Postcrossing Blog

Have you ever helped out with a stamp appeal? We’ve highlighted a few of these initiatives before, because it’s something a lot of postcrossers are able to do — if you’ve been storing up used stamps waiting for something like this, then now’s your opportunity!

This time, new member StampLady let us know about the Bone Cancer Research Trust Stamp Appeal. The Bone Cancer Research Trust are a British charity dedicated to helping tackle primary bone cancers via research, providing information, raising awareness and offering support to those affected.

How can used stamps help, though? Well, once they reach BCRT, they sort them into categories and then sell them in bulk by weight. They get sold to collectors and dealers, and some special stamps also get sold by auction. In this way, the stamps are used to raise money by reusing all those old stamps which for many people no longer have a purpose. They’re able to use all kinds of stamps, no matter where they come from, whether they’re British stamps or from other countries, and no matter what the actual face value of the stamp is.

You can contribute any stamps you have by collecting up your stamps (they suggest cutting them out and leaving a 1cm border around them) and then once you have a bundle, you can send them to:

BCRT Stamp Appeal
20 Bowers Road
Benfleet
Essex
SS7 5PZ
UNITED KINGDOM

If you’d like to read more about the appeal, check out their info page! You can also read more about the work of the Bone Cancer Research Trust on their website.

Here it is, the day we’ve all been waiting for — it’s time to wrap up the 8th edition of our Cards for Literacy campaign with Deutsche Post, and finally reveal the results from 2020! Sooooo many postcrossers have once more enthusiastically embraced the challenge, and dutifully written as many postcards as they could. Those postcards were really flying out in all directions!

I know you’re all curious to know the final results, so here goes:

Hurraaaaaaaay! 🎉🎉🎉 This is the best result we’ve ever had in the Postcards for Literacy campaign, breaking the previous record by over €1500 — brilliant! We’re so, so proud of all the German members, for joining this good cause and rallying together to make their postcards extra meaningful last December. It’s been really heartwarming to see.

Even if you’re not in Germany, if you’ve received some postcards from there in the past few months, then it’s likely that you too have taken part in this campaign and contributed to this achievement — well done!

We’d like to take a momento to express our gratitude to Deutsche Post as well, for continuing this long-standing collaboration with Postcrossing and renewing their commitment to improve literacy in Germany, year after year. I think we all appreciate the opportunity of being able to do something good with our postcards, especially in such a difficult year as 2020. 😊

So, all that is left to do now is for Paulo to run his script to choose the winners of this year’s prizes. If you’re in Germany and participated in this campaign, keep an eye on your email — you might be the lucky winner of some shiny custom stamps or a new messenger bag.

This year of 2020 has been rough and it could definitely use some extra good things in it, so it makes us extra happy to announce our yearly partnership with Deutsche Post on the Cards for Literacy campaign, where postcards count for a good cause! Without further ado:

So if you’re in Germany, all you need to do is to send postcards! If your December postcards are registered before the end of February 2021, you will be contributing to this cause and entering a draw to win some neat prizes! Seven lucky postcrossers (residents in Germany only) will be randomly selected to receive one of these:

• One voucher for the Marke Individuell Online Shop worth 100€.
• Three vouchers for the Marke Individuell Online Shop worth 40€ each.
• Three post-themed messenger bags from Deutsche Post.

So by sending postcards from Germany in December, you’re not only helping a good cause, but can also win some customizable stamps or maybe a cool-looking messenger bag. Hurray! Each postcard sent is worth one entry, so the more postcards you send, the more chances you have to win one of the prizes.

And although only postcards sent from Germany count, there’s always a receiver in every postcard exchange — so each time a card from Germany is registered, the recipient will be indirectly contributing to this donation too. So don’t forget to register your postcards promptly, so that more can be sent!

As usual, Paulo will run his random number generator in March next year, and we’ll reveal the total amount of postcards sent (and money raised for Stiftung Lesen) here in the blog. Last year, an unbelievable total of €9,968.30€ was raised for this good cause, breaking all previous records and nearly going into the 10K level. The bar has definitely been raised for this year! 😄

Stiftung Lesen is a German non-profit organization, working to increase literacy in the population, especially among children and adolescents. Their activities include reading clubs, media literacy projects and initiatives to promote the learning of German language by refugee families in the country.

We hope you’re as excited as we are for the 8th edition of the Cards for Literacy campaign. If you’re in Germany, gather your stamps and postcards and get ready for sending lots of postcards in December to make them count for this good cause! Everyone else, keep an eye on your mailbox for those postcards!

P.S. – As always, we respect your personal information and will not share it with any company without your explicit permission. The full details of this campaign can be read here (German only).

The day has come at last! The German postcrossers have been enthusiastically keeping track of their December postcards, and it is now time to reveal to the whole community how many postcards for a good cause were sent from Germany last year.

Ready to find out? Let’s do this!

Woohoo! This has been the best result yet in all the years we’ve been running the Cards for Literacy campaign with Deutsche Post! Our fleißig German postcrossers absolutely smashed last year’s record! 🎉 We’re proud beyond words, and thankful for each and every one of these postcards, whose corresponding donations are soon going to be put to a good use.

And naturally, if you’ve registered a postcard from Germany sent in December, you’ve also been a part of this campaign! Thank you for registering your postcards promptly, and contributing for this amazing result.

Last but not least, a huge thank you to Deutsche Post, for collaborating with Postcrossing and standing by their commitment to improve literacy in Germany, year after year. Bravo! 🎉

All that is left to do is for Paulo to run his magic script to choose the winners of this year’s prizes. If you’re in Germany and participated in this campaign, keep an eye on your email — you should receive a message soon, if you’ve won a prize. 😊

December starts this coming weekend and if you’ve been around Postcrossing for a few years you should know what that means… It’s time to announce our yearly partnership with Deutsche Post on the Cards for Literacy campaign! 🎉 So without further ado:

So if you’re in Germany, all you have to do is to send postcards! If your December postcards are registered before the end of February 2020, you will be contributing to this cause and entering a draw to win some neat prizes! Seven lucky postcrossers (residents in Germany only) will be randomly selected to receive one of these:

• One voucher for the Marke Individuell Online Shop worth 100€.
• Three vouchers for the Marke Individuell Online Shop worth 40€ each.
• Three post-themed messenger bags from Deutsche Post.

So by sending postcards from Germany in December, you’re not only helping a good cause, but can also win some customizable stamps or maybe a messenger bag. Hurray! The more postcards you send, the more chances you have to win one of the prizes.

And although only postcards sent from Germany count, there’s always a receiver in every postcard exchange — so each time a card from Germany is registered, the recipient will be indirectly contributing to this donation too. So don’t forget to register your postcards promptly, so that more can be sent, ok?

As usual, Paulo will run his random number generator in March next year, and we’ll reveal the total amount of postcards sent (and money raised to Stiftung Lesen) here in the blog. Last year, a total of 8,977.70€ was raised for this good cause, which was a huge achievement and only a few postcards shy of the big 9K… will we be able to do even better this year? 🤔

Stiftung Lesen is a German non-profit organization, working to increase literacy in the population, especially among children and adolescents. Their activities include reading clubs, media literacy projects and initiatives to promote the learning of German language by refugee families in the country.

We hope you’re as excited as we are for this 7th edition of the Cards for Literacy campaign. If you’re in Germany, gather your stamps and postcards and get ready for sending lots of postcards in December to make them count for this good cause! Everyone else, keep an eye on your mailbox for those postcards!

P.S. – As always, we respect your personal information and will not share it with any company without your explicit permission. The full details of this campaign can be read here (German only).