The Forever stamp costs 82 cents as of July 12, and the letter that carries your year-end appeal costs more too. The U.S. Postal Service raised mailing services prices by an average of 4.8%, the change cleared the Postal Regulatory Commission in late May, and it landed just as many development shops lock fall appeal budgets. If your postage line still uses last year's numbers, it is off by roughly 5% — and by more if your mail doesn't presort deeply.
What Changed on July 12
The headline retail numbers: a First-Class Forever stamp went from 78 to 82 cents, a metered one-ounce letter from 74 to 78 cents, and a postcard from 61 to 65 cents. The additional-ounce price for single-piece letters stayed at 29 cents, so a two-page acknowledgment letter costs no more per extra ounce than it did in June.
For appeal mail, the rates that matter are Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail automation letters, and the increase there was anything but flat. Per rate comparisons published by Pitney Bowes, a nonprofit automation letter presorted to 5-digit rose from 17.8 to 18.5 cents (3.9%), the 3-digit tier rose from 21.3 to 22.5 cents (5.6%), and mixed-level pieces rose from 23.9 to 25.7 cents (7.5%). One relabeling to know: the old ADC/AADC presort categories were folded into 3-digit pricing. Nonprofit prices still run roughly half the commercial equivalents, which start near 39.5 cents at the deepest presort. The full tables live in the Postal Service's Notice 123 price list.
One structural change in the final rule is worth a note if you mail newsletters: the maximum weight for Marketing Mail flats increased from 16 to 20 ounces.
How Much More Will a Fall Appeal Cost?
Plan on 4% to 8% more postage than the identical mailing would have cost in June, with the exact figure set by how deeply your file presorts. A 25,000-piece appeal that qualifies entirely at the 5-digit tier costs about $175 more than it did last month; the same mailing at mixed-level rates costs about $450 more. Acknowledgment letters sent metered First-Class cost 4 cents more apiece, so a shop that mails 2,000 thank-you letters between now and December adds about $80. None of these numbers is catastrophic on its own. The problem is that fall budgets are mostly built in the spring, and a 5% postage miss across an appeal, a newsletter, and a receipt stream compounds quietly.
Deeper Presort Shrinks the Increase
The spread between 3.9% and 7.5% is a pricing signal: the Postal Service is rewarding density, meaning more pieces sharing the same ZIP destinations. The fastest lever for a small or geographically spread donor file is commingling. Ask your mail service provider whether pooling your appeal with other mailers' volume would push more of your pieces into deeper presort tiers. List hygiene still pays too: NCOA processing and deduplication before printing cut the undeliverable pieces you would now pay more to waste. But presort depth is what moves the rate. If you produce a printed newsletter, the new 20-ounce flats ceiling gives you room to consolidate two mailings into one without changing rate category.
Also check whether your fall pieces fit a 2026 USPS mailing promotion. The Postal Service runs registration-window discounts for formats like tactile and interactive mail, plus an add-on discount for pairing a mailing with an Informed Delivery campaign, and appeal packages are frequently eligible with modest design changes.
Budget Now, Not in October
There is one piece of genuinely good planning news: the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers reads the Postal Service's signals as pointing to the next significant increase most likely arriving in July 2027, though it cautions January 2027 remains possible. As of July 2026, the prices in effect today are the prices your year-end campaign will pay. That makes this the right week to reprice every mailing between now and December, update the postage assumptions in your acknowledgment program, and confirm your appeal copy already reflects this year's charitable deduction rules while the piece is at the designer anyway. For more on individual giving programs, see our fundraising and development coverage.
The takeaway
Postage went up about 4.8% on July 12, and your fall budget was probably built before it did. Recost every mailing planned through December, then ask your mail house two questions: what share of the file qualifies at 5-digit, and would commingling deepen it. The organizations that treat this as a presort problem rather than a line-item surprise will pay the smallest share of the increase.