Every year, the “Cards for Literacy” initiative leaves us with that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from seeing postcards do what they do best: connect people… and, at the same time, help support something bigger!
This time, the yearly partnership we run with Deutsche Post was slightly different from previous years. Instead of counting each card towards a final donation amount, Deutsche Post put a cap on the donation of €10,000 right from the start (as we announced back in November). Even though the donation wasn’t tied to a per-card total this year, the number of postcards sent still matters to us: it shows the enthusiasm behind the project, and it’s a lovely snapshot of how many people chose to take part — whether by sending one postcard or a whole stack.
With all that said, over the course of the campaign, postcrossers in Germany sent 111,561 postcards, which is brilliant! 🥳
This donation will support Stiftung Lesen, a German foundation that works to strengthen reading skills and foster a love of books from an early age. Through projects with families, schools, libraries, and volunteers, they help create more opportunities for children to discover stories, and to grow up with reading as a natural part of everyday life.
Deutsche Post is also giving away three adorable paper postboxes to postcrossers in Germany who took part. As always, Paulo will run his magical script to randomly pick the winners from everyone who sent at least one postcard during this initiative. We’ll contact the winners by email soon, so if you’re in Germany and sent a postcard last December, keep an eye on your inbox… you might be one of them! 😊
So, on behalf of the whole team: thank you to everyone who joined in, shared the campaign, and helped keep the momentum of this initiative. And a big thank you to Deutsche Post for supporting Stiftung Lesen and making the €10,000 donation possible.
Here’s to more happy mail and good causes in 2026!
20 comments so far
It left me confused to read on the main page: "Hurray! You have sent 53 postcards this past December. You have contributed with €3.50 for Stiftung Lesen — thank you for helping..."
Where has the difference gone? If about 11% of registered cards have not been counted to the donation it does not explain why here 18 of 53 cards have not been counted towards it.
@Dande_lion: I assume they wanted the numbers to add up in total, not for every user on their own.
So, if there are accounts who only send 1 or maybe 2-5 or something, I assume all their cards "count", and this over-counting needs to come from somewhere.
It would be quite discouraging to have sent 1 card but receive the message that 0,00€ was donated.
For me it adds up to about 10%: I sent 22 cards and the donation-part is 2,10€
@Dande_lion das ist wegen der Begrenzung auf 10000€ maximale Spende durch die deutsche Post. Wenn du, so wie ich auch und viele andere, noch Karten geschickt hast als die 10000€ schon erreicht waren, hatten diese keinen Einfluss mehr auf deine "Spendensumne". Hoffe das macht Sinn für dich.
It was wonderful to do something good again with our shared hobby, Postcrossing. I myself am dyslexic and know how important reading aloud and written language are.
@Dande_lion @Huskykatze
Alle Karten, die nach dem erreichen der 10.000€ registriert wurden, zählen bei der Berechnung der persönlichen Summe nicht mehr mit.
Congratulations to everyone who participated in this worthy cause! :)
Love it!
Very exciting!
Congratulations!
Good job!
Love it! Great job.
Congratulations to everyone in Germany that helped for this initiative! :)
Kind of stingy by German Post to limit the donation to 10.000 EUR, I think.
Did they give a reason why they capped the amount? Moneywise it should be next to nothing for them and I am sure they re-claim (part of) it with their next annual tax declaration anyways.
Also I wonder if this is (one of) the reason(s) why the amount of cards sent has dropped by ~30.000 compared to last year - that's quite a lot.
The maths on individual contribution is a little odd, I agree. The ratio per card is 0,0896 EUR, so that would make 4,75 EUR for the 53 cards mentioned above. Maybe it's simply the first 100.000 cards that were considered in the count. But then again, this is a joint effort of many. No need to put too much attention on individual contributions...
For United States similar to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Now also in USA, UK, IE, CA and AU. Excellent.
I am happy for being a part of "postcards for a good cause"!
😊
Hiep Hiep Hoera! Congrads!
Wish we had something similar in Switzerland
A wonderful project! Congratulations!
@misoklau I guess it's also influenced by the higher postage. 30 cent more per card adds up...
We did it! :))
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