Q: Where does LERN stand on selling ads to community businesses into our Con Ed brochure?
A: LERN does not recommend selling ads in your program's brochure. I have not been able to find the policies of Canada Post for including advertising in mail that is sent out by non-profit organizations. In the US, because there is a reduced rate, the postal service prohibits the inclusion of advertising of for-profit entities and ads for non-related businesses. Thus, in the US, selling ads can result in the loss of non profit mailing privileges.
In addition to that concern, however, LERN believes it is important to make sure that selling ads is really generating more income than selling courses in that same space. In addition to increasing the size (and therefore cost) of the brochure, the sale of ads uses space that could be devoted to marketing your program. There are additional costs, too, for managing the advertising effort and costs for selling the ads.
Analyze your program and determine the income you might receive if you ran classes (assuming average enrollment an income) in the space you would be devoting to advertising. You might find that successful programs in that space would net more for your program than advertising.