USPS rate changes hit January 2026 across nearly every direct mail category. For SoCal mailers running annual programs — nonprofits, political committees, healthcare, real estate — the headline is: budget for a 3-5% postage increase, depending on category and presort depth.
First-Class presort mail (the format most political and donor mail uses) moved up about $0.014 per piece at the deepest discount. Marketing Mail Letter mail moved up about $0.011. EDDM Retail moved up to $0.193 per piece. Nonprofit Marketing Mail moved roughly proportional to Marketing Mail.
The practical impact: a 50,000-piece annual donor appeal that ran $16,800 in postage in 2025 will run roughly $17,500 in 2026. A 200,000-piece nonprofit acquisition mailing moves from about $58,000 to about $60,000.
The good news: full-service IMb mailers continue to qualify for the deepest discounts, and the gap between presort tiers has not widened. If you are mailing through a presort partner that runs full-service IMb (we do, on every job), you are still capturing the maximum discount available.
Two practical moves for 2026: first, look at lifting your annual appeal quantity to bracket discount cutoffs you are currently missing — sometimes adding 8,000 names to a 92,000-piece drop pays for itself in postage tier. Second, look at EDDM for any campaign where your audience is more geographic than demographic; EDDM rate stability makes it a continuing bright spot.
