Advice for Charities Seeking to Apply for Special Stamp Cancellations

Nonprofit groups of all types and sizes can promote their causes by asking the United States Postal Service to turn their

names and logos into “special cancellations,” ink designs used to cancel stamps on first-class mail.

The American Philatelic Society, which represents stamp collectors, advises charities applying for stamp cancellations to keep their designs simple: Detailed pictures often do not come through clearly or are obscured by certain types of stamps.

Most groups peg their cancellations to an event, such as the Winter Haven Bike Fest, a Florida motorcycle rally benefiting the local American Red Cross chapter. To promote the event, rally organizers designed a cancellation depicting an alligator riding a motorcycle, which local post offices then used on first-class mail processed at their facilities. And to raise money at the rally, the organizers sold commemorative envelopes and set up a booth to cancel those envelopes by hand with the special cancellation, which proved popular among bike enthusiasts and collectors.

To obtain a cancellation, charities must follow guidelines in the Postal Service’s Domestic Mail Manual. Among them:

• The event or group promoted by the cancellation must be of “general public interest” and “not conducted for private gain or profit.”

• Organizations must submit applications to their regional post office at least four months before the cancellation starts. (Applications for cancellations used nationwide must go through United States Postal Service headquarters in Washington.)

• Only one cancellation campaign per region can run at any one time.

• Text in a cancellation logo cannot exceed three lines of 20 characters per line, including spaces.

• Each organization gets up to six months of exposure for one-time events or 60 days per year for recurring events. Cancellation applications can be submitted annually.

More information on the Postal Service’s guidelines for special cancellations is available online.