Postcrossing Blog

It’s the best time of the year — the time when Postcrossing postcards count for a good cause! It’s hard to believe that this year celebrates the 10th anniversary of this partnership between Postcrossing and Deutsche Post… Ten years have flown by, and in this time, many people have improved their reading and writing skills in Germany with the help of this community. Hurray!

By now, most of you know how this goes, but let’s recap once more for the new postcrossers:

That’s it! If you’re in Germany, now is the right time to stock on postcards and stamps… especially the new Postcrossing stamp! 😍 Once December starts, every postcard you send during that month (that arrives before the end of February 2023) will count towards this good cause. But that is not all, as your postcards could also help you win one of these cool prizes:

• 1 voucher worth €100, to use in Deutsche Post Online Shop
• 5 vouchers worth €50 each, to use in Deutsche Post Online Shop

The more postcards you send, the more you’ll be helping, and the higher are your chances of winning a voucher to spend on Deutsche Post’s shop. Paulo will run his random number generator in March 2023, and we’ll reveal the total amount of postcards sent (and money raised to Stiftung Lesen) on a new blog post. Last edition, €13,729.90 were raised for this good cause, which was just brilliant!

Many of us are not in Germany though, and I know what you’re thinking… how can WE help? It’s easy — we just need to register the postcards we receive extra promptly! In the next few weeks, a lot postcards from Germany are going to be making their way to our mailboxes and the sooner we register them, the sooner it will be possible for that sender to mail another postcard. :)

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. Many of us go through life taking these basic skills for granted, but for those who struggle with them, a small improvement in this area can be life-changing. The work Stiftung Lesen does is super important, and we’re glad for this chance to support them.

We hope you will all join in on the 10th anniversary edition of the “Cards for Literacy” campaign, and are as excited as we are to help others with our postcards!

P.S. – Postcrossing respects 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).

Time to wrap up this edition of our Cards for Literacy campaign with Deutsche Post, and finally reveal the results from 2021. It was a great year for the campaign, so let’s just jump straight into it:

Once more, a record shattering campaign, and an amazing performance by all our German members! We’re so, so proud of you — what a brilliant effort and result. And naturally, even if you’re not in Germany, if you 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!

Our heartfelt thank you to Deutsche Post as well, for renewing this collaboration and supporting this good cause. We’re sure their support to Stiftung Lesen’s and their literacy efforts are going to improve many people’s lives.

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 in December, keep an eye on your email — you might be the lucky winner of a voucher to make some custom stamps, or one of their cool footballs.

It feels like 2021 has just been the never-ending continuation of the previous year, and I think we could all use a reason to smile and lift our spirits before the new year comes, right? So we’re pleased to announce the upcoming 9th edition of our yearly partnership with Deutsche Post, where postcards count for a good cause! Without further ado:

If you’re in Germany, you still have a few days to stock up on postcards and stamps, so that you can start writing postcards on December 1st! If the postcards you send throughout December are registered before the end of February 2022, you will be contributing to this cause and entering a draw to win some cool 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 50€ each.
• Three footballs, with Deutsche Post branding.

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

And although only postcards sent from Germany count, there’s always a recipient in every postcard exchange — so each time a card from Germany arrives to its destination, the recipient will be indirectly contributing to this donation too. 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 to Stiftung Lesen) here in the blog. Last year, an amazing total of 11,729.40€ was raised for this good cause, which was brilliant (and a record)!

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 9th edition of the Cards for Literacy campaign, and may this be a brilliant month of helping others with our 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).

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.