How to Stop Receiving Charity Mail

If you’ve donated to several different charities over the years, you’ve probably noticed your mailbox flooding with requests for more donations.

Donating to a good cause is important, but unwanted charity mail that will only end up in the trash isn’t useful. Removing yourself from mailing lists can save time and resources.

However, many charities receive significant donations from sent mail requests. Therefore, none of these organizations are going to stop sending you mail unless you request it.

Here’s our guide on how to stop receiving charity mail.

1. Be selective with your donations

A great way to reduce the amount of charity mail you get is to carefully select the organizations you donate to. Instead of donating small amounts to many organizations, consider supporting fewer causes with larger sums. 

Additionally, always read charity privacy policies before donating. Look for ​a statement in which the charity promises not to “share, sell, or trade” your personal information with any other entity. 

If you aren’t careful, you could accidentally waive your rights, potentially increasing the mail you receive. To be safe, make a request to be left off mailing lists and for your information to remain protected before you make your donation.

Most charities will happily respect your wish and receive your donation.

2. Opt out of charity mail via DMAchoice

Another way to stop charity mail is through DMAchoice. A non-profit organization run by the Data and Marketing Association, it provides a service to effectively help you get rid of junk mail.

DMAchoice allows you to customize your mail preferences, managing the type of direct mail you receive. You can opt out of entire categories of direct mail, like ads, catalogs, or charity mail.

• Register at the DMAchoice website by filling in your information.

• Pay the $2 processing fee.

• Select your mail preferences, and opt out of any category of mail you don’t want to receive anymore. 

Your mail preferences will be saved for 10 years. But keep in mind, this will help unsubscribe you from mail lists for organizations you don’t have a prior relationship with. 

In other words, if you’ve been donating to a charity in the past and already given them access to your contact details, you must contact them directly to request a mail opt out. 

3. Donate anonymously 

Another effective way to reduce the amount of charity mail you receive is to only donate anonymously. 

This doesn’t just help stop your unwanted mail, anonymous donating also protects your digital privacy and reduces your digital footprint. Whenever you’re online, it’s essential to give as little personal information as possible to protect your personally identifiable information (PII).

4. Contact charities directly

Contacting charities directly to remove your name from their mailing list is a great option to ensure that you won’t receive any more mail from them. 

You can either call, email, or contact them by traditional mail. Of course, there’s always an option to visit in person if the charity has an official location near you. 

5. Opt out from data brokers

There’s one option on this list that is more effective for stopping charity mail than any other, however: preventing your information from ending up on mailing lists in the first place.

Entities called data brokers scour the Internet, searching public records, to collect personal information and bundle it together to sell it forward. 

Data brokers are largely responsible any time any of your personal information ends up online, or on charity mailing lists, without your knowledge

Therefore, removing yourself from these databases is one of the most effective ways to stop receiving all unwanted mail, as well as spammers trying to reach you by phone.

You can do it manually, using our free opt-out guide to opt out of each data-broker platform individually, or you can sign up for DeleteMe and let us do it all for you. ​​

Protecting yourself in the future

Getting flooded with unwanted mail is frustrating, but you can still make donations to charities without compromising your time, resources, or personal information.

Whichever option you choose to remove yourself from charity mailing lists, particularly opting out of data-broker platforms, only donate to those charities you won’t mind getting mail from going forward.