Postcards that spark smiles can also spark reading… and in December that is especially true! We’re launching this year’s “Cards for Literacy” with Deutsche Post, turning every card sent from Germany into support for literacy programs across the country. Let’s keep this joyful tradition rolling, helping fund reading initiatives and puting more books into more hands!
If you’re in Germany, now’s the time to stock up on postcards and stamps! Every card you send in December (that is registered until the end of February 2026) can help turn pages for new readers.
And there’s a bonus: Deutsche Post is giving away three adorable postboxes. Everyone who sends postcards from Germany during the campaign is in the draw — the more you send, the more chances you’ll have. This year’s donation is capped at €10,000, but even after the cap is reached, every postcard you send still counts toward the prize draw. Winners will be randomly selected in March 2026.
Not in Germany? You will be helping too! By registering postcards from Germany promptly, you help senders mail their next cards sooner, which keeps the donations flowing until the cap is reached.
A big part of Stiftung Lesen's important mission is meeting readers where they are, from after-school centers, youth clubs, refugee accommodations or rural libraries. They bring books, trained volunteers, and ready-to-use materials to places that often have the fewest resources but the greatest need. We’re honored to support their mission again this year.
Alright, that’s the plan — now let’s write, stamp, and send! Whether you’re mailing or registering, every small action adds up. Here’s to a fantastic 13th year of Cards for Literacy!
P.S. Postcrossing respects your privacy and will not share your personal information. Full details of the campaign are available here (in German).
55 comments so far
How every year in december - a very good campaign and I am ready to start!
The limit of 10,000 is another flaw of Deutsche Post. After price increases, a lack of post offices, stressed postmen, irregular deliveries, etc.
Perhaps we should start a fundraising campaign for Deutsche Post.
What a great campaign! Makes postcard writing even more exciting than it is already!
The cap at 10000 isn’t really understandable, since it would be very unlikely (with the price increase) to hit the record of last year… it is a pity!
But on the other hand we are all happy that we have another chance to contribute to Stiftung Lesen by something we love to to: writing postcards! I am sure we will do all we can that we write as many cards as possible, to make sure the 10.000 will be payed 😁
To win such a great mailbox would be indeed fantastic!
Bin dabei! 😄
Sad that there is a limit of 10.000 € this year. Seems almost as they are afraid that we write too much. That 10.000 € will be reached soon!
Es wäre wirklich toll, wenn die Empfänger dies berücksichtigen und die Postkarten schneller registrieren würden :):):):) Happy Postcrossing
amazing
Love this campaign! I will colect postcards with books on it now!
Keep in mind if you're unhappy with Deutsche Post increasing prices you can actually do something by simply not using Deutsche Post for national deliveries. Regional post offices are called either Citipost in the north or PIN mail in Berlin or something else in other parts of Germany. They have to offer nationwide deliveries, but often international delivery is only for business customers.
It comes with downsides though: delivery often takes longer as they need to collect enough to make a route profitable and often larger stickers are used for routing at the place where the stamps would be.
How does Deutsche Post knows the sender of a postcard to pick the winner for the postbox?
@Natti Paulo uses a random number generator that picks 3 usernames to win the postbox among all the members who sent a postcard in December (registered until end of February). We then contact those members one by one, to ask permission to share their address with Deutsche Post, who sends them the prize.
I always start saving up slots mid-november for the occasion. I currently have 25. We'll see if a few more will be added until monday.
I'm a bit sad though, that there's a cap / limit this year. But there's no doubt in my mind that we will reach the 10k in no time.
A very worthy campaign and cause! Best wishes to all! :)
This is so great. Unfortunately, I am new here and my current limit is 8 and except one are all traveling overseas…..I will hardly be able to participate. I know why limits are in place and I am ok with it. I am just too eager.🤩
Too bad USA doesn't do anything like that.
How do I send a postcard to Germany from America to be mailed from Germany?
@Darryrose
It only works if the postcards have the German ID (DE-....).
Cards sent from Germany using the travel mode count as well as cards from German Postcrossers
Let's write a lot of cards.
Die 10000 kommen doch locker zusammen, war das letztes Jahr auch schon begrenzt auf 10000 Euro?
a cap and the so so generous "bonus" of three foldable pieces of cardstock... after they increase of postage prices by 40% this year...
one can easily watch the downfall of Deutsche Post.
@DJ2108 There was no limit last year, and the donation to Stiftung Lesen was of over €14,000.
excellent cause
I think the campaign itself is great and will support it again with lots of cards. But the fact that Deutsche Post first increased its prices by up to 40%, has become significantly less reliable and is now also reducing the donation amount is a bit embarrassing. I would have expected exactly the opposite, namely that they would increase the donation amount per card by a few cents instead of effectively reducing it. That's really embarrassing!
My favorite time of the year, I love supporting this project. 🤗
Good luck!
Embarrassing for Deutsche Post! Fun and competition are gone ...
I'd rather make a donation for Stiftung Lesen than support Deutsche Post by buying more stamps?!?
Handwritten postcards seem to be troublemakers in the operating system of Deutsche Post and an obstacle on the way of gaining maximum profit!
Happy postcrossing nevertheless!!!
I am glad the campaign starts again. But shame on Deutsche Post. Lets fight together, that we reach the limit within the first 15 days!!!!!!
A good cause. I hope the youth will start writing more postcards this way. And learning to read helps with that.
Same procedure as every year and I love all about it🥰
Don't be so hard on Deutsche Post! Our CTT give nothing to anyone, work worse than snails and they increase the price every year. € 10.000,00 is better than nothing! :)
Go, Germans, write those beautiful cards, and hopefully, I'll receive some*!!! :)
* and I wish "some" are foxes! :D
Very interesting!
This is my first December in Germany and I’m so excited to participate!
On a side note, people complaining about Deutsche Post price increases make me laugh. Take a look how much postcard postage costs in the UK, Canada, France, Scandinavian countries… then remember how lucky we are here in Germany! 💌
The competition is now to get to the 10k as fast as possible 😃
I saved my slots since one month and I will enjoy the fun of writing for a good cause. I agree with @paradonym, this year the competition will be how fast we reach the 10000 😉
Capping donations at €10,000 is a sad reflection on the state of affairs. Especially since postage for postcards rose by over 30% last year. Deutsche Post is making a tidy profit from postcrossing and should be ashamed of itself!
Ursula 66 - you are speaking of my heart!
We know reading opens the doors in unexpected ways. What a worthwhile effort to help those in need.
I wish we had something similar in the US!
@meiadeleite Is it possible to have a sign next to the ID of the traveling cards like we had for the the WPD? It would be more easy for us to create the own statistics.
yeah, my post office has got just boring stamps
Only 12 hours left...
Come and join us in the forum ➡️ https://community.postcrossing.com/t/talk-postcards-for-a-good-cause-cards-for-literacy-2025/710907
Our goal is to reach 100,000 registered cards despite this year's postage increase, as Deutsche Post should donate the full amount of €10.000 – we don't want to waste even 10 cent. 💪
We have set ourselves the goal of sending 120,000 cards. ✍️
That should be enough to compensate all the cards that do not reach their destination on time. ⌛️🤞
We are delighted to welcome every new user who shares our excitement. 🤗
Wow, I didn't know that Deutsche Post did that. I think it was definitely the right decision to register here.
Very cool, I get a lot of cards from Germany and hope to get a lot more soon!
Brillant idea!
Love this campaign! Hope to get one soon :)
viel Glück!!!
xoxo
Viel Spaß beim Lesen & Happy Postcrossing!
X-mass is coming!
Viel Glück !
The campaign started on Dec. 1st - and on Dec. 1st, 7 p.m., there are 4 postcard registered - is this possible?
Wonderful campaign—love it —
but it's poor that the postal service is still only donating €0.10 after the big price increase.
@WolfO: this is what I was wondering, too 🧐
I also find it difficult to understand why Deutsche Post caps the donation.
It should literally finance itself. International mail is usually even better for revenue than domestic, as the German postal service only has to manage half of the logistics. So, assuming that they make around 20 cents profit per postcard, which is probably a conservative estimate, they make a profit of 20,000 € on 100,000 cards, which is the number German postcrossers appear to mail anyway in one and a half month. After deducting the generous donation, that still leaves a surplus of 10,000 € for Deutsche Post.
Of course, this is not relevant at all in terms of overall sales volume. At the same time, however, it is clearly not loss-making. I find it curious that they intentionally make what is essentially a nice campaign seem a little less nice.
Deutsche Post and more even their customers have had an extraordinary tough year because its service performance in Germany, especially for letter mail, is historically poor. It is really surprising that those responsible, out of whatever stinginess, are now limiting the opportunity for what is actually a most easy win and super-simple image boost.
Also: Deutsche Post has a annual turnover of 4.x billion € for letter mail alone. They also can claim donations like this on their taxes. Hence, without doubt it would be easily affordable for them to give away even a Euro per postcard mailed. And to throw in five more postboxes for the raffle.
(Also: The current chairman of the Deutsche Post alone receives an annual income of 4.x million €, while the average German postal worker makes slightly above 30.000 € a year. But that grotesque wage gap is another story...)
So in context, the maximum sum of 10.000 € is honestly not that much. And while it still remains an applaudable initiative, handing them standing ovations would clearly overdo it.
But: Of course, one can still send Postcrossing cards and donate separately to the Stiftung Lesen at the same time. And I'll probably just do that.
Freut mich wieder mal dabei zu sein!
@WolfO there are some national cards which could theoretically be transported by people driving with no Deutsche Post involved.
Like if I'm planning to go from Bremen to Hamburg and just happen to get an address which fits that route...
Looking at the postage in other countries we are complaining about first world problems here, very German of us.
I kept some slots till December and can't wait how much will be registered 😍
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