We are about to run our addresses through the AddressFinder (DHC).  With the newer version of RE (7.82.1514), you can choose to have the addresses come back UN-abbreviated.  So for example, instead of getting addresses back with Rd and Ave, you'll get Road and Avenue.  I am told this also means that directional abbreviations, such as NW and NE, are also removed, so you get Northwest and Northeast.

 I'm curious if anyone has tried using this option (going without the abbreviations) and whether or not you were happy with the results.  I'm just wondering if the Northwest and Northeast is going to annoy me...

Julie,

We just ran our addresses through AddressFinder and wanted the same results you are describing.  We upgraded to 7.83 just before running AddressFinder at the suggestion of the support team.  Unfortunately, we did not achieve the desired results.  We got our suffixes such as St, Rd, and Ave spelled out nicely, but the directionals remained abbreviated, without punctuation.  Our preferred address format is:

123 S. Main Street Apartment 2B

but we ended up with

123 S Main Street Apt 2B

We found that we had to run our newly imported addresses through AddressAccelerator, which we had to purchase in order to achieve our desired result.  We considered a global change for the directionals, but discovered problems with that as well.  The take away message here is that AddressFinder will not necessarily give you your preferred format, even if it says it will.

To get discounted non-profit postal rates and faster and more accurate delivery of your mail your mail must be CASS certified.  CASS certified addresses are abbreviated with no punctuation.  If you are not taking advantage of postal discounts and bulk rates I need to be so bold as to say you are wasting your donor's money.

If you are exporting your addresses and sending them to a mail house to prepare your mailing with non-profit bulk rates - I promise you they are CASS certifying your addresses before they use them even if you do not know it so all your hard work to keep them without abbreviations is for naught.

I advise everyone I know to give up the fight adn use abbreviations on the addresses in your database.  Check with your mailhouse and see what they do with the pretty non-abbreviated addresses you send to them.  Also check and see what the May 1 changes in postal rates will have on CASS certification.  I heard that it will require you to not only CASS certify but also barcode on your envelopes (which I hate) in order to get the lowest discounted rate.  And the higher rate is even higher so hold onto your budgets folks!  I do not know for sure what the deal is - only heard rumors, so check with your mailhouse.