everything.



It's not the mail itself, so to speak. I put all my junk mail and paper into a recycle bin that gets picked up right in front of my home. No big deal.


It is the excessive expenditures of our money that I would prefer go to a better use. Then there is the air of insatiability that accompanies all those donation requests. Many should just read "Hurry, send more money so we can get more mailers out ASAP!!".

I also have an issue with how some of the messages are being conveyed on what is really our behalf. LOKNLOD summed it up well in that regard.

[markm]

I've spoke with shooters who don't want to join for that reason. They bug you non stop.

I don't even read the crap anymore. It's hard for me to tell when I need to renew my membership between all the junk they send out.

[KintlaLake]

It's not the mail itself, so to speak. ... It is the excessive expenditures of our money that I would prefer go to a better use.

Virtually everything that falls under the heading of "a better use" costs money, and that money has to come from somewhere. The tactics used by the NRA -- some of them patently tacky and frivolous -- apparently work.

Or they'd better be working. If they're not, now that would be a waste of funds. :rolleyes:

[Safetyhit]

Virtually everything that falls under the heading of "a better use" costs money, and that money has to come from somewhere. The tactics used by the NRA -- some of them patently tacky and frivolous -- apparently work.

Or they'd better be working. If they're not, now that would be a waste of funds. :rolleyes:



While this may be true, does it still result in a lower profit margin overall than what might be obtained with a more "limited" strategy? I think so, here's why...

Everyone here unanimously agrees so far that it is too much and often too tacky. If it has that effect here, it is having it elsewhere.

They need to get a grip on reality and stop wasting all that money with simple-minded, wasteful techniques.

[Joe R.]

I wouldn't mind getting one mailing a month or so, but there isn't a week that goes by where I don't get at least one or more "your contribution could save us all" letter. I can't imagine anyone who sends cash every time they get a request from the NRA.

I'm sure the NRA could find a more productive way to spend some of the cash that goes into all those mailings. I don't mind contributing, but I sure can't do it at the rate they would like!

[Ed L.]

I think the biggest problem is that they send so much stuff that all mailings get ignored, including notifications for renwals. They even send you notices for renewals before they are due.

Now I admire what they stand for and fully support them, but I can't help to think that they probably loose a lot of members who do not renew because they wind up discarding everything sent to them.

I know gun control is a serious issue and there is a lot of things happening with it, but I think the NRA and NRA ILA would be better served sending less stuff out, because in the current state I am convinced a lot of it is tossed away--with membership renewal forms tossed away with it.

[Lagadelphia]

I agree with this thread. The overhyped, panicky verbiage used in the mailings makes the NRA look just like what the Anti's say they are. The message seems geared towards the cammo wearing gunshow attendies. I found all of those mailings insulting. The facts are scary enough without them going overboard with the hyperbole. Give me facts, not scare tactics.

Has anyone in this thread actually sent money after reading "The UN is out for your guns!! Send money now so we can defeat these international gungrabbers before it is too late!!!" Reads just like those subscription inserts in the Mack Bolan books.

[KintlaLake]

...does it still result in a lower profit margin overall than what might be obtained with a more "limited" strategy?

Maybe -- maybe not.

That it's wasteful (or inefficient) is plausible but by no means certain. Only the folks doing the NRA's marketing and solicitations know for sure -- and we don't know what we don't know. ;)

In my former role with a national non-profit that did a whole lot of mailings, I used to hear this sort of thing every day, and it was unfounded -- the cost-benefit of our solicitations was solidly in benefit territory.

Personally, I love efficiency and loathe waste. I just don't have enough information to know what I'm looking at here.

[Gutshot John]

I'd rather them send me stuff I can ignore...than call me every two days begging for money.

[Jerm]

i gotta believe they make more money from the mailings than they spend.

i agree it can be annoying though.

i would ask to be put on the list to have it stopped,but occasionally they do send something that interest me.

[Safetyhit]

Maybe -- maybe not...Only the folks doing the NRA's marketing and solicitations know for sure -- and we don't know what we don't know. ;)




Maybe, but maybe it's they who don't know what they don't know. Maybe their dopey marketing team is convinced that all current and potential members are just what Lagadelphia describes as "cammo wearing gunshow attendees".

In other words, simple minded, likely well meaning folks who are easily swayed by the irritating and expensive method. Could there be that many of them out there? :confused:

If we can see the ridiculousness of the twice-a-week solicitations so uniformly here, apparently it is real to thinking folks. And there is absolutely something to the fact that with so much solicitation there is the tendency to throw away a real re-newal form. I know I have, but they started sending me them months after I signed up for three years. Let me feel a little appreciated for the duration, will you? :mad:

[KintlaLake]

I'm going to offer couple of observations. Bear with me, Safetyhit. ;)

Commercials for denture cleaners and fixatives annoy the hell out of me. I find them simple-minded, embarrassing and insulting. And just when I'm about to vow never, ever to buy the product, I wake up and realize that I'm not the target market for the pitch. :D That is, they're not talking to me.

Likewise, it might be worth considering that the people on these forums, plus our sphere of like-minded folks, aren't typical of the gun-owner community. I'm pretty sure we aren't typical of the citizenry in general. ;)

Fear, as a motivational tool, has stood the test of time. "Scare tactics" are effective at getting people to vote. They get people to evacuate, to stay indoors, and to go to church. And they get people to donate money.

Again, maybe we here aren't swayed by The Fear Card alone. (I'm not.) But from "Last Chance Gas" to "He's gonna raise your taxes," it's indisputable that fear works on most Americans.

YMMV. :cool:

[OldNavyGuy]

I put all my junk mail and paper into a recycle bin that gets picked up right in front of my home. No big deal.

i sure hope you remove all your name and acct. number etc. from all your junk mailings, that is how identity thefts are done.

[Safetyhit]

i sure hope you remove all your name and acct. number etc. from all your junk mailings...




Uhmmmm...........nope.


I do, however, make sure that nothing with my social or driver's license number go into recycling.

[ddemis]

I read all of your replys and understand how annoying the constant mailings may be but look at it this way. What other org. has done more to protect your rights, restore lost laws and represent people who were deprived of their property i.e. ( Katrina gun seizures ). A few letters in the mail is a small price to pay to be a member and dont forget, this month they have taken the battle to the supreme court. That all takes money. Who has done more for you and America!

[Safetyhit]

I read all of your replys and understand how annoying the constant mailings may be but look at it this way. What other org. has done more to protect your rights...



Actually, the basis of my posts was that the expenditures are likely too excessive on a technique that is often gimmicky as well as overdone.


I know they do good work and fight hard for us (though seemingly invisible here in N.J.), but that money could be put to a better use, IMHO. Plus, sometimes it all just comes off bad.

[CarlosDJackal]

Thanks fully, I have not been receiving as much NRA mailings the past few years. But if I were to make a guess, they probably wouldn't be doing it if they were loosing money in the deal.

[Safetyhit]

But if I were to make a guess, they probably wouldn't be doing it if they were loosing money in the deal.



I agree whole-heartedly. However, the point made more than once was that they could likely take the money spent on excessive mailers and put it to a better use. They have, in fact, caused me to donate less because I don't like the method and I don't feel like paying for 100 more donation requests to be sent to me.

But then again, maybe KintlaLake was right in an earlier thread. Maybe everything is about fear mongering when dealing with the simple minded masses. Maybe what we here think is really irrelevant when considering the public overall.

How concerning that so many are apparently so gullible.

[panthercitycop]

They need to stop pissing my money away on mailers. They keep sending me renew your membership. I'm a LIFE MEMBER!! Don't you keep good records or what???:mad:

[CarlosDJackal]

I personally hate getting these mailers. However, the NRA is not the only ones who are guilty of this. I make donations to the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial Foundation (NLEOMF) , Make-a-wish Foundation, The Wounded Warrior Foundation, The National D-Day Museum, and the local Volunteer Rescue Company (among others). The only ones who do not inundate me with mass mailers is the National D-Day Museum and the local Volunteer Rescue Company.

Those of us who are already supporting the NRA are probably the only ones who are annoyed by all this. My guess is enough of the rest of the world who gets these mailers more than offsets any kind of waste we may perceive of this. It may very well be that they have figured out that it would cost them more in the long run to try and identify those of us who would rather not get these mailers than to just shotgun it out to everyone.

Whether we like it or not, as annoying it is more us to get these, this is a technique that a lot of fund-raisers have been successfully using for years.

[Safetyhit]

They need to stop pissing my money away on mailers.



Sums it up better than I could.


This most recent one is brilliant. Say's on the outside "check enclosed" (of course there is). But inside, stuffed in another plastic envelope (looks expensive), there actually is a check for $400!! :)

But wait, the check is made out to the NRA, compliments of the NRA themselves. :confused:

These dipsh*ts send us a check made out to themselves and expect us to be receptive? It goes towards a life membership, but you will still pay $25 quarterly. As a member, I find it to be embarrassing. I need off the mailing list before I quit the wasteful group altogether. Either that or stick with throwing the nonsense away unopened as usual so I can forget how goofy it often is.

[SO758]

Agree, very annoying.