Disruption Tour --- Run To Survive

The Overbrook Foundation vs. Direct Mail and Catalogs

http://thecatalogchroniclesblog.com/2008/05/03/the-overbrook-foundation-vs-direct-mail-and-catalogs/

So, for two days now my ears perked up when “brought to you by The Overbrook Foundation, sponsors of Catalog Choice …” was in the trailer on two different NPR programs. So I thought, well sir, let’s check this out. 

The Overbrook Foundation, located in New York City, is a family foundation established in 1948 by Frank and Helen Altschul. The Foundation took its name from Overbrook Farm, the Altschul family home in Stamford, Connecticut. Its mission is to improve the lives of people by supporting projects that protect human and civil rights, advance the self-sufficiency and well being of individuals and their communities, and conserve the natural environment.

Cool, I thought, that’s green and cozy, very politically correct, but let’s follow the money. So what’s the specific connection with Catalog Choice? I learned that Overbrook has provided $285,000 in grants directly or indirectly to “correct” the catalog and direct mail industry’s ways as follows.

ForestEthics http://www.forestethics.org/

Founded in 1994, ForestEthics is a nonprofit environmental organization with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile. The mission is to protect Endangered Forests, and to achieve that goal they have created a revolutionary new approach.

Contributions from the Overbrook Foundation in 2007 were $105,000 for Catalog Campaign and Corporate Action Program ($65,000) and the Do Not Mail Campaign ($40,000)

To learn more about these programs designed to inform and educate the catalog industry how to be environmentally friendly, visit http://forestethics.org//article.php?list=type&type=15

Overbrook also provided indirectly to Catalog Choice a $20,000 grant to Ecology Center http://www.ecologycenter.org/ for the Catalog Choice Website Development and Operations along with a grant of $160,000 in 2007 to the National Wildlife Federation. (Catalog Choice: Improving the Environmental Performance and Reducing the Carbon Footprint of the North American Direct-Mail Catalog Industry).

Direct Mail Kills Trees, Many Believe

From eMarketer.com

Nearly half of the respondents surveyed by DM News and Pitney Bowes guessed that advertising mail from US households counted for more than half of the country's municipal waste. More than one-third said it counted for slightly more than one-third of that waste.

DM News cited the Environmental Protection Agency as saying that advertising mail was responsible for just 2% of all municipal waste in the United States.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they would have a higher opinion of direct mailers if they used recycled paper and cardboard.

Another half said they would think more highly of unsolicited mail if they knew there was an agency seal of approval or "green mail" label awarded by the industry itself.

DM News and Pitney Bowes surveyed 1,000 US adults.